Sheffied Urban myth

[asteener1867]

According to an old patient on the ward i work on...sometime in the 50's or 60's...a Russian firm sent over what they professed to be the "smallest drill in the world" to a Sheffield factory....The Sheffield factory drilled a hole through the middle of it...and sent it back...

[RichardB]

I've never heard that, but a great story, sounds like the kind of thing a proud workman would do - just to show 'em :rolleyes:

[GrinderBloke]

Wasn't that Sheffield Twist Drill in the early 1980s?

[RichardB]

and Thank You for the posting, and Welcome to "here", if no one else has said it yet :rolleyes:

[Henry Pond]

I've never heard that, but a great story, sounds like the kind of thing a proud workman would do - just to show 'em

I've heard a similar story about hollow tubing, the brits sent their tubing back to the US inserted inside the US's finest. Lots of similar at: http://www.snopes.com/business/genius/wire.asp.

Does anyone remember the ad for steel which had a spiders web made of hollow tubing?

[Guest willo]

i was told that story at ncb training college in 1970,the story was the yanks sent over the worlds smallest drill bit & it was sent to sheffield whereupon it was sent back to the good ole USofA with a bolt screwed into it [having been drilled & tapped] our engineering teacher told us that one along with the one where the guy walking outta the rolling mill turns when he hears a shout & gets hit by a bar that goes straight thru him, he survives cos the bar is that hot it cauterises the wound owwww. as regards the russian connection to the drill bit forget it,our ole fella worked at davy united on darnall for 30 odd years & in the late 70s some ruskies came over to davy's to build some kinda space ship/probe top secret thingy & our ole fella said they they were that thick they could'nt find their flyholes in the dark.

[RichardB]

Any more "urban myth" type stories of local prowess please ?

[Guest tiz]

Any more "urban myth" type stories of local prowess please ?

i heard about the americans sending over to sheffield university the worlds thinnest needle,it went back as a sheath for one of our sheffield made needles

[vox]

Sounds like there are lots of versions on a similar theme.

Mr Heanon (in charge of apprentice training) told us about a tube made by drilling down the centre of a tiny bar, (don't remember how small it was supposed to be) We (Brits) sent it back with 2 holes drilled down the walls at either side of it.

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This story is not a myth.

A couple of blokes came to Thomas Ellins from Germany. They came to hand scrape the slides of a vertical shaper machine as part of it's renovation. They worked on the job in-situe, one slide each, and were there for quite a few days. When they'd finished they invited us to climb the step ladder and view their work from the side. With a lamp shining across the slides, you could see that they'd incorporated their names into the scraper pattern.

Awesome.

[RichardB]

and the Infamous Head of a Pin