On Fri, 07 Sep 2018 10:14:37 +0100, Chris J Dixon wrote:

FMurtz wrote:

Chris J Dixon wrote:

My dad had a method of soil sterilisation, when he was mixing potting
compost:

He used a wooden box, probably an old packing case, inserted a metal
plate at each end and filled it with soil. The plates were connected
to the mains, via an ammeter. Then he added water until the soil
resistance lowered, and hence the ammeter reading rose to the desired
level. It was left to simmer for hours. I can smell it now.

I have even found an old gardening book of his in which this method is
explained.

Do not try this at home! ;-)

Why? He did.

And we all survived. However, we live in different times and there are
those whose understanding of self-preservation could at best be
described as "compromised".

We have moved on from the era when you could light a coal fire with a
gas poker, connected by simply pushing a rubber tube over an outlet
pipe. A new bayonet fitting eventually replaced it.

Remember the Mammod steam engine with a neat little burner for meths. I
can still smell the distinctive aroma.

Electric heaters with very little protection for the elements.

It was once (may still be) possible to buy replacement coiled elements
for such radiant fires. You simply removed the failed one, used a piece
of string to measure the length and stretched the new one to suit.

My dad told me that in his college days (1930s) they heated a room by
simply suspending such an element from the mantelpiece.



I have done many strange things. I have woken up in the middle of the
garden in the middle of the night sitting at the garden table. I was
totally naked with cigar in one hand and cup of tea in the other.

I have woken up inside the wardrobe in a hotel dreaming that I had gone
blind. It was, of course, pitch black inside the wardrobe.

I once came to in a hotel tidying my hair in my room mirror. I then
realised that I was stark naked and the mirror was in fact a window at
the end of a corridor on a different floor from where I was sleeping.