Ronaldo47

Axminster Tools sell Japanese draw saws that are designed to be pulled rather than pushed.

The US inch was originally 25.39978 mm, and the British Imperial inch, 25.39998 mm. I understand that a Scandinavian company that manufactured extremely high precision measuring apparatus, decided it was simpler to use 25.4 mm exactly, which was more than accurate enough for precision engineering purposes. The US and the UK eventually decided to change their official standards to follow suit. The difference between the US and the UK fluid ounces is a consequence of them being defined as the volume of an ounce of water at different temperatures, on account of the different mean ambient temperatures at their respective standardising authorities back in the days before air conditioning. Water expands with increasing temperature, so an ounce of water at the higher US standard temperature occupies a greater volume than an ounce of water at the cooler English standard temperature. I have a bottle of ink that gives its contents in both units, 2 Imp.fl oz, 1.9 US fl. oz. The US Gallon is based on the Winchester wine gallon used by the original colonists. Until the UK established Imperial standards in mid-Victorian times, no doubt in part due to expansion of the railway network, local weights and measures were in use in different parts of the UK. I used to have a Victorian school arithmetic book whose preface mentioned that it was a revised edition which had deleted the exercises in converting between local weights and measures, as the establishment of national standards had made them unnecessary. The standard foot, 2ft and yard mounted in the wall at the North side of Trafalgar Square date from this time. Many things that we consider to be American are things that originated here. The Americans have continued using them, while we have changed our usage.

Blades are available in a range if different tooth pitches optimised for different metals and thicknesses. A few drops of 3-in-1 oil or the like can help extend life when sawing steel. It is not always appreciated that many hacksaw frames have square-section saw blade attachment pieces that allow the blade to be oriented sideways or backwards relative to the frame, as well as the normal forwards position. These alternative positions can be useful if you need to saw off something like a bolt close to a wall or other obstruction, or inside a channel or ducting, as I had to do a few months ago.

A couple of years ago, a radio programme on the Tower of London mentioned that the Krays were the last people to be imprisoned there. They had failed to turn up at their allocated army base when called up for national service. At that time, the Tower was still an operational army base, and as it was the closest to the Kray's home, they were put there for a night after their arrest before their transfer to a military prison.

I am pretty sure that The World at War series was made later. There were several series on TV about WWII in the 1950's, the British- made "War in the Air" and the US-made "Victory at Sea".

I well remember seeing the Trollenberg Terror on TV as a child in the 1950''s. I am pretty sure it was shown in weekly episodes then. I see that TPTV [Freeview channel 82] is showing it on Saturday 29th March, 5.20 to 7.00 pm: not sure if this is the same thing I saw on TV, or a film of the same name.

Ireland (Eire) was in transition when we toured it in the early 1990's: distance in km, speed limits in mph. Apparently the distances on mile posts had previously been given in Irish Miles, not Statute Miles. This made conversion extremely simple, as one Irish Mile is almost exactly equal to 2km, so they only had to double all the numbers. In some of the more remote areas, you could see signs where, rather than provide new ones, the old miles distances had been painted over with the new km distances.

My first experience of canals was in 1976 with an equally inexperienced crew of friends. One thing we soon learned was that it it was advisable to remove the windlass from the paddle gear once the paddle had been raised. At that time, the ratchets of many of the paddles were badly worn and prone to release themselves. Not too much of a problem where the mechanism was stiff, but many we encountered moved very freely. One girl's wrist was probably saved from injury by the wide and hollow gold bangle she was wearing, that became a mangled bangle after the windlass handle attached to a rapidly-descending paddle struck it, and at a different lock, the windlass came off and was thrown into the air at high speed, fortunately missing everyone when it landed.