Female Engineer: "The Woman's Touch" ~ 1962 - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2016, 02:32:38 am
content: What kind of engineer drives a convertible--with the top down--in the snow?! That's sooo not practical!Pretty cool video though. The Nimbus satellites were revolutionary and really paved the way for our modern space based weather forecasting.The satellite in that video, Nimbus-1, spent ten years in space, collecting and relaying data, and it did it flawlessly. In particular, the radiation detection setup that this video talks about was used on other Nimbus satellites and collected data that's crucial to our understanding (and tracking) of climate change.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2016, 02:57:55 am
content: Quote from: timb on November 20, 2016, 02:32:38 amThis one! I've had a convertible for nearly twenty years and every February there's always once crisp, cold sunny day when it's just too nicenotto put the roof down. As long as you're wearing clothing that's appropriate for the weather, with a bit of added windchill, it's not cold at all. It whoeverhasto be a sunny day. The only years since I've had the car that I've not done it are the last three or four as I've been keeping a hardtop on the car for the winter and it's too much fuss to drag the hardtop off for one day's motoring. In fact, fitting the hardtop for the winter is one of this week's jobs.

author: amirm
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2016, 05:13:26 am
content: Great watch. Thanks for posting it. Fascinating to see ADCs and hybrid digital modules that far back.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2016, 05:37:29 am
content: Quote from: amirm on November 20, 2016, 05:13:26 amThen this should interest youhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIGSALY

author: Tomorokoshi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 20, 2016, 05:52:54 am
content: Very interesting. Sadly she passed away just over a year ago after a long and distinguished career:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Townsend

author: Cubdriver
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 20, 2016, 07:50:49 am
content: Quote from: Cerebus on November 20, 2016, 02:57:55 amHeated seats help a lot, too - it's amazing how much better you can tolerate the cold if some warmth is flowing into your backside!If you want to get somereallooks from people, drive top down on the highway in a downpour!!(In my Miata, as long as I'm over 45 or so it goes right over my head. The difficulty arises when the traffic slows down...)-Pat

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 20, 2016, 09:56:50 am
content: Oh wow, that's 1960's GOLD!

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 21, 2016, 11:47:51 am
content: Homer, thanks! But I suspect Lisa found this video for you.It was a little staged, but this woman was quite remarkable and went on to achieve some pretty decent recognition of her work. I would have like to have known her. I loved her explanation of the satellite communications. She was a good communicator.She would have led a busy life, but I was a little alarmed she had the help of a black servant to run the house. I could be wrong, but I don't think most modern Americans would exploit servant labour today. In most parts of Asia having servants is commonplace where the poor are exploited to serve the the lifestyles of rich. In Australia, no-one I know or have ever known has had a servant. It is considered quite alien to our modern egalitarian culture in Australia, although it was commonplace back in the colonial days under the rule of Great Britain. Today, we do everything ourselves pretty much and as a result the average bloke is generally multi-skilled.

author: rsjsouza
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 21, 2016, 01:01:56 pm
content: Excellent video! I really enjoyed the explanation about the satellite systems and the interesting discussions about minimizing space and trying to fit things in each cavity of the equipment!Quote from: VK3DRB on November 21, 2016, 11:47:51 amDouble income family with four kids? You certainly need help. BTW, to assume there is "exploitation" based on what is seen on the video is very biased. What tells you the woman is being underpaid and not receiving a decent salary with a decent way of living outside of her job? That certainly can't be considered exploitation but instead a job contract.Where I grew up in the 80's (Brazil) several families had a full time servant that lived in the house and had the weekends off (ours didn't as we were privileged to have a stay-at-home mother). We always heard stories here and there of servants being exploited, but all the families I met treated them with respect, were salaried and counted their time to retirement just like any other worker. I know, this is just anecdotal evidence but likewise it does not demerit the short clip.

author: rrinker
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 21, 2016, 01:48:47 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on November 21, 2016, 11:47:51 amDepends. Plenty of wealthy people have hired servants still, a maid, a butler, etc. Despite her husband being a doctor and her a high level engineer, a typical family like that today in the US probably couldn't afford any permanent staff. They may higher a housecleaning service to take care of some of the load. You'd have to be quite a bit wealthier these days to pay for staff. I had the experience in college of knowing a guy brought up in a house with a full staff - he was utterly helpless with basic life skills because in his house, he never did anything. The maid cleaned and cooked, the butler dressed him. Granted, my Mom did the laundry and cooking at home, but I still knew HOW to do those things so I wasn't flailing around once away from home.In this case, with both parents working, 4 kids, and especially with the VERY irregular schedule of an Obstetrician, I would expect they'd need some help with household chores. Just because she happened to be Black doesn't mean she was poorly treated or not paid for her services.

