Things that taught you as a child

[Keith 66]

My Dad was heavily into boats as a hobby, there was always something being rebuilt or built on the driveway, he had a shed full of tools & i played in the shavings under the boats before i could walk. He made me a small workbench when i was 5 with some proper tools. Dad had a good collection of marine books & i devoured them. He was also into photography in a big way & i used to help in the darkroom & there was something magical about the image appearing on the paper as you slipped it into the developer.
Later we got into shooting & i read everything i could, Great favorites were Gough Thomas who wrote in the Shooting times & Elmer Keith who wrote in Guns & ammo. Todays world seems very different.

 

[fizzy]

When I was a lad the chemistry sets had only just started to become a bit anaemic, but I had one of the last of the older ones that had some proper dangerous stuff in it. I regularly went round the local chemist shops for supplies and nobody ever batted an eye at my requests. Indeed, when they knew what it was for, they couldn't have been more helpful.

I remember buying iodine crystals - the chemist was so excited - haven't sold them in years but I think I have some. He gave me the lot!
I had read in a James Herriot book that they used them on horses hooves.If you added a few drops of proper turpentine then you would get clouds of purple smoke. That was great fun but then I read what would happen if you mixed them with ammonia - just the stuff you can buy in Boots.
The end result is ammonium tri iodide. The most unstable explosive known to man. It isn't really dangerous as you can't get enough of it to do any really damage - it blows up first!
Think of very powerful snapit caps - the twisted bits of paper that go bang. Great fun!!!

 

[Revs1972]

I remember buying iodine crystals - the chemist was so excited - haven't sold them in years but I think I have some. He gave me the lot!
I had read in a James Herriot book that they used them on horses hooves.If you added a few drops of proper turpentine then you would get clouds of purple smoke. That was great fun but then I read what would happen if you mixed them with ammonia - just the stuff you can buy in Boots.
The end result is ammonium tri iodide. The most unstable explosive known to man. It isn't really dangerous as you can't get enough of it to do any really damage - it blows up first!
Think of very powerful snapit caps - the twisted bits of paper that go bang. Great fun!!!

You'd probably be on a list at GCHQ if you asked for that at the chemist now

 

[fizzy]

You'd probably be on a list at GCHQ if you asked for that at the chemist now

Oh yes def!
Fun has been banned since about 2002 - can't even go fishing in Swansea Docks since then - major target of course.............

 

[KemppiFrog]

Grew up in an engineering atmosphere. Lots of mechano, used to make electric cars out of it, with two speed gearboxes. Airfix and Ravel kits and DIY crystal radio sets along with my first two transister radio kit from Henrys Radio. Picked up Radio Luxemboug! Always stuff on my father's drawing board that he happy to explain. His hobby was designing boats and that became his main job, along with starting a trailer factory. I learnt to weld there, as I wanted a better soap box than the nailed up wooden ones. Since the place was at Rye House, I copied the go karts and ended up with a pretty decent downhill racer. Think I was eleven then. Same year, I muttered something about having my own boat. 'So make one' was the reply. So I did and had loads of fun it. Little six foot sailing pram, quite literally sketched up on the back of an envelope. Made the sail from a section of parachute left over from his WW11 flying days.
Someone gave me a book called Dr. Wizards Science Secrets, from the US TV show. Lots of good explosive stuff in that. He would be locked up for it now. Filling a paint tin with coal gas. A hole in the lid where you lit the gas and another in the bottom where the air entered untill the mix was right. Except we used a dustbin, with very satisfying results.
KF

 

[KemppiFrog]

.
The end result is ammonium tri iodide. The most unstable explosive known to man. It isn't really dangerous as you can't get enough of it to do any really damage - it blows up first!
Think of very powerful snapit caps - the twisted bits of paper that go bang. Great fun!!!

Yes we made quite a bit of that, OK when damp, but as soon as it dries, the touch of a fly is enough. Bloke went to a party with a bit in a bottle, thinking to put little bits around. But he lent against a radiator and it dried. Blew a big hole in his leg and he didn't survive.

 

[rtbcomp]

[QUOTE="KemppiFrog, post: 1097413, member: 15482"...Henrys Radio....[/QUOTE]

And Cricklewood electronics, still going! Used to get loads of ex WWII electronic stuff out of "The Exchange and Mart", "allow 28 days for delivery" try that these days!

I never read much, although I had a lot of the "I-Spy" series and we had an Encyclopedia Britannica at home.

 

[Gwil]

Toys - Meccano, Bayko, Tap-Tap, Bild-It, Hornby Dublo taught me a bit about electrical circuits, Airfix.

Dad gave me free reign with his tools even as a toddler, learned a bit about first aid too

Meccano, proper engineering with cogs, shafts, pulleys, nuts and bolts reflecting the way big machines work.

Lego is a pathetic and unrealistic substitute.

 

[Tinbasherdan]

Meccano, proper engineering with cogs, shafts, pulleys, nuts and bolts reflecting the way big machines work.

Lego is a pathetic and unrealistic substitute.

