Society for Popular Astronomy

We are used to the Met. Office weather forecasters referring to "warm fronts", "cold fronts", precipitation" and so on.
Now there's a possibility that the weather service might resort to regional slang in their forecasts to make them more "accessible" to us: the patronising innuendo being that we in the dark netherworld of the North West, for example, might not understand what "warm front" means.
The Met. Office wants people to submit their regional meteorological terms for the weather, so that a glossary can be compiled for local weather forecasts.
Derek Ryall at the Met. Office said: "We are always looking to improve the way weather forecasts are communicated, to make them as useful as possible and increase their understanding. Ultimately we hope to use the insights from our research to tap into local dialects and vocabulary to make it easier for people across the UK to understand the forecast and make informed decisions on it."
Examples for rain include "caning it" in London, "bucketing" in the Black Country and "chucking it down" in Leeds and Newcastle. The North West isn't mentioned in the report, as we are apt to say "it's p***ing down". Could we imagine the uproar on prime-time TV if the weather forecaster was to say that? Mind you, we'd have a chuckle in Lancs.

...or castrating anthropoids formed from copper and zinc?

Please translate Stella. That's a bit esoteric. "It's raining cats 'n' dogs" is another expression.

Balls, brass monkeys, etc. etc.

Dark over "Bill's Mothers" (Anybody know who he was)?
Is one of my favorite phrases.

Though I don't know where this saying comes from.
It describes a huge bank of dark cloud from the East, that usually contains hail.

'Raining stair rods' to describe a heavy downpour with rain bounce back. Carpet furniture has moved on this century so we are now in world without these brass stair carpet retainers.

Stair rods extended the life of 27 inch wide stair carpet, by allowing it to be moved a few inches to move worn bits.

The most wear is on the second stair down from the top. From memory on the riser.

In those days women used to sew 27 inch wide carpet into room sized carpets.
Either half drop or full drop in pattern. Usually about 36 inch per drop.
So there was usually wastage.
I was rebuked for sometimes not leaving enough carpet for the carpet fitters.
One has to add add I think 3 inches or 1.5 inches? for the turn under.
I always got the firm the tender as I measured and calculated carefully. Other firms added quite a lot of wastage.

Nowadays there is broadloom.
In my day up to 4 yards wide, maybe 4 metres.
Now available wider I think.

There used to be Wilton and Axminster which has different threading at the back.
Then tufted came along with variants including secondary backing.

The Taiwan Chinese carpets were basically tufted with secondary backing. Much cheaper but inferior.
The traditional Chinese woven. We used to sell 90 line 5/8ths. They last about 200 years maybe.
In those days Chinese trade was utterly honest. Now their trade practices are awful.

I spent two weeks in the Durham carpet factory.
The factory girls almost ate me for lunch.
An interesting experience.

When all my stuff was stolen in Glasgow and all my paperwork thrown in the Clyde, the Scottish police found the paperwork, dried it out and sent it to Mark Gledhill rugs in Huddersfield. They sent it back to me.
Glasgow was rough.
At least I could visit Arthur Frank at Charles Frank, Glasgow where I bought my 8.5 inch Newtonian, 7x23 binocular, 10x70 Ross monocular and other optics.

The punched cards at the carpet factory were used to make the pattern.
I think Wilton only in five colours.

These punched card systems were the basis for early computers.

Regards,
David

That brings back memories! The wooden outer part of each step was painted and the triangular brackets screwed to this, and the triangular wooden (painted or stained) stair-rods held the narrower carpet in place. I heard stories of them being used to cane children! The rods I knew where not brass but perhapf the retaining brackets where. Fitted room carpets were considered a luxury, with single carpet or large rug being acquired for the middle of the floor and the surrounding area being painted or stained or perhaps lino-ed. regards maf