The First 1000 Foot TV Mast

[Tedzed1]

Found this fascinating, also frightening the way the construction engineers are moving about at the 800ft level.

The Mendlesham mast was Constructed in 1959, it came into service on 27 October of that year. It was at the time the highest television mast to be constructed in Europe and the first of six of the same height subsequently used at other Independent Television Authority stations, (the actual height when constructed was 1002ft)

The link to the video is here: MENDLESHAM TV MAST

[Radio Fixer]

Wow! turns me over as well. Is it still there or down now?

Gary

[AlanBeckett]

Isn't it wonderful to watch an old fashioned Documentary. No go-faster 'Presenter', no loud music, no daft camera angles, no artificial hype. Just the story.
I particularly liked the bit where he said that the workers were keen on their own safety. I bet they were!

Alan

[pwdrive]

That's a good film, can't remember if I have posted this one before, appologies if I have, if you have a head for hieghts then this transmitter mast job is worth watching:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbEqnLjHyf8

Lawrence.

[Mark R]

Fantastic piece of engineering. I like the safety harness, well chain to a weightlifter type belt! Scary stuff. I have done some rock climbing in my time but on that structure with a chain and belt! Rob Vine will have a heart attack when he sees it!

Nice piece of history though.

Thanks for posting it Fred.

cheers Mark

[Mark R]

Sorry Lawrence, I could not do that for all the tea in China! Free climbing scaffold poles is not fun!

cheers Mark

[Tedzed1]

Wow! turns me over as well. Is it still there or down now?

Gary

Still there Gary, but not a lot of services running on it now,

http://tx.mb21.co.uk/gallery/gallerypage.php?txid=1341

[Yorkie]

The guys who paint electricity pylons do so with no harnesses, which would be too much of an impediment, and a 10L can of paint hanging from their waist. (too far down to keep going down to fiil a smaller can then climb back up). It's quite safe though - the electricity is off! They have to get their faces lathered up with a thick coating of Vaseline as they get completely clarted up with paint due to the high winds up there.

Whenever I'm doing some job or another that I don't like doing - such as laying fibreglass roof insulation, I always try to think about tasks I'd find even more of a chore - TV aerial erector, roofer, removal man, carpet fitter, white line road painter, cone 'putter outer/gather upper' etc, and of course pylon painter! Oh well, it all makes work for the working class, and makes me glad that I'm a man of leisure. Well not quite, but at least I'm nominally my own boss, albeit under the supervision of the household 'director of finance'.

Stuff this for a game of soldiers!:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L85QwcP1nIc


Hope it's decent pay!

[Tedzed1]

Or how about hot washing the insulators?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcjhjna9jZE&feature=related

I believe Col likes a challenge for his jet washer, how about it Col?

[milairuk]

Drove past Mendlesham the other day and thought at the time "that's a tall bu**er" Now I know why !
The comment about washing the insulators reminds me of when I worked in the CCTV division of Marconi, as a mere 20 year old, I had to visit an electricity pylon near the Dartford tunnel, the cables from which spanned the Thames from Essex to Kent. The pylon was next to the now defunct cement works and the insulators had to be washed by remotely controlled high pressure distilled water nozzles. Marconi supplied remotely controlled CCTV cameras to allow the operators to see where to direct the water, but over a period of months the CCTV camera housings got covered in cement dust as well. So guess who had to go up to clean them !! First 350 foot was in a lift driven up a toothed shaft with a two stroke engine that was very unreliable. After that you had to climb up rung ladders to the 400ft, 500ft and 600ft levels where the cameras were located. As you went higher so did the amount of concrete dust that rained down on you !! On a wet day it was very eerie, as the insulators had the high voltage out of the power station (430kv ??) and made a very loud din. No safety harnesses, just a hard hat !! IIRC I was paid 1p a foot danger money over 300ft !! The electricity towers are still in use, so if you go past the Dartford Tunnel take a look towards the river.

John