almost off-topic, but interesting:
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Cycling News
Why 'ordinary' bike measurements are useful to historians...
(10 posts)-
Posted 6 years ago #
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But at the bottom of the page - links to two 'Victorian Cycling Club Romances'!
First Wheel in Town
"When Dr. Brown unpacks the crate and reveals the first bicycle the town has ever seen, he wants to share his enthusiasm for this revolutionary new piece of technology* — but encounters overwhelming hostility instead of the excitement he'd expected. The only one who seems positively interested is the pretty young widow Kitty Butler, and Dr. Brown soon realizes how much he needs her support…"
Love Will Find A Wheel
"If the young man can't meet the draconian requirements of a contract with his business investors, he'll face exile and financial ruin, thus fulfilling old Silas' prediction that he would be just as dismal a failure as his father. His whole future rests on finding a market for a remarkable new machine — and he'll need help selling them."
*he wants to share his enthusiasm for this revolutionary new piece of technology: I'm going to assume this is a metaphor...
Posted 6 years ago # -
Just bought them both on kindle!
Posted 6 years ago # -
All Victorian top hats tiny, the ones people wore all got damaged. The ones that survived were likely display items.
In WW2 they were a bit short on armour plating and needed to work out where the best places would be to put this limited armour plating. They reckoned best to check the bullet hole patterns on the planes that came back. However, would have been more accurate to check the holes on the plabpnes that failed to return
Posted 6 years ago # -
However, would have been more accurate to check the holes on the planes that failed to return
My grandfather was an RAF mechanic in the Battle of Britain. Always resented the lauding of the pretty-boy Spitfire over the workhorse Hurricane. Reckoned the Spitfire's tensioned monocoque fuselage fell to bits after a couple of bullet holes while a Hurricane would come home with its modular panels riddled like a colander.
Posted 6 years ago # -
They reckoned best to check the bullet hole patterns on the planes that came back.
I heard this tale slightly differently, in that for the planes that came back, the armour was to be placed where the bullet holes weren't, on the basis that despite bullet holes the machine was still airworthy(ish), and the pilot unharmed; the opposite approach perhaps resulting in a plane that might not come back.
Posted 6 years ago # -
@SRD just realised all this applies to "vintage" clothes in second hand shops. The odd range of available sizes of 70s and 80s clothes makes more sense now.
Posted 6 years ago # -
the idea of a man wearing second-hand women's clothing for rough work has never really caught on
Just me then?
Posted 6 years ago # -
But is that really work?
Posted 6 years ago # -
When I was in cubs we had a trip to Conningsby and got to poke around the BBMF hangar, sit in a few cockpits and crawl through the wee tunnels to the Lancaster's bomb window. There was a half-constructed Spitfire lying around, displaying the wooden frame at the rear of the fuselage, at which we were vaguely surprised. They mentioned that it was cheaper/lighter and that bullets could pass through it but didn't say anything about the risk to the wires to the elevators and rudder.
Posted 6 years ago #
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