Trade Tales Back to the 1920's

[jmedley]

Thank you all for your welcoming me to to the forum. Well you asked me for tales of the trade etc. so I will begin with how my father started and established the family firm.
He was born into a working class family in West Bromwich, most of the men in the family were coal miners some at the Jubillee pit. My grandfather was the youngest of 7 brothers, his mother (my great grandmother) had only one goal in her life, it was that her youngest "wouldn't go down the pit" Working in the coal mines was a seriously hard job, every morning it was a 3 mile walk to the pit head and another 3 mile walk underground to reach "the face" .Only then did you begin to be paid for a 60 hour week or more, without washing facilities or health care and virtually no safety.
In the early 1920's at the age of about 22, whilst working at the Bean car manufacturers in Tipton my father caught Spanish flue which was then a very serious illness causing a massive death toll in UK. The doctor advised him that he would only be able to do light work in the future. He had made crystal sets and helped many others with their projects and had attended the technical college in Smethwick, studying radio. With a very small amount of money he opened a one room shop in Spon Lane West Bromwich. When Bush Radio began in 1932 he applied for a dealership and a representative accompanied by Gilbert-Darnley Smith himself, visited and they agreed that the dealership could be started.
Thats all for now, I hope to continue if this sort of stuff is OK for you all
Jim

[Joe]

Fine by us, Jim. It's the sort of thing that's not only interesting but deserves recording.

- Joe

[kevin.Hoyland]

Keep the Tales coming Jim.
Kev.

[tiv48]

yes please more tails .i know we are not all LLJ but most will be interesting
cheers rob t

[Raditechman]

Very interesting reading about those early radio days. I look forward to the continuation.
I am slightly puzzled, you say that your grandfather was the youngest of seven brothers and his mother did not want him to go down the pit. You then mention your father as getting Spanish Flu whist working at a Bean car plant in 1920's. (i.e not in the pits). Was that your Grandfather or Father?.
John

[Retired]

Hi,

Thanks for sharing your interesting story Jim.

Do you repair radios or do you do full restorations including cabinetwork?

Coming from a mining family I was straight into the pit aged 15 in 1962 (Mechanical engineering). At this age everything in life was exciting; with the battery on my belt; lamp clipped into my hard hat; donkey jacket and hob nailed boots and carrying engineers tool bags I quickly settled into my new life; because of my time in the pit I'm now scared of nothing and it taught me self confidence. It was indeed a hard life but I could trust my mates with my life. I cycled over four miles each way in all weather riding a Triumph Palm beach cycle.

Kind regards, Col.

[jmedley]

Hi Raditechman
Yes it seems a bit complicated , hope this explains :-
My great grandmother had seven sons, the six eldest all went down the pit, my grandfather was the seventh and he became an engineer at Archibald Kendricks in West Bromwich, this was a saving grace for my great grandmother. I always thought it somewhat sad that this was the height of possible ambition for a mother just to keep one son from the pit. circa 1885
My father began work at Salters the spring balance manufacturers probably about 1916 at the age of 14 and later worked at the Bean car Company where he got the Spanish flue. One of my treasured assets are stories from the past, on my fathers side of the family, they were great story tellers of their social and family history. These tales are all from a poor working class background, as you know almost all history is from completely the other end of the social scale.

Hi Retired,
Well I do repair and restore and have a go at cabinets but I don't re-stuff wax caps etc.
I don't do french polishing I view this as a bit tricky but only if needed I rub cabinets right down and finish with a "wiping" polyurethane.
What happened to the bike??
Jim

[Radio Fixer]

Thought you were afraid of heights Colin?

G

[Yorkie]

I find stories of how our forbears lived are fascinating.

It's amazing how technology has advanced so rapidly in a short space of time. When people today say they have, 'twenty years experience' in many fields, such is the pace of change that some fifteen years of that will be hopelessly obsolete. I started work as an apprentice at the then Gas Board in 1954, aged 15. We were taught how to join lead water pipes in the same was as the Romans did two thousand years earlier by using a 'pot' of molten solder ('plumbers' metal') scooped out with a ladle, splashed over the pipe joint with a wooden stick, and shaped with a 'moleskin'. Only when we'd mastered that technique were we allowed to use a blowlamp. (I still have the Max Sievert petrol blowlamp which cost me a week's wages as a senior apprentice in 1957 - three years later it was obsolete - overtaken by propane lamps). All domestic water and gas pipes were lead, and gas pipes were joined with a meths 'mouthlamp' of a style which was hundreds of years old, used by jewellers, silversmiths etc. Within ten years, copper pipe with capilliary soldered fittings, needing no more than DIY skills, had supplanted lead pipes. There are still lead gas and water pipes in older houses, but before too long, these skills will be lost as people of my ilk go to the 'workshop in the sky'. (Joe now has the 'mouthlamp' that I made in 1954 on starting work).

My own experiences will of course be mirrored by anyone who started work at the same time in other spheres, notably radio and TV work. In the mid 50s, still repairing pre-war radios, gaining experience in TVs, popularised by the Coronation in 1953, then tape recorders, cassette recorders, newfangled transistors and ICs, music centres, colour TVs, VCRs, then along came the unthinkable - consumer electronics that became so cheap that things are no longer repaired but discarded, so skills built up over many years were no longer needed, and anything more than five years old will probably be irreparable due to using obsolete ICs. Who today would think about getting a printer repaired? Even if it went back under warranty it would probably be cheaper for the maker's to scrap and replace it rather than repair it.

I've got a small TV aerial amp which has gone on the blink. I've managed to open the plastic case, which was obviously put together to stay closed. The cap in the PSU section shows open circuit on my ESR meter, so I'll replace it and see what gives. Most would bin it right away without a second thought - there's no economic sense in repairing such things when a new one will cost no more than a tenner.

As to coal miners, what amazed me during the miners' strike in the mid 80s, (when we live in Rotherham, a mile from Orgreave pit - the scene of the 'battle of Orgreave' confrontation between the miners and police), was the sight of a ranting Arthur Scargill shouting 'We're not just fighting for our jobs, (incidentally, his job was flying a desk in a grandiose office), 'we're fighting for our children's jobs, and our children's children's job!'. I couldn't help but feel what a depressing ambition that was - that the only aspirations one had for one's children, was that they should end up in what was statistically the most dangerous and debilitating job at that time. I grew up in a mining area and as I recall, most parents dreaded the thought that all that life had in store for their kids was the Hobson's choice of a life down the pit.

Rambled and dribbled Yorkie

[Retired]

Hi,

Perhaps you'll have a go at French polishing Jim? Once the basics are grasped then it suddenly becomes much easier and wonderful results can be obtained from a mirror gloss to a matt finish. Regarding my Palm Beach cycle Jim I dumped it on my 16th birthday when I could ride my first motorcycle legally on the road having obtained my driving license and insurance; this was a BSA 250 C11 and what a difference this made to my journeys to and from work; I've not been on a pedal cycle since apart from in Physio when some idiot driving a frozen up car hit me head on in 1970 whilst I was riding my Norton Atlas 750cc. I wonder how many such crashes happen every winter whilst car drivers cannot see where they are going because they are just too lazy to clean the ice from the windows.

C'mon Gary; me scared of heights; it's only a couple of months ago I was taking the top off one of our 40' trees using a bow saw; one thing I do not like is snakes; I'm not scared as such because I've stroked a snake at the vets but only if I know it to be non poisonous.

Apprenticeships David; the good old days when we were taught by skilled craftsmen how to do a job without injuring ourselves.

Kind regards, Col.