Just switched on to see the guy demonstrating a hampster cage 'tumble drier'
being warmed by a bunsen burner.
Did he *really* need the storm-trooper head and face face protection and the
full gauntlet welding gloves?.
Anyone ever wonder why we seem to be becoming a nation of girly-girlies?.
regards
john

"John Jardine" wrote in message
...
Just switched on to see the guy demonstrating a hampster cage 'tumble
drier'
being warmed by a bunsen burner.
Did he *really* need the storm-trooper head and face face protection and
the
full gauntlet welding gloves?.
Anyone ever wonder why we seem to be becoming a nation of girly-girlies?.
regards
john




Studio and Personal Insurance Policies are turning the world into a legal
mine field. If you ever seen the programs were John Noakes (Blue Peter)
gets his foot stood on by an baby elephant or Richard Whitley (Countdown)
having his index finger bitten through by a weasel (or ferret), then you'll
understand why today they have to wear to gloves and steel toed footwear
when in contact with animals.

There is also the fact of one presenter nearly being gassed by a faulty
burner in set decoration and the one who fell thirty feet when describing
how weather vanes work.

Bring back the good old days of Television, Eh ?. :-))

In message , John Jardine
writes
Just switched on to see the guy demonstrating a hampster cage 'tumble drier'
being warmed by a bunsen burner.
Did he *really* need the storm-trooper head and face face protection and the
full gauntlet welding gloves?.
Anyone ever wonder why we seem to be becoming a nation of girly-girlies?.
regards
john

Not me mate - I had a shower in hydrofluoric acid tonight, ... without
goggles
--
geoff

BigWallop wrote in message
...

"John Jardine" wrote in message
...
Just switched on to see the guy demonstrating a hampster cage 'tumble
drier'
being warmed by a bunsen burner.
Did he *really* need the storm-trooper head and face face protection and
the
full gauntlet welding gloves?.
Anyone ever wonder why we seem to be becoming a nation of
girly-girlies?.
regards
john




Studio and Personal Insurance Policies are turning the world into a legal
mine field. If you ever seen the programs were John Noakes (Blue Peter)
gets his foot stood on by an baby elephant or Richard Whitley (Countdown)
having his index finger bitten through by a weasel (or ferret), then
you'll
understand why today they have to wear to gloves and steel toed footwear
when in contact with animals.

There is also the fact of one presenter nearly being gassed by a faulty
burner in set decoration and the one who fell thirty feet when describing
how weather vanes work.

Bring back the good old days of Television, Eh ?. :-))


Too true about the liability aspect. For me though, they instantly lose any
credibility as a provider of valid information.
On the other hand and other channel, it's dead easy to relate to Fred
Dibnah and his H+S nightmare of a workshop.
Maybe best to treat 'em as 'consumables'. They can then use their artistic
presentation skills to enhance dire experiments, such as the effect of
putting a lead weight in their ear.
regards
john

John Jardine wrote:

Just switched on to see the guy demonstrating a hampster cage 'tumble drier'
being warmed by a bunsen burner.

Missed that.

Did he *really* need the storm-trooper head and face face protection and the
full gauntlet welding gloves?.

Because if he didn't and someone copied it at home and injured
themselevs them they could probably sue the TV company because they
failed to give good safety advice.

Anyone ever wonder why we seem to be becoming a nation of girly-girlies?.

The Sex Discrimination Act 1975?

regards
john

geoff wrote:

In message , John Jardine
writes
Just switched on to see the guy demonstrating a hampster cage 'tumble drier'
being warmed by a bunsen burner.
Did he *really* need the storm-trooper head and face face protection and the
full gauntlet welding gloves?.
Anyone ever wonder why we seem to be becoming a nation of girly-girlies?.
regards
john

Not me mate - I had a shower in hydrofluoric acid tonight, ... without
goggles

Bet you kept your shreddies on though :-)

"John Jardine" wrote in message
...

BigWallop wrote in message
...

