Where Did You Start?

[Paul Barker]

Born 1957.

Our chemistry teacher in my teens was great. There no barriers or shields. He ran his honda 175 twin on alcohol he made on the still. Great personality.

[jack]

Born 58. Chemistry was a bit of a free for all. We made phosgene, mercuric fulminate, nitrocellulose (gun cotton), trinitrotoluene, aqua regia and accidentally stuff I don't know the name of which also exploded and left me with scars on my right hand and arm. When we made phosgene (in a negative pressure fume cabinet) a dead pigeon fell down the extractor - it'd been nesting on the top of the vent, was killed and crashed down the tube into the fan. We also freely used benzine, liquid mercury (in quantity) and mercuric oxide, glacial hydrogen peroxide, concentrated HCl, H2SO4 & fuming HNO3,... used to fill dry cleaning bags with gas from the Bunsen outlets then as the bags floated round the lab, flick burning splints at them untill they "did a Hindenburg".

Used to make skeletons of roadkill, e.g. badgers, by dissolving the flesh off the bodies first...

The sodium chlorate for the cannon came from there too. Plus other stuff.

Made scientists or engineers out of a lot of us.

Oh what fun!

[simon]

...exploded and left me with scars on my right hand and arm.

Yeah, I suspect it's exactly this sort of thing that prompted screens etc. . We live in a far more litigious world, even back in the 80s. I remember parents coming to school to confront the teacher because little Johnny had had a smack, let alone damaged himself in the name of science.

[jack]

...exploded and left me with scars on my right hand and arm.

Yeah, I suspect it's exactly this sort of thing that prompted screens etc. . We live in a far more litigious world, even back in the 80s. I remember parents coming to school to confront the teacher because little Johnny had had a smack, let alone damaged himself in the name of science.

To be fair, I, along with my partner in crime (*), was expelled (**). There was substantial damage to the lab - for a start, the windows fell out (***). The building has subsequently been replaced (****).

(*) Now a retired Brigadier General CBE in the British Army (*****)
(**) We were let back in after a couple of weeks of pleading by our parents
(***) They were "explosion windows", designed to detach and drop out rather than stay sealed and then blast glass shards across the playground, i.e. it was a purpose built "proper" lab.
(****) Not due to me - the whole building has since been replaced with a rather lovely new building... https://www.dulwich.org.uk/support-us/c ... laboratory
(*****) My normal lab partner is now a retired Rear Admiral. I obviously got it very wrong somewhere...

[shane]

Didn’t get involved with any of that stuff myself but I do remember some enterprising mates making ammonium tri-iodide, which is entertaining stuff. Safe enough as a liquid but forms explosive crystals when it dries out. When scattered along a school corridor it makes for great fun watching the first-formers jumping about when they tread on it and it nearly blows their shoes off.

As an aside, had we not moved from Epsom to Devon in ‘63 I would have ended up at Dulwich instead of Plymouth College, which would probably have been a Good Thing.

As another aside, looking back through this thread it’s gratifying to see Heybrook mentioned in several journeys.

[Paul Barker]

We had a trough type walled street urinal across the yard from his labs. He surprised us with a bucket of water… “I thought the toilet was on fire.” Probably the most popular teacher. Wouldnt even get a job today.

[Ray P]

As another aside, looking back through this thread it’s gratifying to see Heybrook mentioned in several journeys.

Aspired to Heybrooks (HB2 IIRC) and a Nytech combo at one point but never had the money once I got on the bottom rung of being a homeowner.

[Morgan Jones]

Apologies for the appalling technical quality, but here's the original honey-damped unipivot and 301 on lovingly crafted plinth. I was fourteen at the time.

[jack]

Went to recent reunion and was reminded of this: One of my chemistry teachers was called Mr. Mallinson - he's the one who got us to make phosgene which gassed/killed the pigeon...

His pet trick when we were all being too boisterous was to absolutely slam a wooden 1/2 meter rule down on the bench - made a hell of a noise. One time, the end broke off and hit one of us in the face... he was very short (stood on a box), so was known as "Mighty Mouse" (Mallinson)... he was also on Mastermind (we were very impressed as he didn't tell anybody so we only found out when watching)- a very bright chap.

Another pastime was putting calcium carbide in the sumps under someone else's bench (makes acetylene) , so when they lit their Bunsen and chucked the splint in the sink, there'd be an almighty BOOM and the under-bench cupboard doors would fly open and all sorts of crap would erupt out of the sink...

[IslandPink]

Nice shot, Morgan. Looks like a very frugal set-up !
Funny now, knowing how much the 301's sell for.

[Morgan Jones]

It was indeed frugal; paper round was about £3 a week, so £14 for the 301 was a lot of money. In front are the beginnings of the next arm. Just visible is Quad II. Die-cast box was RIAA stage (mono) that went through lots of iterations. Solder splashes were because I couldn't afford a solder sucker, so I used a bicycle pump to blow solder away. Speaker would have been KEF B110/Peerless DT10HFC in transmission line.

[steve s]

Nice deck morgan
The only saving grace for my early systems was that they where all valve based .
After the mono record player came a stereo rigonda partytime from brown brothers
It really sounded quite decent for what it was.

[Scottmoose]

Some kind of £99.99 Sony CD player, a Rotel RA-931 (still have it in my store locker), Acoustic Energy Aegis One standmounts, and a pair of Gale Silver Monitors which I shoved behind me in a Halfler circuit, attached to the secondary binding posts of the Rotel so they could be switched on or off as desired. Rubbish single-pillar stands from Argos that had all the rigidity of a political commitment and some 18ga twin-core my radio-ham Dad had spooled in the garage.

I really enjoyed that setup.

[Cressy Snr]

If we are going right back to beginnings, I started with my parents' KB Junior radiogram with BSR Monarch auto changer and Dad's Ted Heath and Johnny Dankworth 78s.
The first "unbreakable" 45 I ever saw was mum's copy of "Mr Sandman" by the Chordettes. The first record I bought myself off the bloke who sold records in Mexborough Market Hall (now a Wetherspoons) was "Genie With the Light Brown lamp, B/W Little Princess," by The Shadows, followed later by "Red Balloon" by The Dave Clark Five.The radiogram was still going when Tony Blackburn opened up Radio One in 1967. I was nine.

The valve radiogram was replaced in 1973 by a HMV solid state radiogram which was what I used (often with Eagle International headphones from Woolies) until I left home in 1981 and bought a Sharp SG450E music centre.