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Made In .... Erm, Birmingham


RichardB

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Most of the articles of the class of which I now treat are "Brummagem made".

An experienced tradesman said to me

"All these low priced metal things, fancy goods and all, which you see about, are made in Birmingham; in nineteen cases out of twenty, at the least. They may be marked London, or Sheffield, or Paris, or any place - you can have them marked North Pole if you will - but they're genuine Birmingham.

The carriage is lower from Birmingham than from Sheffield - that's one thing".

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I was in Morocco in the summer and went into a *rather* expensive little shop in the markets, where they had some supposedly traditional

mint tea - tea pots made from metal. However on further inspection they said "made in Birmingham" on the underside. Ruined the moment somewhat!

JP

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To diguise the fact that something was made in Birmingham by a Birmingham based company with the word "Birmingham" in its name they frequently resorted to using a TLA (Three Letter Acronym)

BSA stands for Birmingham Small Arms (and as Michaael Caine would say, "Not a lot of people know that")

As the name implies, the company started off by making guns and firearms.

Later they diversified into making motorcycles for which they became most famous.

They were not the only gun company to make this move, the London based Royal Enfield company also moved into motorbikes.

Advertising slogans for early motorcycles were "built like a gun" or better still "goes like a bullet"

BSR stands for Birmingham Sound Reproducers, although the company would want you to think it stood for Better Sound Reproduction

They manufactured decks for playing records and sold them to the big electrical manufacturers of the time. When Dansette produced a cheap "portable" :blink: record player they had a contract to provide the decks, some of which were autochange decks.

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I hear we're [ Sheffield ] is doing a roaring trade selling snow shovels to the south.

It seems Sheffield is one of the few places where they are made and at Bailey Street.

I wonder which company this is?

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I hear we're [ Sheffield ] is doing a roaring trade selling snow shovels to the south.

It seems Sheffield is one of the few places where they are made and at Bailey Street.

I wonder which company this is?

Harold Moore Ltd., Bailey Works.

It is nice to know that we can still manufacture things,

even though they are made of plastic.

The Harold Moore range of Snowburner™ shovels, scoops and scrapers

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It is nice to know that we can still manufacture things,

even though they are made of plastic.

A bit of plastic on a wooden handle.

I think it was hilldweller in another topic that said / quoted

"Never have owt to do with owt with a wooden handle, it all'us means hard work"

Having spent yesterday afternoon clearing snow from the car, road and driveway using a plastic with wooden handle snow shovel and waking up today with such a painful bad back I can hardly move I think I can testify that this quote is well worth remembering in future.

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I was in Morocco in the summer and went into a *rather* expensive little shop in the markets, where they had some supposedly traditional

mint tea - tea pots made from metal. However on further inspection they said "made in Birmingham" on the underside. Ruined the moment somewhat!

JP

When I worked at Foxes (Stocksbridge Works) our wire department used to produce thousands of metres of copper-coated welding wire. This was finished wrapped in rust-proofed paper and the sales labels were attached. They read "Made By Oerlikon, Switzerland".

Our cold rolled strip department then made a large proportion, of the world's razor blade strip.

The main customer was Gillette and I was part of the customer evaluation survey. They used to send me retail packaged razor blades (Gillette G2 and the like) and I had to complete a survey form with my comments . Although the steel was made at Stocksbridge and the blades assembled in the U.K. the ones in the German packaging were marked "made in the U.K." and the ones in the English packs were marked "made in West Germany". When I asked why this was so I was told that the Germans considered U.K goods superior and the English favoured German made goods. Incidently they sent me a couple of packets of blades that lasted about five times longer than the normal blades.

A single blade would last me 6 weeks. It just shows that it can be done but they didn't repeat the experiment, I wonder why ?

HD

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----------------------------------------------------- Incidently they sent me a couple of packets of blades that lasted about five times longer than the normal blades.

A single blade would last me 6 weeks. It just shows that it can be done but they didn't repeat the experiment, I wonder why ?

HD

My cousin tells this story from the 50's/60's when he was in the army and stationed in Burma.

One of his mates returned a Mars bar to the manufacturers as a complaint. They sent him a free box with their apology.

This started a trend with his mates, who busied themselves in either returning things to various companies as complaints or (as they found also got results) writing to say how much they liked a certain product.

They often had replies like "thank you for your letter, we're glad you like our product and here's a free sample of some of the other things we make."

One lad wrote to a razor manufacturer saying how impressed he was at having got a full weeks shaving from just one of their blades.

They replied with thanks etc and (obviously with tongue firmly in cheek) said "Here's another weeks supply."

