Kitson Vicker's scrap yard.

[Fiddlestick]

Anyone else from the 1950's who sneaked in to this kids' paradise of scrap planes and tanks ?

[lysander]

As a pupil at a certain Grammar School in Firth Park I have to say that quite a few of us were in receipt of tank periscopes and whip aerials.... courtesy of Mr Vickers. Years later I saw his handy work up at Blyth where they were "breaking" a number of scrap destroyers...say no more!

[Fiddlestick]

That reminds me of Cox and Danks raising most of the scuttled WW1 ships at Scapa Flow. I believe that, of the ones still down, metals are often recovered today for, I think, use in the manufacture of sensitive instruments as it is 'Pre-Fallout' steel.

I read that Leeds University use the abandoned Woodhead Tunnel for certain tests ( to avoid radio interference I suppose ) and that the instruments used are made from the Scapa Flow steel. 

[lysander]

After years in the steel game I have to say I hadn't come across that one....I certainly bought 19th century tin-plate as well as wrought iron ships prop shafts together with some WW1 vintage American shell billets raised from wrecks off the Cornish coast. I also bought some fancy alloy steel from Poland which, "interestingly" set Geiger counters ticking. It was radio-active, having been melted from contaminated Russian scrap...It all went back east, suitably marked.

[Old rider]

19 hours ago, Fiddlestick said:

That reminds me of Cox and Danks raising most of the scuttled WW1 ships at Scapa Flow. I believe that, of the ones still down, metals are often recovered today for, I think, use in the manufacture of sensitive instruments as it is 'Pre-Fallout' steel.

I read that Leeds University use the abandoned Woodhead Tunnel for certain tests ( to avoid radio interference I suppose ) and that the instruments used are made from the Scapa Flow steel. 

The original Woodhead Tunnel has high voltage national grid cables passing through it to avoid having pylons across the moors. I suppose he new tunnel may be OK as long as the bore is not too close to the old one.

[Old rider]

6 hours ago, lysander said:

After years in the steel game I have to say I hadn't come across that one....I certainly bought 19th century tin-plate as well as wrought iron ships prop shafts together with some WW1 vintage American shell billets raised from wrecks off the Cornish coast. I also bought some fancy alloy steel from Poland which, "interestingly" set Geiger counters ticking. It was radio-active, having been melted from contaminated Russian scrap...It all went back east, suitably marked.

A scrap company in Rotterdam had some metal that had come from Russian subs. The Americans found out somehow and came accompanied by Dutch officials to examine it.

Apparently they were interested in the welding techniques used. Unfortunately for them all the welds had been cut off the plates by the Russians!  

[Old rider]

On ‎11‎/‎07‎/‎2016 at 09:23, lysander said:

After years in the steel game I have to say I hadn't come across that one....I certainly bought 19th century tin-plate as well as wrought iron ships prop shafts together with some WW1 vintage American shell billets raised from wrecks off the Cornish coast. I also bought some fancy alloy steel from Poland which, "interestingly" set Geiger counters ticking. It was radio-active, having been melted from contaminated Russian scrap...It all went back east, suitably marked.

I used to repair steel sample melters  at scrap yards that were used to melt a small sample to prove the analysis of the scrap steel. One scrap yard in Rotherham had a gantry over the weighbridge with a Geiger counter so that it could be proved that the scrap was not radioactive before being unloaded. They also used to scan lorries from other companies as well. I was told that if radioactive scrap was delivered to Corus the Geiger counter there would trip and had to be reset resulting in a charge to the company that had tried to deliver radioactive scrap. Unfortunately one day a lorry piled high with scrap hit the Geiger counter resulting in a big cost to the driver of the lorry!  

[lysander]

Fascinating stuff. My experience with radio-active steel was a few years before Corus came into being so I imagine the problem must have multiplied and become more widespread.