Did anyone in this group work at the Rediffusion TV factory in Newhey?
That was where I had my first job testing and repairing WIRED TV. I
was a young man working with about 200 women in a factory. I can
remember the names of two of the women because they worked just before
me on the production line. As a young man I was in love with both of
them. That was about 60 years ago. The only reason I remember is
because I put an orange tea shirt on this morning and it reminded me
that I use to wear one then so my nickname was "orange". The only
other person I remember is factory boss (JFB). It's amazing how
memories are triggered!

Yes, I worked in the Chessington Factory and regional repair departments.
Most of our staff were bussed in from Brixton. Mostly ladies and black of
course. Trouble only started when we got some Kenyan Asians in who seemed to
think they were better than everyone else. Arrogant, sadly.
Brian

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<steve1001908@outlook.com> wrote in message
news:7i54eilios5blssp9rqpk74ud2k38appfn@4ax.com...
> Did anyone in this group work at the Rediffusion TV factory in Newhey?
> That was where I had my first job testing and repairing WIRED TV. I
> was a young man working with about 200 women in a factory. I can
> remember the names of two of the women because they worked just before
> me on the production line. As a young man I was in love with both of
> them. That was about 60 years ago. The only reason I remember is
> because I put an orange tea shirt on this morning and it reminded me
> that I use to wear one then so my nickname was "orange". The only
> other person I remember is factory boss (JFB). It's amazing how
> memories are triggered!
>

> I worked in the Chessington Factory and regional repair
> departments.
> Most of our staff were bussed in from Brixton. Mostly ladies and
> black of course.

Possibly used to work at the Decca TV factory in Brixton that closed in the
early seventies, I recall visiting it to buy my first TV, the BBC had a staff
deal.

Angus

On Mon, 21 Aug 2023 10:59:49 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
<brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:

>
>Yes, I worked in the Chessington Factory and regional repair departments.
> Most of our staff were bussed in from Brixton. Mostly ladies and black of
>course. Trouble only started when we got some Kenyan Asians in who seemed to
>think they were better than everyone else. Arrogant, sadly.
> Brian

I remember some chap from Chessington who came to see us northern
simple folk. He asked me some technical questions and I got the
impression that he didn't know the answers. He didn't know what third
harmonic tuning was so I told him. I had just done it at Oldham tech
college. Something to do with EHT production I think! It was 60 years
ago so it isn't my clearest memory.

Yes we made a lot of those transformers at Chessington. The stuff they used
to encapsulate them ponged so they did it overnight but even with lots of
ventilation you could still smell it
Chessington had two fires, one when I was still at school and one in the
middle of the night where you could hear the explosions. As my Father worked
there, I got to see the damage both times. What a mess, everything was
soaked in a muddy mess of soot and water, and all the walls alongside the
building which burned were buckled and had to be rebuilt very carefully. The
site is a housing estate today. The locals got fed up with a fire every
couple of years and noise from construction of new buildings and being
overlooked by a lab building, that eventually they moved it all up north and
made us all redundant. Might have had a lot to do with the owners British
Electric Traction, flogging the whole lot off to Granada of course, who also
had another factory, so did not need the one down south. They also had a
sight overlooking Eastbourne with a huge aerial mast to get London and
Southern itv and all the radio you wanted, but most of the cable at that
time was only carrying the RF, the audio was switched from a series of 100v
lines apparently. eventually it was all integrated so aerial sets could use
it as well as the older wired ones which had an actual connection to the
cable.
We also did coin in the slot tvs which for a while were used in hotels.
Basically an ordinary tv with a coin box on the side !

Going back to the third harmonic stuff, the early eht units used a valve to
rectify the eht directly, but the transformers did break down a lot, so they
designed on with a different transformer and a solid state trippler. To me
the b/w picture was prone to ballooning and defocusing on those, but as the
sets were AC coupled in the video, there were never any black blacks and
bright whites. I put a dc restorer on one once, and we had to put in one of
the old eht transformers or it kind of gave up on dynamic pictures that had
bright flashing lights or the sun in them.

I hate to think what else was being overcooked by doing this, but valves
were more forgiving than Transistors at the time.
Brian

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<steve1001908@outlook.com> wrote in message
news:fur6eiponoj6kglr25qnocttc29gjcvbt9@4ax.com...
> On Mon, 21 Aug 2023 10:59:49 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
> <brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>Yes, I worked in the Chessington Factory and regional repair departments.
>> Most of our staff were bussed in from Brixton. Mostly ladies and black of
>>course. Trouble only started when we got some Kenyan Asians in who seemed
>>to
>>think they were better than everyone else. Arrogant, sadly.
>> Brian
>
> I remember some chap from Chessington who came to see us northern
> simple folk. He asked me some technical questions and I got the
> impression that he didn't know the answers. He didn't know what third
> harmonic tuning was so I told him. I had just done it at Oldham tech
> college. Something to do with EHT production I think! It was 60 years
> ago so it isn't my clearest memory.
>

<steve1001908@outlook.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 21 Aug 2023 10:59:49 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
> <brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >Yes, I worked in the Chessington Factory and regional repair departments.
> > Most of our staff were bussed in from Brixton. Mostly ladies and black of
> >course. Trouble only started when we got some Kenyan Asians in who seemed to
> >think they were better than everyone else. Arrogant, sadly.
> > Brian
>
> I remember some chap from Chessington who came to see us northern
> simple folk. He asked me some technical questions and I got the
> impression that he didn't know the answers. He didn't know what third
> harmonic tuning was so I told him. I had just done it at Oldham tech
> college. Something to do with EHT production I think! It was 60 years
> ago so it isn't my clearest memory.

When I was just about to leave school we had a visit from a couple of
recruiters from Radio Rentals. They showed me the circuit diagram of a
television set and pointed to one of the components. I identified it as
the line output pentode and they went off into a huddle.

Eventually one of them said "We think you are right but we only wanted
you to say it was a valve".

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

In article <1qfx4ms.f33lcm1gl8dooN%liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid>,
Liz Tuddenham <liz@poppyrecords.invalid.invalid> scribeth thus
><steve1001908@outlook.com> wrote:
>
>> On Mon, 21 Aug 2023 10:59:49 +0100, "Brian Gaff"
>> <brian1gaff@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >
>> >Yes, I worked in the Chessington Factory and regional repair departments.
>> > Most of our staff were bussed in from Brixton. Mostly ladies and black of
>> >course. Trouble only started when we got some Kenyan Asians in who seemed to
>> >think they were better than everyone else. Arrogant, sadly.
>> > Brian
>>
>> I remember some chap from Chessington who came to see us northern
>> simple folk. He asked me some technical questions and I got the
>> impression that he didn't know the answers. He didn't know what third
>> harmonic tuning was so I told him. I had just done it at Oldham tech
>> college. Something to do with EHT production I think! It was 60 years
>> ago so it isn't my clearest memory.
>
>When I was just about to leave school we had a visit from a couple of
>recruiters from Radio Rentals. They showed me the circuit diagram of a
>television set and pointed to one of the components. I identified it as
>the line output pentode and they went off into a huddle.
>
>Eventually one of them said "We think you are right but we only wanted
>you to say it was a valve".
>
>

So they were either "Management" of were to go into Management then;?..
--
Tony Sayer

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person.

Give him a keyboard, and he will reveal himself.