Nostalgia

[Caran]

How many of you remember the damper?

[Mamyalynne]

Oh aye.

[magicmick]

Oh yes, and when it got stuck dad would use a small shovel and the Bolton Evening News to good affect :)

[Baldric]

Open fires?

[Caran]

The damper was part of a coal fire. Thee was a hook hanging down the chimney. You had to attach a small rod to it and pull it down. This enabled the coal fire to heat the hot water in a back boiler. You didn't have it on all the time as it burnt more coal.

[Ann]

Was it to do with open fires? We used to put something over the embers at night to put them out - was that called the damper?

[Mamyalynne]

Damper

a movable metal plate in a flue or chimney, used to regulate the draught and so control the rate of combustion.

[Caran]

Magicmick we used the Manchester Evening News!

[Ann]

We posted together Caran! No I don't remember heating water in a back boiler in the fireplace and ours was a very old Victorian house we lived in during my childhood. We had an electric copper which heated water for "Friday night is bath night!!" We also had a brick copper built into the corner of the kitchen with a space for a fire to be lit underneath, although it was never lit in my memory, Mum used the copper (sink) part to rinse clothes in on washday. The water had to be ladled out afterwards as there was no plughole!

[Calibax]

Well you push the damper in and you pull the damper out and the smoke went up the chimney just the same.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbauWEfiCMo

[magicmick]

Caran am I on the wrong paper, was the MEN a buff colour in years gone by?

[Mamyalynne]

We had the Buff in Bolton Mick,came out teatime Saturdays as I recall.



I think the MEN was a buff colour too though.

[Ann]

Ah yes mamya - I remember now - Mum pulling a lever out at the side of the chimney to get the flames roaring up. Also putting the fireguard in front of the fender with double sheets of newspaper attached which the draught kept there by just the draught. Sometimes Dad had to whip them away just in time before they caught fire! Health and Safety eat your heart out! Also transferring live coals on a shovel between the living room and the front room to get a fire going quickly in the other room and Mum holding me backwards over the valour stove to dry my hair and also taking the bulb out of the centre light in the room and plugging in an iron! Honestly, it's a wonder we are still alive to tell the tale!

[Caran]

Don't remember it being buff, sure it was white, but there was a buff paper, was it a sporting one?

[Mamyalynne]

Yes the Buff was sport.

[Calibax]

Not sure about an iron, Ann but my Mum certainly had a hairdrier that you plugged into the light socket!

[Mamyalynne]

It is amazing Ann yes, sparks and bits of burning paper flying around and hot embers, we made it through though.

[Caran]

My mum also unscrewed the light to use her iron. Never thought anything of it. Just one of those things we did.

[Ann]

We had curling tongs which were heated up by poking them in the glowing coals. Mum took them out and put them straight in our hair to make curls - no wonder we could smell singed hair and my hair was always frizzy! LOL ;)

[Georgiesmum]

Oh, i thought you meant what we called dampers at girl guides, a sausage shaped "thing" that we made out of flour and water and pushed onto a peeled twig and cooked over a camp fire. Anyone remember those?