Trivia Investigation Team

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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

....Mick's contributions
mickthemaverick wrote: 01 Jan 2021, 22:07 My father was a machine minder at Greycaines in Watford during my primary school days, he then moved on as a print foreman to Hills & Lacey, also in Watford, as was his final position as Shift Foreman at Farleigh Press in Imperial Way. If your book was produced between 1953 and 1960 it could well have been printed on offset litho by my father. Small world!! :)

As for Dickens on the bookshelf I have Oliver Twist, David Copperfield, Christmas Carol, Old Curiosity Shop, Martin Chuzzlewit and a few of lesser known titles that I can't remember off the top of my head. I think I have 8 or 9 in total. And a jolly good read they are too!!! :)
mickthemaverick wrote: 01 Jan 2021, 22:33 Back in those days Watford was a huge printing town with three main companies, Odhams, Sun Printers and Greycaines printing virtually all the national magazines and some newspapers between them. A few papers were still printing in their basements in Fleet Street but certainly the Mirror Group and I believe the Guardian were printed in Watford. There were many other industry linked businesses including John Dickinson paper mills and Fishburn Inks but the majority of the town earned its living from printing. Farleigh Press where my father ended his working life had a single Webb offset press and three Heidelberg litho machines which I believe I mentioned before on the FCF. The company was fortunate in gaining a number of speciality print contracts meaning that our house was one of the first to see the programs for The Royal Command Performance and The Royal Variety Show as well as most of the match programs from Wembley games. I still have a fair number of those tucked away in the loft I believe.

Dad used to commute on his bicycle from our house in Bushey Mill Crescent down to Greycaines in Bushey Mill Lane, nowadays the whole print works has been replaced with a trading estate called Greycaines Estate, and also to Hills & Lacey in Commercial Way now replaced by a housing estate and to Farleigh Press in Imperial Way which is still there but I don't know what they do now. That building was responsible for my start in both snooker and table tennis, when Dad was working evening overtime I used to cycle down there and practice on the snooker table until he was finished and then we would have a frame or two before riding home together. Good times!! :)
....it continues

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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

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NewcastleFalcon wrote: 01 Jan 2021, 22:43 Excellent Mick!

Can't find any date in the books but there are some similar sets on e-bay which are described as c 1930's. There are 15 books some with 2 books in one, plus an additional book of the Life and Characters of Dickens 16 in the set in total
Today I discovered another book, in the same printing style as the 16 in the Dicken's Set, which did have a date within its pages....1932
02/01/2021 nf own work
02/01/2021 nf own work
02/01/2021 nf own work
02/01/2021 nf own work
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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

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My next chain of thought is I wonder if the "New Standard Encyclopaedia and World Atlas" was sold as a bonus for buying the full 16 of the Dickens set.

Then I wonder how they were sold, and a suspect they were probably sold by lets say an itinerate door-to-door book salesman. I imagine they were bought at so much a week. I think the books came from my grandma's family who were all based in a mining community in SE Northumberland around Seaton Delaval, and my grandma did have a set of Dickens as well.
So I will enjoy a little research into book sets selling in the 1930's, and whether it had particular links with Dickens and mining communities....join in if you can :-D
Or take the trivia investigation sparked by the Dickens tale above in any direction you like. That's the interesting part :-D

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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

Post by mickthemaverick »

Now that really is intriguing Neil, I have in my collection its sister book:
Own work
Own work
Which was one of my Fathers bibles for his Dahlia and Chrysanthemum growing:
Own work
Own work
Own work
Own work
I can tell you that "The New" collection of books included "The New English Dictionary" which I have somewhere and "The New Encyclopedia of Cookery" which I believe my sister has. That collection were all sold as individual books and were often gifted to teenagers as Christmas presents to set them on the right path!! :)
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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

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While on the track of the Garden Encyclopedia I came across a book which was gifted to my Father as a prelude to his career in 1932. I think there are at least three FCFers who may find this exciting (no pun intended for those in the know :-D ) as I certainly found it useful in my early TV shop days:
Own work
Own work
Own work
Own work
Own work
Own work
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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

Post by mickthemaverick »

Odhams Press were responsible for many books of interest, most of which we used to get first off the line editions of and another I found particularly interesting, as I am sure most FCFers will too, was "Modern Engineering Theory and Practice" a copy of which I still have and thought you might like to see a few extracts:

The Book
Own work
Own work
A Steam Engine
Own work
Own work
Its valve box
Own work
Own work
A Gas Engine
Own work
Own work
Electricity
Own work
Own work
And just for Jim
Own work
Own work
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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

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NewcastleFalcon wrote: 02 Jan 2021, 11:09
So I will enjoy a little research into book sets selling in the 1930's, and whether it had particular links with Dickens and mining communities....join in if you can :-D
Or take the trivia investigation sparked by the Dickens tale above in any direction you like. That's the interesting part :-D
mickthemaverick wrote: 02 Jan 2021, 11:14 I can tell you that "The New" collection of books included "The New English Dictionary" which I have somewhere and "The New Encyclopedia of Cookery" which I believe my sister has. That collection were all sold as individual books and were often gifted to teenagers as Christmas presents to set them on the right path!! :)
and subsequent other posts...

