VICKERS MK6B's resto

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Richard Farrant

Just as a matter of interest, the gun mantlet on the Vickers MkVI was made of Elektron as were aero engine crankcases and wheels.

Hmm... I wonder if that was also the 'swarf' that my grandfather used to light his incinerator with in the 1960s? (Silvery metal chips that burned white-hot and would get a fire going with even wet garden waste. I suspect he got them from T.A.Savery in Bracebridge St where he worked - they made equipment for the aircraft industry, etc.)

Chris.
(Other bit of Signals history that turned up: the family used to grow chrysanthemums for sale, and used peculiar canes to support them (until my father suggested using sheep fencing laid on the ground and lifted up as the plants grew). Years later I wanted some staffs for semaphore flags, found a dealer with lots of them at Beltring, and realised just what the tapered sticks with a small screw-head part way up actually were: WW2 surplus flag staffs!)