On Thu, 28 Jun 2018 13:10:59 +0200
Thomas Prufer wrote:

On Thu, 28 Jun 2018 10:49:10 +0100, Graeme
wrote:

grin We had exactly the same problem in the bathroom I have just
removed. Has never been used in the 16 years we have been here, but
had to top up the water in the bends to maintain the seal - the
smell would remind me, when I forgot!

I have an old "household tips" book somewhere that recommended
filling the bend with mineral oil if they were to be unused for a
longer period. Frostproof, and won't evaporate. Clever!

(They also had tips on how to use the naphthalene mothball vaporizer
attachment on the vacuum cleaner, used to recirculate the stuff in a
sealed closet, at the rate of pounds of mothballs. Flammable fumes
fanned around a sealed space, by a sparking brush motor -- what could
go wrong? And the smell must have been powerful. But the book
probably has a section on the virtues of asbestos as well...)


Thomas Prufer

When I was at school, we found an old engineering book in the science
building library. We turned to the section on making a radio
transmitter, and it started by describing how to build and set up the
spark gap. Needless to say, we didn't try it for ourselves.

One of our student-era valve TV sets did just that, though. It died in
my room in a spectacular exhibition of sparks and smoke, and all the
neighbours reported strong interference on their pictures at the same
time. Pure coincidence, I'm sure...

--
Davey.