"John Jardine" wrote in message
...
Just switched on to see the guy demonstrating a hampster cage 'tumble
drier'
being warmed by a bunsen burner.
Did he *really* need the storm-trooper head and face face protection
and
the
full gauntlet welding gloves?.
Anyone ever wonder why we seem to be becoming a nation of
girly-girlies?.
regards
john




Studio and Personal Insurance Policies are turning the world into a
legal
mine field. If you ever seen the programs were John Noakes (Blue Peter)
gets his foot stood on by an baby elephant or Richard Whitley
(Countdown)
having his index finger bitten through by a weasel (or ferret), then
you'll
understand why today they have to wear to gloves and steel toed footwear
when in contact with animals.

There is also the fact of one presenter nearly being gassed by a faulty
burner in set decoration and the one who fell thirty feet when
describing
how weather vanes work.

Bring back the good old days of Television, Eh ?. :-))


Too true about the liability aspect. For me though, they instantly lose
any
credibility as a provider of valid information.
On the other hand and other channel, it's dead easy to relate to Fred
Dibnah and his H+S nightmare of a workshop.
Maybe best to treat 'em as 'consumables'. They can then use their artistic
presentation skills to enhance dire experiments, such as the effect of
putting a lead weight in their ear.
regards
john



ROFL !!!!

John Jardine wrote:

On the other hand and other channel, it's dead easy to relate to Fred
Dibnah and his H+S nightmare of a workshop.

His workshop was the epitome of safety compared to the way he installed
his quipment at the top of a 200' chimney. Enough to give any
self-respecting HSE Official palpitations.

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 02:14:19 +0000, parish parish_AT_ntlworld.com
wrote:

His workshop was the epitome of safety compared to the way he installed
his quipment at the top of a 200' chimney. Enough to give any
self-respecting HSE Official palpitations.

And you think a self-respecting HSE official is going up there to
check it out?

One thing about Dibnah is that the guy is clearly not phased by
heights (understatement of the year award awaited....).

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:05:50 +0100, Andrew McKay wrote:

snip

One thing about Dibnah is that the guy is clearly not phased by
heights (understatement of the year award awaited....).

When I was a wet-behind-the-ears young electrical engineer, I started by
supervising two or three line gangs. Imagine my surprise and horror to come
upon one gang on a bright summer's day where one of the linesmen was doing
a headstand on a 6" wide steel crossarm fitted to the top of an 'H' pole
(two poles at 6ft centres) some 30 odd feet in the air. No belts, no ropes,
no nothing! A definite tightening of the sphincter that day......

parish parish_AT_ntlworld.com wrote in message t...
John Jardine wrote:

On the other hand and other channel, it's dead easy to relate to Fred
Dibnah and his H+S nightmare of a workshop.

His workshop was the epitome of safety compared to the way he installed
his quipment at the top of a 200' chimney. Enough to give any
self-respecting HSE Official palpitations.

I'd like to see one of them officials go up there to check his work, lol.

Regards, NT

But did you see the "bringing back the old machines" or whatever it
was called the other night on ITV? They built an enourmous hampster
wheel and put a couple of men inside it to drive a giant crane they'd
built out of green oak.

OK, they did wear ear defenders (damn noisy these hampster wheels
apparently) but did you see them hoisting it up? They were just about
able to get it up and in danger of it toppling. Had it been filmed in
England i'm sure someone whould have insisted on them bringing in 21st
century hydraulics, but this was France, so nothing more than a shrug
of the shoulders was given!

In article ,
Chris Holmes wrote:
But did you see the "bringing back the old machines" or whatever
it was called the other night on ITV? They built an enourmous
hampster wheel and put a couple of men inside it to drive a giant
crane they'd built out of green oak.

OK, they did wear ear defenders (damn noisy these hampster wheels
apparently) but did you see them hoisting it up? They were just
about able to get it up and in danger of it toppling. Had it
been filmed in England i'm sure someone whould have insisted on
them bringing in 21st century hydraulics, but this was France, so
nothing more than a shrug of the shoulders was given!

Decidedly iffy. I wondered whether they actually did
do it or whether it was fiddled, with some creative
editing to make it look as though it all worked.

--
Tony Williams.

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:45:45 +0100, Wanderer
wrote:

no nothing! A definite tightening of the sphincter that day......

A tightening of the sphincter? I have a feeling mine would have been
an instant loosening.....

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

"Andrew McKay" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 08:45:45 +0100, Wanderer
wrote:

no nothing! A definite tightening of the sphincter that day......

