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A.O.S.A. 2008 ANNUAL REPORT |
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Harry Snalam's Presidential Address |
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Reunion |
During my first year I had a supply of matches, but they were usually confiscated during the term. So in my second year, I had a cigar box which I carried with me every time I went out, tucked under my sweater. The box looked like it contained a first aid kit, because it had Band-Aids and Iodine in it. It also had two chemicals, that when they were put together, burst into flames which meant that I didn’t have to have matches any more
I went to the mines for the first time in year 3. I was terrified; I didn’t think that I would ever go into them. Bill Coates started going in with me and the first trip was to the bottom of the ventilation shaft, which we called the chimney. Later we started to explore the mines and see how far we could go. There was always a draft coming up which made us think the other end was open somewhere. We had flashlights which used to give out, and candles for emergencies. One time my flashlight gave out and Bill dropped his shortly after, I had to try to make my chemical match work in pitch black to light two candles. We got so used to going down the mines, we used to stand outside and offer guided tours to anyone who came by. We didn’t charge for our services and we had several brave kids that came down with us. It was a 15 minutes trip down to the chimney and back, or a 30 minute trip to #16 crossover shaft which went down one shaft and back up another one. Bill and I wanted to see how far we could go, the trouble was we could only go for an hour and a half, and then we had to come back. So we used to run in a crouched position because the roof of the mine was only around 5 feet tall. I never got to find the end, but Bill went up for a full day one time and found where the mine became flooded. It took him 3 hours to go one way. Somebody suggested that we should try blasting in the mines. I knew how to make a really good blasting powder, but after several tries we realized that all it was doing was making a really good bang, and not moving anything. We put a pretty large charge in a crack in the rocks, with a slow burning fuse, and ran all the way back to the opening. When we didn’t hear anything, we thought the fuse must have gone out. So we slowly went back down to where we had placed it, just as it exploded and nearly blew us over. think it was Louis Trotter who said what about dynamite. We knew it started off as nitro glycerine. So, I approached Geoff Baxter, who was Lab Boy, and he thought it would be a good fun idea to try and make some. He supplied me with all the chemicals and became part of the team. Our first mixing was in the Woodwork Shop on a Saturday afternoon. When it started to smoke and bubble, we got out of there. We thought that it was going to blow up! We ventured back after 10 minutes when the Woodwork Shop was still standing. So I went to the library and checked the Encyclopaedia Britannica, to see where I was going wrong.
I had another mixing one night in the Changing Room in one of the sinks. I successfully made about ½ an ink bottle of nitro-glycerine. We couldn’t find the special sand to make dynamite; I even asked Spig if he had any in the lab and he told us the only place to get it was ICI. Obviously, that suggestion was not followed up. We didn’t know what to do with it because we realized that it was too dangerous. We used to put a drop on the floor and scuff it with our feet. It would go off with a little bang, as would a drop dropped from 3 feet in the air. I wanted to take it up Cooks and throw it down the deep mine shaft, but nobody was willing to carry it, and I didn’t want to either! So one night, I poured it onto a sheet of newspaper on the Teacher’s Terrace and lit the corner. It flared up about 6 – 8 feet with a big orange flame that lit the whole sky up. Luckily, nobody was awake to see it Another favourite place to hang out was the Nissan Hut. This was a lab and a workshop that wasn’t being used as a classroom. We were allowed to go in there to make radios and we formed the “Nissan Radio Club.” My ambition was to make a transmitter (which even in those days was completely illegal!) So I made a transmitter and Bill went home to tune in his radio to receive it. I called him using a fake call sign. Ten minutes later he came belting back to say that he had received it fine, and there was a ham radio guy from Thirsk trying to get in touch with me. Needless to say, we took the transmitter to bits right away. One day Spig (Bernard Coates) asked Bill and I to go under the Nissan hut and retrieve eggs that his hens were laying under there. We found three or four dozen eggs, some old and some fresh. The only way we could think of sorting the fresh ones from the bad ones, was by floating them in the tadpole tank, but we also lost all the ones that were good! Hopefully, none of the non-swimmers stood on an egg…. Go to: Page three | Return to: Page one |
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A.O.S.A. 2008 ANNUAL REPORT |
