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Chimney chain..?


rivergate

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  • 1 year later...

I never paid more than £25 each for any WWII gas bags I bought off eBay. Two links per bag £100 for eight clips.

You need to be patient though. I always went for tatty bags so I didn't feel too bad about destroying the straps.

 

The Adrian Brindle ones are excellent copies and very reasonable at £10 and £12 per link. One of my worries is that if I leave my originals on display, there is a strong chance they will "walk."

 

Evelyn Booth told me that a few years ago a customer of hers had a Plume Terret "nicked" off her boat at the Braunston Show.

Edited by Ray T
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6 minutes ago, billybobbooth said:

At the moment, early days in the auction.

 

Over the war years there were several types of clips or none at all, the strap round the ring on the bag.

The first picture chromed steel, the rest brass.

$_12[1].jpg

DSC03205.jpg

DSCF5659.jpg

IMGP3251.JPG

615564924_o.jpg

Edited by Ray T
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5 hours ago, billybobbooth said:

yes I've got 2 chains (not sure where the second is thinking about it) but if we leave the boat anywhere the nice chimney comes off and tatty plain one goes on.

I had 2"Tatty chimney pipes" which were fitted & the good ones put in the cabins if the boats were left (short period ranges going )or no fire the carefully selected can (Tightish fit on the collars were fitted)I also had all 4 nice decorative brass tiller string eyes  'nicked wile moored at the top of Buckby although the cabins were wood & the eyes having wood screw type thead it would have been no easy task to remove & guess it was some one on a boat/s as I doubt if a non boater would know & have a use for them  'GGRR'

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Re the pictures of gas mask links:

the first two are from the pre war years 1930s (most likely would have seen action in the yearly part of the war with the BEF)

The next two are from type V-c and / or type 6 introduced from 1939 to about 1941.

The hook with the flat link I think is older than the slightly more simple hook.

The last is a type 7 (no hooks) and was introduced in 1941. Made famous by one I Jones!

So the links with the D ring attached were only about for a couple of years

Edited by fittie
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1 hour ago, fittie said:

 

So the links with the D ring attached were only about for a couple of years

 

And presumably didn't become available on the surplus market until after the war.

So the whole chimney chain 'tradition' dates only from the last few years of commercial carrying. 

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I wonder how many 'traditions' are created in hindsight? Seems to me from what I have read, one of the 'trainee' girls was rummaging around a scrap cloth pile at Dickinson's salvaging gas mask bag hooks, that would have placed it around the forties, or did I imagine that? A bit of bling is OK, but does it make a tradition? Even ship-shape and tidy wasn't everyone's way. Always exceptions, but clean and tidy was born from pride in what you had, more than specific items.

 

Even the housing estate I was brought up on had most everyone trimming hedges to perfection and scrubbing steps and windowcills, but I wouldn't have called that a tradition.

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"My" retired Narrow Boat captain has told me that as the probability of a gas attack became unlikely from about 1943 on, the gas masks were recalled and went to the Croxley paper mills for recycling. The brass attachments were stored in a separate warehouse. The visiting boaters would grab handfuls of the links for their own use or sell on to other boaters. 

approaching Croxley Lock.jpg

Edited by Ray T
  • Greenie 1
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From around 1943 the old canister that would have been in the bag had gone so the bag for the new gas masks was smaller so no need form the bigger bags. New light weight gas mask was the reason for the new bags.

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  • 1 year later...
On 11/07/2016 at 15:15, fittie said:

post-14338-0-29310400-1468245261_thumb.jpgpost-14338-0-79516300-1468245834_thumb.jpgpost-14338-0-45365400-1468245997_thumb.jpg

 

W & G is the maker - they also made bits for the mosquito. The MK VII is the same bag as used by Indiana Jones in the movies.

 

 

Sorry the images are not that good but I lost the will to live + only taken with my phone and they will do, I hope.

 

 

On 11/07/2016 at 13:52, BEngo said:

IIRC the bag should contain a spare filter and an anti-mist/cleaning compound as well as nerve gas pills and an atropine autoject.

The string lives in the pocket and can be wound round the fitting on another bag so that a string of people can follow one leader in total dark or thick smoke. This is not very Army but the bags were tri service and this is a Navy feature.

N

 

On 11/07/2016 at 12:38, Derek R. said:

Thought I had a couple of images somewhere:

 

009Small-1.jpg007Small-1.jpg

 

May well be a batch number, I just took it to be the date year. Heaven knows what the other long number is, although it could be an individual soldiers number.

 

On 11/07/2016 at 10:05, Ray T said:

 

Not sad at all. I like the minutiae.

 

A bit more:

 

Wearing positions.

 

 

 

 

Thank you all for your comments and images.  I am the great granddaughter of Samuel James Waring of Waring & Gillow.  I am very interested to learn about the various items they made in WW1 and WW2.  Never actually seen one of these gas masks. Any info appreciated.  Take care and stay safe, Nikki

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  • 5 months later...

Well I've finally got my ass into gear and started to sort out brass link copies, I've made 1 mistake in that the earlyer link im making I'm not 100% about the middle brass join.

 

unfortunately I've only got a part original to copy from and in my haste I've ordered some brass that now looking is around 2-3mm to narrow and pos should have been 1-1.5mm not 2mm for the center join but ill still continue,

 

My biggest problem is the sides do I round them off or do I copy original.

 

I've got the d link and the bottom half directly copied from an original and apart from old brass vs new is bang on and near identical size (d link is all hand made too not pre bought i couldn't get the consistency and good quality high enough with a low price) and the shape is as I've made a jig so every single one comes out the same, I've also got a jig for bending the middle and I've now managed to bend this and the join it all with getting constant results with no marks on the brass.

 

Once I've done the earlyer set I'll then give the later one a go I've got 2 sets of originals to copy for that.

 

Once I'm done I'll post pics but hopefully in a few weeks (just into the new year) I should have the first 2 chains ready to sell I've got a mark of around £7.50 a link at the mo but I'll post and see what you think of quality.

 

I'm just torn as to how polished to make them.

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18 minutes ago, TheBiscuits said:

 

If they are too shiny as supplied the keen polishers won't have anything to do on a Sunday ...

Lol its if I go up to 3k or 5k grit and then machine polish or leave them at 1-2k grit and then just machine polish them or just machine polish them.

 

1-2k is better will give a high polish shine but not in your face mirror im shiny after a good few hand polishes would prob come out every sim to old ones but would have no marks or dents or cast pits in.

 

3-5k would give that mirror shine (would take years to give an old look)

 

Just polish as are would give a good shine but be a little matted still show odd marks and pits odd scratches. But after a while of polishing these would pick up shine from hand polishing and the marks and pits would just blend in a bit after a bit would just look as if we're old than just come off self.

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