BB's Reel

[Thommo]

Class, thanks Len

[QuinetteCane]

When my dear old dad was demobbed after WW2 he got a job with B.E.A in admin
serving the A/C maintenance area including the engineering section. In those days of aircraft and turbo prop engine development
there was a lot more going on there than just fitting bought in replacement parts. Pop would say that when magnesium was
being turned in the machine shop the awareness in the area was quite tangible, and they were used to it.

Can you imagine then, when the boss (RW of course) turned up at the Lawnmower factory with a lump of Magnesium
instead of the usual turning out of sprockets in mild steel most of the staff hovering around the lathe firing off extinguishers !
It must have been quite a day there. Oh I do so hope it happened that way !
He (RW) would I am sure easily have had contacts to procure such materials and he would too it seems.

Thats a remarkable collection of beautiful engineering being held by yourself and that other feller.....
Having myself only completed a toolmakers clamp in metalwork class at school when our metalwork master
left suddenly under a cloud, the reason for which no one ever discovered.
He was never replaced which left me in a state of awe for a proper bit of engineering and it follows of proper qualified engineers.
Is that a variant of a hardy conquest in your top hand there. The best designed trotting reel in my opinion, the rear drag version only tho.
The front drag wheel version has an impossible to use with cold fingers twist ratchet knob design fail spoiling it.

Did BB ever see that last pic ? My creaky memory recalls himself never having success at redmire
so he would be pleased to see his reel idea working there.
No camo T-shirt needed that night it would seem!
Great composition too.

[Nobby]

I looked at that pawl pivot-arm and chuckled. You see Len and I, both motorcycle mad back in the Sixties, come from a time when everybody was drilling holes in anything big enough to take it.....and a few bits that weren't!


It was a time of experimentation and polishing....and not a little bodging, truth be told.......


Which is why I'm surprised Len hasn't succumbed to my immediate second thought on reading the text........what would happen to a few shavings made off the inside of the spool inner rim if they were to meet a match?


Then you'd have a reel weighing only 339.99 grams and a nice little experiment.


Magnesium doesn't so much burn as explode in incandescent light.......



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSr39UwpELo


Fantastic story, Len. It rather does sound as though BB's reel, at least, was magnesium.


There was magnesium around in 1945 and it looks like they weren't quite sure what to do about it:

http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/? ... -24a.803.1


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_Elektron

Perhaps Dick popped up to Manchester??

[Paul D]

Interesting but the fly in the ointment for me is that magnesium corrodes unless coated... black phosphate rings a bell.
I have machined the stuff in the past (Morgan steering rack housings of all things) and providing you take sensible precautions it's fine.
Must add I have never heard of it exploding?? Although the last thing to do is use water to put it out if it does go up.

[DaceAce]

I have a notebook with some listings of Walker articles and checked several out today. Walker did refer to making larger than usual centrepins from materials other than aluminium, mentioning both magnesium alloys and plastics - this was in 1973.

For those that don't know him Dave Plowman worked at Flight Refueling at Wimborne.

[Dave Burr]

A great thread and a magnificent reel with a momentous history. What would I give to catch a carp on that unique centre pin? But I guess we all feel the same.

You are indeed a lucky chap Len and very generous with your information and photo's.

[Paul D]

A great thread and a magnificent reel with a momentous history. What would I give to catch a carp on that unique centre pin? But I guess we all feel the same.

You are indeed a lucky chap Len and very generous with your information and photo's.

Here here Dave, thank you Len for showing us this piece of angling history

[Wallys-Cast]

Thanks for sharing Len.

Any chance of a close up or two of the Gough No 1 reel please.

Wal.

[Len Arbery]

Blimey! What a response! If I was still employed I'd have to take a week off to comment and answer all the queries! Still, I don't have to worry about that, having been retired from full-time employment getting-on for 25 years; my current ambition is to spend more years in retirement than employed - so there's still a way to go.

Firstly though, something else came to mind, regarding its history, that I think should be recorded: Our own Mike Wilson, yet another trained engineer, was once entrusted by 'BB' to renovate this reel. Mike told me it was in a pretty poor state at the time, evidently 'BB' had used it for sea fishing! I'm sure Mike himself can tell us more. What about it, Mike?

Our illustrious Captain, Mark, may choose to move this first answer elsewhere to a place a more pertinent, for reasons that will become obvious; if you do, Mark, that's fine by me.

It concerns the final query - that for close-ups of The Gough No 1.

When entrusted to refurbish this particular reel I placed no real import to the job at that time, so didn't take any close-up pictures that I remember. But, however, I might just do a little bit better. Below are two scans, taken from Creel magazine, March 1964 issue. These depict an article describing said reel, including drawings, penned by the maker himself, Lloyd Gladstone Gough.





I apologise for posting these scans horizontal rather than vertical, but they seem to reproduce better and, therefore more legible.

Will endeavour to comment further on other issues raised by separate post another time.

Besties,

Len.

[SeanM]

A really (sorry!) interesting thread this. Looking at Len's pictures, if I had to place a goodly sum of money on the reel being made of a magnesium alloy or an aluminium alloy I'd go for aluminium and be fairly confident that my money was safe.

Whatever the reel is made of, thank you Len for posting the pictures.