Remember these.? All our yesterdays

[NewcastleFalcon]

To save maybe a long trip to the Science Museum in London to see their exhibit of Hertfordshire's finest Pedoscope just a quick click selects a page of lovely images of the exhibit and a small bit of blurb...

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.o ... -pedoscope

As we can see from the info on the images "The Pedoscope Co. Ltd" was based at 113 Victoria Street St Albans.

Wonder what's there now ...

REgards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

As we can see from the info on the images "The Pedoscope Co. Ltd" was based at 113 Victoria Street St Albans.

Wonder what's there now ...

REgards Neil

Is that a challenge?

[NewcastleFalcon]

As we can see from the info on the images "The Pedoscope Co. Ltd" was based at 113 Victoria Street St Albans.

Wonder what's there now ...

REgards Neil

Is that a challenge?

No need to leave your armchair Mick, but more interesting if you do!

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Thanks. Perhaps it's me that should be in the science museum. Haven't noticed my feet glowing in the dark.

Peter

You wouldn't qualify Peter, to be in the Science Museum you have to be some sort of a relic!!

So, I'm pre war, doesn't that count?

Peter

Afraid not Peter, a relic is something old and useless so you are only on the way to old and nowhere near useless!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Is that a challenge?

No need to leave your armchair Mick, but more interesting if you do!

Maybe just a quick telephone call....St Albans 1982 is the number

https://collections.stalbansmuseums.org ... ects/52090

or drop a note in the post using their own headed notepaper!
(notepaper printed by Eversheds for The Pedoscope company Ltd, 113 Victoria street st albans designers and manufacturers of the pedoscope xrays, shoe fitter)

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Needless to say it's too cold to go sightseeing so I've used my super high power telescope fixed to my auto drone to produce this image of the doors to the current flats residing at 113 Victoria Street St Albans!!

Obtained by devious means!!

[NewcastleFalcon]

Needless to say it's too cold to go sightseeing so I've used my super high power telescope fixed to my auto drone to produce this image of the doors to the current flats residing at 113 Victoria Street St Albans!!

You have done well Mick, nowt left and no blue plaque

I have/am enjoying myself having a bit of research but its getting a bit Trivia Investigation Team now so that's where I will put up a little correspondence-documented story of the The Pedoscope Company Ltd fulfilling an order from the Gillingham Shoe Company Fulham for one of their Pedoscope machines to be installed at their premises 365 Fulham Palace Road, Bishops Park SW6, courtesy of the Thackray Museum of Medicine

https://collections.thackraymuseum.co.u ... t-1593-001

Regards Neil

[Peter.N.]

They might have one at Beamish 1950s town, they have all sorts of other things there - including an iron lung. Also a TV I remember delivering new.

Peter

[Gibbo2286]

This talk of X-rays has a different meaning for me.
When I was about eight years old a girl sitting next to me at school showed me a ringworm on the back of her hand, when I told mom she had a fit saying they were highly contagious, sure enough I had one on my temple area a few days later.
The doctor at the school clinic said they had a new treatment, they sat me in front of this machine and put something like a glass bottle over the ring and zapped ii.
A couple of days later all the hair on that side of my head fell out and to months to regrow.
On now until my early seventies I had what looked like a wart in the same area, it's diagnosed as a BCC basel cell carcinoma i.e. a skin cancer, surgeon who removed it says it was caused by an overdose of X-ray treatment as a child.

[NewcastleFalcon]

On a similar theme, I put up an interesting response of the Boot and Shoe and Allied Trades Research Association to the safety concerns in the early 50's about X-Ray Shoe Fitting Devices. An unsurprising thumbs up at that time for the devices and their safety!

viewtopic.php?p=739285#p739285

Regards Neil

[Peter.N.]

Wow Gibbo and not at all surprised Neil, I spent many years at the wrong end of TV CRTs. There was concern initially about radiation from TV tubes just from the looking at end, apparently it was higher at the electron gun end which I spent many hours with a few inches from my head, could account for a few things but never heard of it causing cancer but I know a couple of painters that died from asbestosis from pipe lagging I believe. I must have inhaled a good bit of that working on cars in the early days and there was even some in radios' and TVs

Many people after the war lived in houses made from asbestos, I expect many of you have seen the 'Prefabs' nice homes really with built in Electrolux fridges, been in many, don't know if there are still some about - haven't seen any at Beamish - yet.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

I expect many of you have seen the 'Prefabs' nice homes really with built in Electrolux fridges, been in many, don't know if there are still some about - haven't seen any at Beamish - yet.
Peter

There was an estate of prefab bungalows next to the my school which were demolished in the 1970's. The locals assisted with the removal of fridges Probably these Tarran



There is a nice catalogue of "non-traditional houses" with pictures here

https://nonstandardhouse.com/various-ho ... struction/

Plenty non-trad construction houses in the North East and many survive to this day. Some after remedial works like brick skins.

Here's a type with an asbestos based construction Hawthorne Leslie

Name: Hawthorne Leslie
Type: Steel Frame
Construction
Steel stanchions with timber and steel beams.
Common Identifying Features
Semi compressed asbestos based hoarding as external finish.
Bungalows and 2-storey detached, semi-detached and terraced houses.
Shallow pitch gable roof covered with interlocking concrete tiles, or shallow pitch gable or flat roof covered with bituminous felt. External walls of storey height cladding panels coated with various coloured aggregate finishes. Large section timber cover strips mask corner and separating wall junctions. Gable apex clad with timber shiplap boarding.

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

A few are conserved in Birmingham.
http://www.birminghamconservationtrust ... d-prefabs/

[Peter.N.]

We had hundreds if not thousands of them in Kent, largely I think for housing those displaced by bombing, in later years, down our way at least the were used for 'difficult' families. There was an estate in Orpington that was largely devoted to these, I had one or two customers there, one I remember had brown paper and glue holding the window glass together and another that I heard about but didn't actually see, keeping a horse in the front room.

Directly after the war we had a number of friends living in them. I seem to remember repairing one of those fridges, they were the absorption type only generally used in caravans now due to their ability to run on electricity or gas, they used a little boiler to recirculate the refrigerant, the slow movement meant that sometimes the pipes got blocked but if you turned the fridge upside down it would usually shift the obstruction, in fact I did that with ordinary domestic fridges as well. Morphy Richards also did an 'absorption ' type.

Peter

[NewcastleFalcon]

We had hundreds if not thousands of them in Kent, largely I think for housing those displaced by bombing, in later years, down our way at least the were used for 'difficult' families. There was an estate in Orpington that was largely devoted to these, I had one or two customers there, one I remember had brown paper and glue holding the window glass together and another that I heard about but didn't actually see, keeping a horse in the front room.

Directly after the war we had a number of friends living in them. I seem to remember repairing one of those fridges, they were the absorption type only generally used in caravans now due to their ability to run on electricity or gas, they used a little boiler to recirculate the refrigerant, the slow movement meant that sometimes the pipes got blocked but if you turned the fridge upside down it would usually shift the obstruction, in fact I did that with ordinary domestic fridges as well. Morphy Richards also did an 'absorption ' type.

Peter

Beamish might not have a pre-fab yet but on-line there is this...the Prefab Museum!

https://www.prefabmuseum.uk/content/his ... chitecture

Depending on the available infrastructure, prefabs had all electric appliances or gas including a gas fridge!

Regards Neil