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Old 5th Mar 2017, 9:58 pm   #1
Duke_Nukem
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Default Airships, Gramophones and Mr Banfield

At today's Harpenden I bought a box of misc "stuff" - including service data a manual for the GEC9121 (a pre-war TV).

But burried amongst it were some interesting odds and ends and I thought I'd share this one. There was an envelope addressed to Mr Banfield with The Gramaphone Company logo on the flap and within were four letters from the company to Mr Banfield - employee number 501.

The first three letters, from 1929, illustrate the company's suggestion scheme, in this instance the possibility of specially lightened gramaphone players for use in the new airships. The suggestion mentions using their model 551 as the basis - you can find some nice pictures of the model via this link.

The fourth letter is from mid 1931 - regretting to inform Mr Banfield, who worked in their electrical research department, that his services were no longer required. This seems to co-incide with when The Gramaphone Company and The Columbia Graphophone Company merged, to produce EMI.

TTFN,
Jon
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Old 6th Mar 2017, 12:23 am   #2
Herald1360
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Default Re: Airships, Gramaphones and Mr Banfield

A truly fascinating find, that!
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Old 6th Mar 2017, 12:39 am   #3
dave walsh
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Default Re: Airships, Gramophones and Mr Banfield

I agree-very intriguing Jon-thanks for sharing! Never heard that one before but it doesn't seem to imply much faith in the airship or, indeed, basic physics. If weight was such a factor wouldn't they need to thin down the passengers and crew as well

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Old 6th Mar 2017, 12:43 am   #4
electrogram
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Default Re: Airships, Gramophones and Mr Banfield

I've got a 551. Even if the cabinet were made of balsa wood I don't think it would have helped them much. The one in the link has a later Garrard changer.
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Old 6th Mar 2017, 11:05 am   #5
Ted Kendall
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Default Re: Airships, Gramophones and Mr Banfield

Never mind the 'gram - what about the weight of any sensible number of discs? No wonder they gave him the push...
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Old 6th Mar 2017, 11:42 am   #6
ionburn
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Default Re: Airships, Gramophones and Mr Banfield

Not much notice given in those days No golden hanshake!

I think the weight of things really detracted from the use of Helium in airships. It really would have been the case of every little helps. As now, they probably had to get as many passengers in as they could. It was with the disasters of R101 (just after the time of the suggestions) and Hindenburg which perhaps made the use of Helium obligatory and because of the lack of modern light composite contruction the weight problem would make airships fairly impractical for some time thereafter.
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Old 6th Mar 2017, 1:40 pm   #7
Brigham
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Default Re: Airships, Gramophones and Mr Banfield

It was the unavailability of Helium which was the biggest drawback. It only appears in quantity in North America, and even the Yanks had difficulty flying two ships at once.
The big German trans-Atlantic passenger types were designed for Helium, but flown with Hydrogen out of necessity. The extra carrying capacity was welcome, but the handling was skittish.
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Old 7th Mar 2017, 9:57 am   #8
ionburn
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Default Re: Airships, Gramophones and Mr Banfield

Thank you

It is a while since the subject of airships came up.

What you say makes sense as I vaguely remember reading somewhere that the yanks would not supply Helium to the Germans. If they had problems with supply then maybe that is why.
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Old 7th Mar 2017, 10:09 am   #9
peter_scott
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Default Re: Airships, Gramophones and Mr Banfield

The piano used in the Hindenburg was made of aluminium alloy.

https://postalmuseum.si.edu/fireandice/p4photos.html

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Old 14th Mar 2017, 1:49 pm   #10
hotbulb
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Default Re: Airships, Gramophones and Mr Banfield

Compared to hydrogen, helium gives approx 88% of the lifting capacity.
The large German airships were indeed designed to use helium but as stated, they could not obtain supplies from the USA. Which, incidentally still maintains a strategic helium reserve of over a million cubic metres.
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