Last nights BBC Tonight report on the Great Freeze of 1963

[ARW]

Correct answer is Mike and Bernie.

[nightjar]

Posh car compared to what I rode in. My father's first 'car' was a 1946 Hillman van that he fitted with a bench seat and added side windows at the back, after paying car tax to be allowed to do so.

[nightjar]

ISTR we had something, possibly a storm lantern, that had a material, which looked like asbestos, in a clip that you put around the base of the nozzle only when lighting it. That was soaked in meths and lit. The Primus stove and the blowlamp, (which I still have, although the pump washer has long perished) had a metal trough for the meths.

[Jim Jackson]

I still have 2 working 1 pint optimus parafin camping stoves. They get used when we go camping. They are pretty efficient and hot.

About 20 years ago I went into an outdoor/camping suppliers to get an optimus spare part. He sold me what I was after, then said I could help myself to any other spare parts for free as he couldn't remember the last time he'd actually sold a spare, and was going to just get rid.

The piston washer does tend to wear or rot, but spares can be cobbled together - they are not too demanding in DIY skills (to keep it roughly on-topic).

[NY]

When my wife was in her teens, she was on her parents river boat on the Thames with her parents. The boat exploded and everyone was thrown clear into the water and survived - but the boat (when recovered from the bottom of the lock) was a mass of melted fibreglass. It was thought that some petrol vapour had collected in the hull where the engine was below the deck, and had ignited. Her parents replaced that boat with a diesel one, and never contemplated riding in a petrol-engined one again.

I think so. Once the wick had burned down to the level of the diesel, I imagine the flame went out because the diesel was no longer "finely divided" on the wick and the flame was not hot enough to ignite the fuel en masse.

Exactly. It probably heated the diesel until it vaporised (at a much higher temperature than petrol needs), at which point the vapour ignited and generated enough heat to carry on vaporising the rest of the fuel.

I've heard of someone who poured diesel onto a petrol fire (as a demonstration, under safe conditions) and this put the flames out as if he'd used water ;-) Not sure whether I believe that...

[Clive Page]

Thanks for that recommendation. It was indeed on the iPlayer. And it was remarkable how critical the "Tonight" team were of the government of the day - one would surely never see that on the BBC today.

But why did a good 45-minute documentary have to be wrapped in 15 minutes of useless waffle from someone called Chris Packham? No doubt he's a highly-paid BBC performer, which is why our licence costs so much, but I'd not come across him before and will avoid anything he's involved with in the future.

[Chris Hogg]

Packham is one of the beeb's nature and wildlife presenters. He presents springwatch, autumnwatch etc.

[JNugent]

The "Tonight" material (shorn of its proper intro) was wrapped up in a current edition of "Winterwatch", which is CP's programme.

[The Natural Philosopher]

fully paid up member of global renewables and clinate change mafia.

[nightjar]

I'm sure it is possible to repair it, but I simply have it as a nicely polished brass ornament these days. It has long been replaced by a blowtorch attached to a 4.5kg Calor Gas bottle. With nozzles from 15mm to 50mm diameter, it gives me anything from precision heat to a roaring flame.

[Chris Hogg]

Does the beeb employ any others? I think not!

[Clive Page]

I realise that, the question is why the unnecessary wrapping?

[Andy Burns]

2013 edition.

[JNugent]

My assumption is that had it not been for the production team of "Winterwatch", it wouldn't have been shown (ie, repeated) at all. It was used because they felt it relevant to their programme in general and not simply as a nostalgia piece.

[JNugent]

As long ago as that?

It was still worth watching.

[Andy Burns]

I thought so, it pre-dates me by about 18 months.

[Spike]

Oh, I don't know. We had a four-year period from 2016 in which the BBC ranted relentlessly, day and night, against the government's handling of Brexit.

His style is grating and his presentations are not impartial. He's well worth avoiding.

[JNugent]

:-)

I detected a certain amount of sarcasm from CP...

I'd never heard of him until he became a talking head on a regional nostalgia fest a few years ago. Later, I found out about his nature programmes and later still, about his difficulties with being "on the spectrum". I doubt that he and I would ever agree about anything political but I still find him a fascinating character.

[newshound]

My impression too.