A tightening of the sphincter? I have a feeling mine would have been
an instant loosening.....

Andrew


A pal of mine was walking along the street with a posture that looked like a
near sitting position. I asked what he'd done and said he was desperate to
go to the loo. If you are that desperate to go to the loo, you'd be walking
with straight back and legs and buttocks clenched together very tightly, I
said. I might walk like that when I've finished, he replied.

Andrew McKay wrote:

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 02:14:19 +0000, parish parish_AT_ntlworld.com
wrote:

His workshop was the epitome of safety compared to the way he installed
his quipment at the top of a 200' chimney. Enough to give any
self-respecting HSE Official palpitations.

And you think a self-respecting HSE official is going up there to
check it out?

I didn't mean that the equipment (i.e. his working deck) was unsafe once
constructed, I meant the way he went about constructing it; his mate on
the ground hauling scaffolding planks up with a rope and pulley and Fred
manhandling them into place with one hand whilst hanging onto the ladder
with the other.


One thing about Dibnah is that the guy is clearly not phased by
heights (understatement of the year award awaited....).


In one of the early programmes he recounted a tale of some curious
onlooker coming up to his mate on the ground (Gordon?) and asking if
Fred had ever fallen off a chimney. His mate replied, "he did once, but
fortunately I managed to catch him".

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

In article , E-7B7775-1306-
says...
On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 02:14:19 +0000, parish parish_AT_ntlworld.com
wrote:

His workshop was the epitome of safety compared to the way he installed
his quipment at the top of a 200' chimney. Enough to give any
self-respecting HSE Official palpitations.

And you think a self-respecting HSE official is going up there to
check it out?

I recall a clip of one of the programmes where he was up a steeple being
used on a BBC safety course as an example of how not to make telly. It
was exiting stuff watching scaffolding etc being hauled up a rather
makeshift ladder arrangement but the safety lecturer's point was that
the cameraman had to climb up it before filming how unstable it all was!

Peter

On Wed, 23 Jul 2003 21:02:05 +0100, Peter Watson
wrote:

I recall a clip of one of the programmes where he was up a steeple being
used on a BBC safety course as an example of how not to make telly. It
was exiting stuff watching scaffolding etc being hauled up a rather
makeshift ladder arrangement but the safety lecturer's point was that
the cameraman had to climb up it before filming how unstable it all was!

The funniest clip I remember of Fred Dibnah was when he knocked a
small hole in the bottom of a chimney and lit a fire (one very
effective way of bringing down a chimney - in the old days they used
to do much the same thing to the corner of a fort).

Anyway, fire was going strong and Dibnah was in front of the camera.
All of a sudden the chimney (a tall one) started collapsing in his
general direction. Next few seconds we see Dibnah trying to compete
with Lynford Christie......

So funny!

Andrew

Do you need a handyman service? Check out our
web site at http://www.handymac.co.uk

On 23 Jul 2003 03:02:14 -0700, (Chris Holmes) wrote:

But did you see the "bringing back the old machines" or whatever it
was called the other night on ITV? They built an enourmous hampster
wheel and put a couple of men inside it to drive a giant crane they'd
built out of green oak.

OK, they did wear ear defenders (damn noisy these hampster wheels
apparently) but did you see them hoisting it up? They were just about
able to get it up and in danger of it toppling. Had it been filmed in
England i'm sure someone whould have insisted on them bringing in 21st
century hydraulics, but this was France, so nothing more than a shrug
of the shoulders was given!

I was most impressed by the chisels that had very similar proportions
to an old fashioned domestic coal shovel (don't see one of them very
often these days!) and as for the mallet they were thumping it with!
Looked like a beer keg on a stick! ;O)

Seriously looking forward to the rest of the series!

Take Care,
Gnube
{too thick for linux}

On Tue, 22 Jul 2003 23:29:28 +0100, "John Jardine"
wrote:

Anyone ever wonder why we seem to be becoming a nation of girly-girlies?.

Personally, I'm simply trying to cut down on the damn silly stuff I
know I can get up to on the odd occasion, but yeah, some of it can get
a bit stifling sometimes when taken to the lunatic extremes, and doing
that seems to be on the increase!

Take Care,
Gnube
{too thick for linux}