Science

Hi,
In the 6 years RAAF, I never understood the alchohol/cigarette culture of the Airmans' Canteen.
Noisy, smokey and everyone 3 sheets to the wind.
The 'sin bin' (WRAAF section (invite only)) was not much better.
Cheers

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Originally Posted by V8Ian

Air Force are gin and tonic with a cherry and umbrella. [wink11]

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.....and a ground crew member to put it together, as it's a bit complicated. [biggrin]

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Originally Posted by austastar

Hi,
In the 6 years RAAF, I never understood the alchohol/cigarette culture of the Airmans' Canteen.
Noisy, smokey and everyone 3 sheets to the wind.
The 'sin bin' (WRAAF section (invite only)) was not much better.
Cheers

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CRIPES! That explains a lot to me. Thanks. Went on a site looking for past members of my old Sig Sqdn at Beulah Park a few years ago as you do.

I discovered most of them were dead & I further discovered that it was Ca., Booze & or Ciggies in a small-ish enclosed space in the OR's Mess post parade that probably did for them. I had always suspected that atmosphere was not good for man or dog & my suspicions were correct although a couple died in traffic accidents separately. I don't know the outcome but I suspect now that Alc. may have been a contributing factor.

Thank Christ I got out when I did.

Smoking was allowed in our darkrooms!
Barely 12 x 12 ft unventilated room in a Nissan hut with 3 blokes.
One on the enlarger, one developing the prints (by hand in batches of 50 or so) and the other on rinse, fixer and taking batches out to the washer room.
It was Hell for the few non-smokers there, working with 2 smokers with durries hanging from their mouths while they worked.
The miserable WO would not let us team up so all non smokers could work together.
He was a short, fat, miserable sod!
I was only there 6 months or so before the roster changed and I was moved to a different section.
Cheers

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Originally Posted by austastar

Smoking was allowed in our darkrooms!
Barely 12 x 12 ft unventilated room in a Nissan hut with 3 blokes.
One on the enlarger, one developing the prints (by hand in batches of 50 or so) and the other on rinse, fixer and taking batches out to the washer room.
It was Hell for the few non-smokers there, working with 2 smokers with durries hanging from their mouths while they worked.
The miserable WO would not let us team up so all non smokers could work together.
He was a short, fat, miserable sod!
I was only there 6 months or so before the roster changed and I was moved to a different section.
Cheers

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Aren't some of the chemicals used highly inflammable if that was done by the book, if so I would be surprised that was allowed to happen with a WO in charge as well.[bigsad]

I think your description of him just highlighted the Rank qualification necessary to make the next step up whatever that is in the RAAF.(?) SSM? RSM??:Rolling:

Hi,
Nothing flammable with Dektol developer, Acetic Acid stop bath or Kodak fixer.
The most flammable thing would have been the Caneite wall lining.
Even the offices had ashtrays on the desks.
Cheers

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Originally Posted by 4bee

Aren't some of the chemicals used highly inflammable if that was done by the book, if so I would be surprised that was allowed to happen with a WO in charge as well.[bigsad]

I think your description of him just highlighted the Rank qualification necessary to make the next step up whatever that is in the RAAF.(?) SSM? RSM??:Rolling:

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You're probably thinking of celluloid for movie projectors.

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Originally Posted by RANDLOVER

You're probably thinking of celluloid for movie projectors.

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You're probably thinking of celluloid film rather than projectors. I'm not quite sure how easy it would be to make a projector out of celluloid!

None of the chemicals used for processing film would have been flammable, and even if the film was (probably not), it would be hard to ignite from a cigarette when wet from processing. Paper for prints would burn, but offices using paper mostly survived for a more than a hundred years with a fag hanging out of every mouth.

Flammable chemicals seem to have mostly stopped being used in photographic processing in the third quarter of the nineteenth century.

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Originally Posted by RANDLOVER

You're probably thinking of celluloid for movie projectors.

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Cheeky bugger![bigrolf]

No I was thinking B & W developing. Lemme explain.

A spoilt (because he had a Camera & we plebs didn't [bigsad]) lad we knocked around with yonks ago whose parents bought him a camera started to develop his own prints in his bedroom of all places. I called around one day to find he & his Dad had just put out a small fire in said room. They reckon one of the processing dishes had gone up. Dunno why,just remembered that. Can one use unleaded for developing ?[bigrolf]

He also had some bits from Sir Ross & Keith Smith's aircraft he bought at a sale some where in Oz. No idea what they were now but I guess they were in the days when early Aviators raised their own funding instead of the Crowd Funding & Govt handouts of today. I trust those bits were not important in the scheme of things.[bigrolf]
I mention that because those bits were next to where his Developing Dishes were.

I presume the "bits" were bits of doped fabric. Doped fabric in the 1920s was essentially linen painted with nitrocellulose dissolved in a suitable solvent, such as acetone, pigmented with aluminium powder. While not exactly celluloid, it isnot very different chemically - burns even better than celluloid, and if having frayed edges, far easier to ignite.