I love meccano, don't see it nowadays apart from the plastic crap version

 

[cumbriasteve]

I had Meccano, a build your own crystal radio kit, airfix models and probably nothing that plugged into an electrical socket until I was about 15 and got a super smart briefcase that when opened was a record player with radio and I think cassette combined, the lid became the speakers.

The total of any Xmas presents would easily fit in a pillowcase, today you are lucky if they fit in the car boot.

Although not for Xmas my best present as a youngster was a wreck of an Ariel Red Hunter motorbike with the words 'if you want a bike then fix it and you have one' I did...eventually and that was me hooked on anything oily, rusty and that you could fix with two spanners, a screwdriver, hammer and elastoplasts.

 

[Wallace]

Lego, Scalextric, Airfix and Tamiya are childhood names. Action Man, Little Big Man and Airfix kits met many a fiery death from four star petrol, learnt all about dripping plastic burns from those. Most impressive was the string zip line from the tree house to fly the aircraft on fire from, set fire to the grass a few times with that one. Found a survival and adventure book recently in the loft that saw us through the summer holiday in 1976 battling the overgrown gardens behind our houses! Ladybird books had a simple way of giving you the basics and planting seeds of further interest!

 

[Kent]

A knife and the woods

 

[brightspark]

A knife and the woods

and a canoe with an air rifle to shoot the local peasants that throw rocks at u

 

[bigegg]

<iodine>

what would happen if you mixed them with ammonia - just the stuff you can buy in Boots.
The end result is ammonium tri iodide.

I remember making this in my teens.
If you spill the liquid on the floor and leave it to dry, the resulting film explodes when stood on.
Not dangerously, just startling.

It makes the chemistry teacher dance..

 

[fizzy]

Meccano, proper engineering with cogs, shafts, pulleys, nuts and bolts reflecting the way big machines work.

Lego is a pathetic and unrealistic substitute.

I never came to terms with lego - found it made great catapult ammo though!

 

[Nick67GT]

........The end result is ammonium tri iodide. The most unstable explosive known to man. It isn't really dangerous as you can't get enough of it to do any really damage - it blows up first!
Think of very powerful snapit caps - the twisted bits of paper that go bang. Great fun!!!

I made some of this stuff after we started doing chemistry at senior school - I'd be about 12 or so - stuck it in a jar in the cupboard under the sink and promptly forgot about it until my dad refitted the kitchen about 5 years later.

He wasn't best pleased with when he tipped the contents out to investigate what it was........

 

[GW8IZR]

Just wondering what other people found as an inspiration during their early childhood.

Books I suppose, but mainly making stuff out of bits of the things I'd previously taken apart to find out how they worked.

That didn't always meet with parental approval, for example pulling 'Britannia' to pieces to remove the worm drive gear was important to me as I wanted the wheels to turn when I pushed it.

I'd like to say teachers inspired me but they were rubbish! I now know they were just below average people that were just trying to get through the week but regardless they were rubbish. On my first day at secondary school one teacher got three of us to stand up and pointed us out to the rest of the class, 'these three will never make anything of their lives...' was her opening gambit. Years later I realised she did it every year for her own entertainment but I was so frightened of what she had said I never told anyone until 35 years later. One Chemistry teacher was good and he taught me a lot about the subject and prepared me for life after school. Careers teacher.. excellent, army, pit or railways was her question.

The lecturer's in FE were very different and I really made progress after leaving school, was lucky to get an apprenticeship and student engineering placement which put me under the guidance of some people who genuinely could inspire.. things got much better from then on.

 

[fizzy]

No faith in teachers at all. Had one good one in school abroad - there were only 30 kids in the whole school. When I was about 8 she put me with the 14 to 16 yr olds. Encouraged me in science. I was doing trigonometry at 8 and algebra as well. Just wasn't interested in learning what the other kids were doing.
All my other teachers were useless.

 

[Kent]

No faith in teachers at all. Had one good one in school abroad - there were only 30 kids in the whole school. When I was about 8 she put me with the 14 to 16 yr olds. Encouraged me in science. I was doing trigonometry at 8 and algebra as well. Just wasn't interested in learning what the other kids were doing.
All my other teachers were useless.

To a great extent thier hands are tied. Mass education means teaching the middle of the class, Marxist really

 

[KemppiFrog]

I'd like to say teachers inspired me but they were rubbish! I now know they were just below average people that were just trying to get through the week but regardless they were rubbish. On my first day at secondary school one teacher got three of us to stand up and pointed us out to the rest of the class, 'these three will never make anything of their lives...' was her opening gambit. Years later I realised she did it every year for her own entertainment but I was so frightened of what she had said I never told anyone until 35 years later. One Chemistry teacher was good and he taught me a lot about the subject and prepared me for life after school. Careers teacher.. excellent, army, pit or railways was her question.

The lecturer's in FE were very different and I really made progress after leaving school, was lucky to get an apprenticeship and student engineering placement which put me under the guidance of some people who genuinely could inspire.. things got much better from then on.

There were some apauling teachers around when I was in school and your example was typical of some of the self oppinionated worst. No real interest in the kids they were supposed to be guiding into a good life.
There were also a few very good ones and I am grateful for their efforts.