Got to be the most expensive club hammer?

[chris pruteanu]

Cu-Be is a very, very hard material, its what the valve seats on formula 1 and some race cars are made off...no wonder its pricey !

 

[cheb]

Also used to make the bellows in barographs and the like IIRC.

Can cause lung problems during manufacturing, don't breath the fumes nor dust.

 

[Parm]

One of the places I used the non spark was ICI wilton Titanium plant, Titanium fine powder in the raw manufacturing stage is very prone to setting on fire and burning similar to Magnesium if ignited by any sparks,

I was at the Wilton site a couple months back, large parts of it have been demolished now, rest of it will fall soon anyway

 

[MBB]

Some coal mines had to have anti spark equipment. Thankfully I've never been in a situation where I've had to use any.

 

[Parm]

Its Beryllium Copper....its what they used to use in Coal Mines because of the risk of explosion from Fire Damp...(methane I think)....they used Beryllium Copper spanners etc...all non sparking....my father in law invented non sparking flouresecent lighting for use down the pit

Yep that’s the stuff my scissors are made from. I’ve also got a solid BeCu ring that came out of a underwater telecoms signal booster unit

 

[RonA]

Standard gear for the guys who maintained the gas holders where I used to work. They had hammers, spanners, chisels & other tools all made of Beryllium Copper not bronze. All hideously expensive but essential when working in areas where flammable gas could be present.
RonA

 

[Robotstar5]

Its Beryllium Copper....its what they used to use in Coal Mines because of the risk of explosion from Fire Damp...(methane I think)....they used Beryllium Copper spanners etc...all non sparking....my father in law invented non sparking flouresecent lighting for use down the pit

We used it on the work return tooling for the robot welding cells, it was harder than pure copper so lasted longer.

 

[Welderpaul]

I was at the Wilton site a couple months back, large parts of it have been demolished now, rest of it will fall soon anyway

We built a couple of big portal frame buildings on that site 18 months ago - they said they would only stand for 12 months before the R&D would end and the building be pulled down.
When I visited there were great big areas being ripped down.

 

[Shox Dr]

I’ve had these years, the smaller one has TELCON stamped on the 3/8 end

 

[gordon stephenson]

I was at the Wilton site a couple months back, large parts of it have been demolished now, rest of it will fall soon anyway

Most of my time at Wilton it was wholly owned by ICI. It was only in the later stages that they started selling off separate plants. The site is like a ghost town now. Sad that lots of people lost jobs. ICI still pays my pension. And continues to top up the fund by around £400,000,000 per year. Fingers crossed that they keep doing it.How many firms would continue to do that.

 

[Parm]

Most of my time at Wilton it was wholly owned by ICI. It was only in the later stages that they started selling off separate plants. The site is like a ghost town now. Sad that lots of people lost jobs. ICI still pays my pension. And continues to top up the fund by around £400,000,000 per year. Fingers crossed that they keep doing it.How many firms would continue to do that.

Was the Rolls Royce of companies to work for, plus all their kit was top end. I remember in the early days of my career I would go to an ICI site at every chance just to see to what “good” looked like

 

[Brad93]

Largest company in the UK for many years weren’t they?

 

[daleyd]

Largest company in the UK for many years weren’t they?

Large parts of it are still around just under a different name(s) - Asta Zeneca, Ineos etc

 

[brightspark]

Large parts of it are still around just under a different name(s) - Asta Zeneca, Ineos etc

yep and still going strong so why were they all sold off

 

[Parm]

yep and still going strong so why were they all sold off

Good question

 

[gordon stephenson]

I think that ICI was the first UK company to make a billion pounds profit per year, Parm is correct, I worked for them for 34 years, always looked after the workforce, Shares,bonus's share schemes, full medical department, including 3 doctors,xrays dentist, and every single item of clothing provided Etc,etc, All tools also provided, (not allowed to use your own) Pension scheme second to non, We only paid 1.6% of our salary and ICI paid around 12%. Oh, Happy Days.

 

[TechnicAl]

I remember seeing a story about ICI but I cant remember if I was on a course or if it was on TV.

Someone decided that they needed a change of image so they contracted a specialist PR company to improve their image. The most expensive part was to change the logo and bring it in line with the new modern ICI....it cost millions....and the ICI logo changed from ICI underlined with 2 straight lines to ICI underined with two wavy lines....thats it....they changed to wavy lines.........they got paid millions for that and it cost millions in livery updates (trucks, letter heads, etc etc etc).

 

[TechnicAl]

I think that ICI was the first UK company to make a billion pounds profit per year, Parm is correct, I worked for them for 34 years, always looked after the workforce, Shares,bonus's share schemes, full medical department, including 3 doctors,xrays dentist, and every single item of clothing provided Etc,etc, All tools also provided, (not allowed to use your own) Pension scheme second to non, We only paid 1.6% of our salary and ICI paid around 12%. Oh, Happy Days.

I think we enjoyed the good times. I was with British Steel and we got perks that are now unheard of....we didnt always appreciate them at the time.....We even had Gardners who produced the fruit and veg for the canteen.
I think these firms got too big and just couldnt be controlled....people with eyes on the prize manipulated situations and benefitted from the giants falling apart....the result is that the remains struggle to keep going having some remnants of the big company without the income.
These days the real big companys dont do anything....facebook, google, etc.....or they are just a big shop...amazon etc......its hard to omagine for us oldies

 

[gordon stephenson]

I remember seeing a story about ICI but I cant remember if I was on a course or if it was on TV.

Someone decided that they needed a change of image so they contracted a specialist PR company to improve their image. The most expensive part was to change the logo and bring it in line with the new modern ICI....it cost millions....and the ICI logo changed from ICI underlined with 2 straight lines to ICI underined with two wavy lines....thats it....they changed to wavy lines.........they got paid millions for that and it cost millions in livery updates (trucks, letter heads, etc etc etc).

You are almost correct on the Megga bucks ICI paid to the PR firm, The ICI logo always had two wavy lines under the 3 letters but they were quite "wavy" . The PR firm came up with a less "wavy" modification, Virtually the same but it was supposed to represent a calmer image.
Found these before and after logo's. What a con job,

 

[eddie49]

I think we enjoyed the good times. I was with British Steel and we got perks that are now unheard of....we didnt always appreciate them at the time.....

I used to provide support at the Shell computer centre in Wythenshawe. They had several IBM and Univac mainframes, plus a Cray-1 supercomputer. I could invite all the on-site engineers into the canteen for the 3-course lunch, and still get change out of a quid - the cost was 10p each! In the evenings the staff club served draught Boddingtons for about 30p a pint. The staff shop sold a gallon of Shell X-100 20/50 for about £1.
That was in 1982. Searching now, I can only find a report about how a demolition company managed to knock it all down and pull out the UPS generators and underground fuel tanks, in 2013.