That's certainly added to the interest Mick....excellent :-D

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This is a slightly long-read not a 30 second click, but about a 10 minute "essay" but I would say a fascinating and interesting essay, which reveals not the quality of writings of Charles Dickens, but a fascinating insight of the creative businessman in him which turned him into a hugely successful author.

The Pickwick Papers was his tour-de-force in the launch of a different and very successful way of selling....

Worth a read
Charles Dickens – The art of selling books
You realize, of course, what this means. Charles Dickens is the only writer to sell the same book to the same people three times. It was a moneymaking scheme like no other. Dickens was only twenty-four years old and he had written the best-selling novel of all time.

Even little Oliver Twist could not have asked for “More!”
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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

Post by mickthemaverick »

Thoroughly enjoyed that read Neil, quite an ingenious scheme he had going there! :)
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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

Post by mickthemaverick »

Out of interest here is an example of how Dicken's life is related to children these days:

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Four minutes, nicely whizzed through, and a lot of didn't know that's Mick :!:

Here's Cunard bigging up one of those events, his landing at Boston! Stepping off the "Brittania" and no doubt selling a few books with his visit :-D

Image

Image
RMS Britannia 1840 paddlewheel
Wikid77, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

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...And this is an example of his Selling technique referred to earlier

His novels released in 20 Monthly parts
https://www.johnwindle.com/images/upload/cat232_2.pdf
https://www.johnwindle.com/images/upload/cat232_2.pdf
https://www.johnwindle.com/images/upload/cat232_2.pdf
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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

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I'm thinking the Hertford Office and maybe others may well be able to help me with this, its about Formula 1 not an area I am on the ball with.
I read this article about F1's strategy to become net-zero emissions from 2030.

1. They are planning a Generation 2 Sustainable fuel from bio-waste.
First barrels of 100 % sustainable fuel, made from bio waste and developed to stringent F1 specifications, delivered this week to Power Unit manufacturers
2. F1 cars are already hybrids, and have been since 2014, and one of the pioneers and the successes of course is Lewis Hamilton's team.
Number 2 came as a big surprise to me.

So any information from closer followers of the sport on the new fuel, the fuel they use now, or how hybrid the cars are and how the 2014 cars differ from the latest cars in the "hybrid department". :?:

Is the "take-over" by Formula E not more inevitable by 2030, than the hybridisation and bio-fuelling of traditional F1. :?:

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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

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F1 cars have something called KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), and basically it is regenerative braking;

https://www.racecar-engineering.com/art ... f-f1-kers/
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Re: Trivia Investigation Team

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NewcastleFalcon wrote: 05 Jan 2021, 11:43 I'm thinking the Hertford Office and maybe others may well be able to help me with this, its about Formula 1 not an area I am on the ball with.
My first reaction to this request is Don't start me off!! - oh you have :-D

1. They are planning a Generation 2 Sustainable fuel from bio-waste.
True and good!!

2. F1 cars are already hybrids, and have been since 2014, and one of the pioneers and the successes of course is Lewis Hamilton's team.
Number 2 came as a big surprise to me.
Many, many people have not realised that we have been 'hybridding' for 7 years now, the biggest noticeable difference was originally the loss of noise but that has been deliberately tinkered with since 2016 to get them sounding great(ish) again.

So any information from closer followers of the sport on the new fuel, the fuel they use now, or how hybrid the cars are and how the 2014 cars differ from the latest cars in the "hybrid department". :?: To be honest I could bore the pants off the entire FCF answering this but James' post has given a decent insight and I doubt anyone other than dedicated enthusiasts like me, and they already know the facts, would be that interested!! :-D

Is the "take-over" by Formula E not more inevitable by 2030, than the hybridisation and bio-fuelling of traditional F1. :?:

Now this is the most devastating part, I suspect we will end up amalgamating the two to create a super F1 which may be brilliant, they may even build in electronic sound generators to give the same effect as real engines, but like 0% alcohol beer it will, in my opinion, never be the same. To me, having already lost my true engineering passion, the mainline railway steam locomotive, it will be just another nail in the coffin of life as we know/knew it! I totally agree with the environmental issues and all the necessary changes to the way of life but I do find it sad that we will inevitably lose another of the attractions that made life exciting!!

Regards Neil
[/quote]

I found it easier to annotate your post Neil, I hope you don't mind!! :-D
Last edited by mickthemaverick on 05 Jan 2021, 13:11, edited 1 time in total.
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