On Sun, 30 Sep 2007 23:33:06 +0100, Derek Geldard
wrote:

Killed Spirits was Zinc Chloride, made by dissolving zinc in
Hydrochloric acid. We used it in metalwork at school to make the
compulsory tinplate mug. I didn't have much success with it on copper.

We didn't do tinplate mugs, but we did a tinplate boiler with a
turbine on top, using a medicine-bottle cork as a safety-valve.

I'm sure some boys tried to run them without water in the boiler and
the whole lot of joints melted. Similarly, some ran them on too high a
gas ring with the cork rammed in too hard and the whole lot exploded,
bits flying around the workshop from near the brazing hearth.

I'm proud to say that my tinplate pastry cutter with its arched handle
was shown by 'Archie' Campbell to the whole class of how soldering
should be done - proper filleting of the solder etc. I wish my Mum
still had that 'project'...

We used to make the killed spirits flux too.

That was a great workshop (W5). There were 4 metal workshops but this
one had two Harrison screwcutting lathes, two ancient overhead
shaft-driven lathes, power hacksaw, shaper, planer, two pillar drills,
brazing hearth, two 'moulding' stations, a couple of benches for
repousee/rivetting etc, a surface plate/marking out bench and four
forges/anvils, as well as the usual four boys to a bench. We used to
do scraping of flats using engineer's blue...

This was a grammar-technical school. Sadly now, virtually all the
machinery has gone apparently, and I think they'd have difficulty
cutting up pieces of cardboard nowadays.

Still, all our engineering can be done by the Far-Easterners
nowadays... :-((((

--
Frank Erskine