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Although the steel was made at Stocksbridge and the blades assembled in the U.K. the ones in the German packaging were marked "made in the U.K." and the ones in the English packs were marked "made in West Germany". When I asked why this was so I was told that the Germans considered U.K goods superior and the English favoured German made goods.

This seems a fairly common mark of mutual respect between us and the Germans having the highest regard for each others products.

During WW1 Britain was still able to import, by a devious route, chemical dyes from the German chemical industry (at the time the best chemical industry in the World) for dying British military uniforms. The same factories were probably also producing poison gases and explosives for their own use. Britain did have an excellent chemical dyes industry, based on the Wirral and in Cheshire so why didn't we just make our own? Did we just think the German made stuff was better?

In WW2 the most successful German fighter aircraft was the Messerschmitt ME-109. Suprisingly the early versions of this aircraft were powered by Rolls Royce Kestrel engines, and the very last versions of it, produced after the war for the Czech air force, had Rolls Royce Jumo engines. Why? Is it because the German appreciated the quality of British engines?

Bf109 engines

In the modern world many British drivers rate German cars such as VW and BMW very highly and would not want a British car. So why is it then that BMW now make the MINI, a classic British car?

I personally have always liked using German Leica cameras, they were the original 35mm film still cameras considered at one time to be the best. After WW2 the plans for the Leica were taken by the British and an exact copy of it was made and manufactured in Britain. Called the Reid camera it was advertised with the slogan "If there was a Leica with another name, ...it would still be the best camera in the World!"

Reid Camera

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I personally have always liked using German Leica cameras, they were the original 35mm film still cameras considered at one time to be the best. After WW2 the plans for the Leica were taken by the British and an exact copy of it was made and manufactured in Britain. Called the Reid camera it was advertised with the slogan "If there was a Leica with another name, ...it would still be the best camera in the World!"

Reid Camera

My mother's brother built a camera just after the war using a Leica camera lens and shutter assembly from a wrecked camera that one of his friends bought back from WW2. He constructed the camera body and film transport from Perspex sheeting which was an odd pinky-yellow colour and mounted the Leica gubbins on the front. It was all glued together with Perspex cement and he lined the interior with black-out card to keep out the light. The camera worked very well and I still have many old family prints which were taken with this camera. I don't know what happened to the camera on his death in the 1970's.

HD

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My mother's brother built a camera just after the war using a Leica camera lens and shutter assembly from a wrecked camera that one of his friends bought back from WW2.HD

Germany did use Leicas during WW2, apparently Rommell was a keen amateur photographer and always used a Leica, there are pictures taken of him holding one.

British military also used Leicas during the war (another example of us admiring each others manufactured goods). Being classed as a "miniature" camera at the time and giving excellent image quality it was ideal for espionage missions, - being surpassed in this roll only by the subminiature MINOX camera using 9.5mm film.

After the war they were prized by the occupying forces and collected.

However, during the war Leitz give instructions in the camera handbook on how to destroy the camera to stop it falling into enemy hands. Perhaps this is why your uncles friend obtained a "wrecked camera"

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To diguise the fact that something was made in Birmingham by a Birmingham based company with the word "Birmingham" in its name they frequently resorted to using a TLA (Three Letter Acronym)

BSA stands for Birmingham Small Arms (and as Michaael Caine would say, "Not a lot of people know that")

As the name implies, the company started off by making guns and firearms.

Later they diversified into making motorcycles for which they became most famous.

They were not the only gun company to make this move, the London based Royal Enfield company also moved into motorbikes.

Advertising slogans for early motorcycles were "built like a gun" or better still "goes like a bullet"

BSR stands for Birmingham Sound Reproducers, although the company would want you to think it stood for Better Sound Reproduction

They manufactured decks for playing records and sold them to the big electrical manufacturers of the time. When Dansette produced a cheap "portable" :blink: record player they had a contract to provide the decks, some of which were autochange decks.

BSR is Birmingham Sound Reproducers and not Better Sound Reproduction.

The misunderstanding comes from the company advertising which stated "BSR for Better Sound Reproduction"

In reality most HiFi fans of the 1960's seemed to prefer the Decca Derham or the Garrard SP25 decks.

BSA does stand for Birmingham Small Arms, even when it is on a motorcycle.

An Hells Angel leather jacketed long haired biker once tried to tell me that due to the poor suspension on BSA motorcycles that BSA really stood for "Bloody Sore Arse".

Having ridden one I can confirm that this was not far off the truth! :o

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BSR is Birmingham Sound Reproducers and not Better Sound Reproduction.

The misunderstanding comes from the company advertising which stated "BSR for Better Sound Reproduction"

In reality most HiFi fans of the 1960's seemed to prefer the Decca Derham or the Garrard SP25 decks.

