May 2023:Quickfire A to Z of anything/everything

[mickthemaverick]

I am going back to my childhood again for my 'I' submission. On 21st June 1961, 9 days before my 9th birthday, I was at school in Parkgate Road JMI. We were in class when the smell of burning came drifting into the window and a few minutes later our head master put his head round the door and told us all to leave the building and assemble in the playground as per our fire drills. When we got out there we could see a huge plume of smoke coming up beyond the warehouses that lined the far side of the road alongside our school. We could see the top few floors of the British Moulded Hose building with occasional licks of flame and the densest black smoke I have ever seen to this day:

Own work

You can see from that the vantage point I had. This is what I was looking at:

BFTW

More information here

So what does all that have to do with 'I' I hear you ask..... well:

Spoiler: show

Inflammable of course!

[NewcastleFalcon]

I wasn't expecting that image for the May Quickfire "I-Day" Steve

With Iodine getting a mention the full compliment of "I's" in the periodic table may be worth their day in the sun.

Indium In 49
Iodine I 53
Iridium Ir 77
Iron Fe 26

No idea what Indium or Iridium are used for but I am familiar with norI.

Nori Brick found on Whitley Bay Beach

The Empire state Building, Blackpool Tower and David Mach's Magnificent Brick Train Scuplture at Darlington, all used the famous Accrington hard as iron "Nori" bricks.

geograph stamped image

Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Anyone going to offer something up on Iridium or Indium.

Iridium has one obvious motoring connection just requires that spark of recognition.

Neil

[myglaren]

⬆ Had some, wasn't especially impressed.

Indus

[NewcastleFalcon]

There is the famous Iridium Jazz Club in New York where Les Paul he of Guitar fame was a fixture, and played into his 90's. Plenty more videos of this event his 90th Birthday at the club with some top performers joining in with the banter.

Steve Miller and Les Paul at the Iridium Jazz Club New York City.



Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

...one more from the Iridium Club, an anecdote which you may or not have heard of from Paul McCartney talking about a pre-Beatles gig, and a Les Paul song.



Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Indium although one of the rarer metals does have a part to play in modern life, this extract from the webpage linked below describes one of the uses which could easily feature in FCF energy discussions:

6. The Uses Of Indium In The Production Of Solar Cells
Indium alloys can be used for the production of solar cells. Copper indium gallium selenium thin-film solar cells have the characteristics of low production cost, low pollution, and good performance under low light. The photoelectric conversion efficiency ranks first among various thin-film solar cells, and is internationally known as a very promising new thin-film solar cell.

Click here for the 10 important uses website.

[mickthemaverick]

Iridium has one obvious motoring connection just requires that spark of recognition.

Neil

I'm guessing you are thinking of one of these Neil?

BFTW

[NewcastleFalcon]

Yes, the only Spark Plugs I have lying around are these ones, so no original photo of the Iridium ones. 100 points obviously to anyone who does have some genuine iridium spark plugs lying around, and can do an original for the thread.... Of course now, is there any current petrol engines on new cars where you can actually see the spark plugs when you lift the bonnet.

Of course with its Ignition and Insulation "I's" the ordinary spark plug ls loosely enough associated for "I-day" even without the added Iridium

NF Montage

Neil

[moizeau]

Iridium spark plugs Just an excuse to charge 4x the price

[mickthemaverick]

Can I claim 10% points for effort? Unfortunately the only plugs I have to hand are the traditional Mazda ones and the slightly posher Subaru ones which do deserve a picture because they are in a pretty box!!

Own work

[CitroJim]

Iridium spark plugs Just an excuse to charge 4x the price

[NewcastleFalcon]

I would give that 99 for effort Mick, just in case someone wants the full 100 for Iridium emblazoned across the box. I would imagine if you delve into those ones and their constituents, you might expect some Iridium to be detected, and probably not a lot of Platinum!

Neil

[moizeau]

Not Iridium, but real in the life plugs, photos just taken
Z1000

Spare plugs in GPz11 head to protect the threads during blasting

Two I found on the shelf

And a strimmer

Could go out the back and more mowers etc. but would get boring I think.
How many points for effort?
Cocked up the order, you'll work it out

[moizeau]

On a note about plugs, I fitted Splitfire plugs in my 1st Zeph11, 2 sparks per plug. It already had 2 plugs per cylinder ( to help Kwak get an old engine up to 90's emissions) so I had 16 sparks, may have helped, probably the Dynojet kit helped more