I too started of with a Garrard SP25 but soon graduated to a turntable made in small quantities by a Yorkshire firm called Sugden. This was driven by a round section rubber belt from a tiny synchronous motor. This meant that the motor wasn't self-starting and the on/off lever had a little rubber pad which gave the turntable a kick in the right direction. To change speed you had to lift the belt onto a different part of the pulley. This lasted me for many years until I bought a Trio/Kenwood wuth Ortofon cartridge which lasted me until I transferred all my LP's onto CD.

HD

Edit

The turntable was made by the firm of A. R. Sugden which I understand is not connected to the other maker of esoteric Hi-Fi of a similar name. It was a Connoiseur BD1.

HD

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I too started of with a Garrard SP25 but soon graduated to a turntable made in small quantities by a Yorkshire firm called Sugden. This was driven by a round section rubber belt from a tiny synchronous motor. This meant that the motor wasn't self-starting and the on/off lever had a little rubber pad which gave the turntable a kick in the right direction. To change speed you had to lift the belt onto a different part of the pulley. This lasted me for many years until I bought a Trio/Kenwood wuth Ortofon cartridge which lasted me until I transferred all my LP's onto CD.

HD

Edit

The turntable was made by the firm of A. R. Sugden which I understand is not connected to the other maker of esoteric Hi-Fi of a similar name. It was a Connoiseur BD1.

HD

Well, only BSR was made in Birmingham.

Garrard, a member of the Plessey group, made the SP25 in Swindon

The Sugden was made in Yorkshire.

As you say most turntables had shaded pole induction motors which self started in the right direction and not synchronous motors which needed a push.

Belt drive was very posh and upmarket at the time, although it became more common and affordable later on towards the last generation of real record players.

Most shaded pole motors were fitted with a stepped capstan to give 4 different ratios giving the 4 standard speeds (16/33/45/78). The motor was spring loaded against a rubber idler wheel which was on a lever which the speed setting dial moved up or down to select the correct capstan step for the speed setting. The idler wheel then pressed against the inner rim of the turntable, - another gearing ratio but this time fixed, turning it at the correct speed.

This simple set up worked really well and gave adequate performance but HiFi fanatics didn't like it for rumble and its level of wow and flutter, both of which were claimed to be reduced by using belt drives.

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Well, only BSR was made in Birmingham.

Garrard, a member of the Plessey group, made the SP25 in Swindon

The Sugden was made in Yorkshire.

As you say most turntables had shaded pole induction motors which self started in the right direction and not synchronous motors which needed a push.

Belt drive was very posh and upmarket at the time, although it became more common and affordable later on towards the last generation of real record players.

Most shaded pole motors were fitted with a stepped capstan to give 4 different ratios giving the 4 standard speeds (16/33/45/78). The motor was spring loaded against a rubber idler wheel which was on a lever which the speed setting dial moved up or down to select the correct capstan step for the speed setting. The idler wheel then pressed against the inner rim of the turntable, - another gearing ratio but this time fixed, turning it at the correct speed.

This simple set up worked really well and gave adequate performance but HiFi fanatics didn't like it for rumble and its level of wow and flutter, both of which were claimed to be reduced by using belt drives.

The Sugden turntable only had 2 speeds, 33.3 & 45. Because it had pretensions as a "Hi-Fi" turntable it didn't bother with 16.6 rpm which was only really used for talking books/language records and of course 78 rpm would have involved a change of stylus to play them, and anyway shellac 78's were hardly "Hi-Fi". I seem to remember the bias compensation was arranged by a weighted arm falling down an inclined plane arrangement instead of the usual thin nylon cord and weight.

HD

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The Sugden turntable only had 2 speeds, 33.3 & 45. Because it had pretensions as a "Hi-Fi" turntable it didn't bother with 16.6 rpm which was only really used for talking books/language records and of course 78 rpm would have involved a change of stylus to play them, and anyway shellac 78's were hardly "Hi-Fi". I seem to remember the bias compensation was arranged by a weighted arm falling down an inclined plane arrangement instead of the usual thin nylon cord and weight.

HD

I have a large collection of Jazz music on CD's taken from 78rpm records and professionally digitised by the record company. On most of them the sound quality, albeit in its original mono (not good for a 17 piece Jazz orchestra) is comparably to a modern recorded now, in fact appart from the instrumentation and style they sound like they could have been recorded yesterday even though most of them are over 70 years old. B)

Even the 1920's recordings are of good quality if they are from the second half of that decade and so are "electric" recordings. Before 1925 recordings were "mechanical" and these sound very dull, muffled and lacking in high frequency response even after modern digitising and cleaning up. :(

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