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 21, 2016, 04:04:15 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on November 21, 2016, 11:47:51 amServant != SlavePlenty of people hire baby sitters or nannies today, as well as house cleaning services.Generally, only the ultra-rich will have a live in butler, nanny and/or full time staff.

author: CraigHB
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 21, 2016, 05:04:45 pm
content: I think back then a dual income household was unusual. Now it's pretty much a necessity for a comfortable standard of living. Those were prosperous times in America where the ratio of income to living expense was quite good. Consider back then you could buy a single family home for around ten thousand and a new car for around a thousand. As a NASA engineer she was probably making ten to twenty thousand a year with her husband making somewhat more. Now an engineer might make five times more, but yet the cost of a home and car is over twenty times greater. So at the time they could comfortably afford to pay a live-in servant with the room to house one. I'm sure middle-classers with dual income households would hire live-in servants if they could and with children they certainly need them. They can't afford them nor do they have room to house them so day-care and housekeeping services are it.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2016, 11:46:11 am
content: Quote from: CraigHB on November 21, 2016, 05:04:45 pmIn Australia dual income families is the norm, now. In the 1960's, typically a mother stayed at home to raise the kids as a housewife. Today, the dual income society, associated with government policies of high levels of immigration and generous tax breaks for housing investors, have disadvantaging single income workers immensely. A single male clerical worker could never afford a home of his own in any capital city in this country. In the 1960's he could. Our politicians do not care. One wealthy Treasurer of Australia recently solved the housing affordability crisis by telling the battling Aussies to afford a home, get a higher paying job. Our egalitarian culture is fading and the politicians are leading the way.In any case, no-one I know or knew has ever servants in Australia, no matter how well off they are, or how hard working they are. I think in Australia, there would be a cultural stigma associated with having a servant in that you cannot cope, are incompetent or lazy, so you have to pay someone to do the dirty work for you. Aussie men and women have pride in being capable. Furthermore, our workplace laws forbid exploitation, so real salaries and benefits would have to be paid, rather than, say, a few rupees to someone from a lower class.With regards to the 1960's video, reverse the roles. I doubt you would have a white woman being a servant to a black woman who is working for NASA back then. It would be interesting to see if Marjorie Townsend had some discrimination herself because she was a woman, despite her obviously be highly technically capable. In that respect, times have changed for the better.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2016, 12:40:04 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on November 22, 2016, 11:46:11 amThis is the greatest con played on the public since the 1960s. Back then most women had a paying job until they married. If they married they might have stopped paid work immediately. If not, they almost certainly stopped paid work if they had children, and remained out of paid work until the children grew up. Its a terrific thing that women are no longer pigeon holed like that. However, they have now is perhaps worse than before.Most women who have children now try to get back to their job as fast as they can, to keep up with their high cost of living. Then they take their pay after tax deductions, and use a big chunk to it pay a child carer, who then pays another chunk of the money in taxes. The government revenue system seems to have gained by monetising child rearing, but its not clear anyone else has. Parents don't get enough time with their own children, and are much less able to have an impact on their development. As for the money left over from the woman's paid income, most of it goes to pay a mortgage which is substantially higher than it used to be. Its also a lot higher than the mortgage of a comparable childless couple, who don't need to pay the inflated prices of homes in the catchment area of a good school.Its not surprising that more and more couples choose to be childless. The two income life works very well for childless couples, but its a real killer for family life.

author: CraigHB
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2016, 03:21:23 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on November 22, 2016, 11:46:11 amMy wife would have plenty to say about that, she's a retired engineer. Discrimination based on sex is still alive and well, in the USA at least. People would like to think the fact we Americans almost elected our first female president shows the glass ceiling here has been eliminated, but it's still there just a lot thinner and higher than it used to be. No matter how politically correct our society becomes there will always be those that have biased attitudes toward differing social groups. Just because it's not politically correct to use racist or misogynist language doesn't mean it's not happening.Being a female engineer in the 60's she would have been subject to an amount of discrimination and possibly sexual harassment. At that time there were very few women engineers and that's how men wanted it. Though at NASA it was probably less of an issue since these were very smart people conducting the most advanced science at the time, anywhere else it would have been a major issue. At the time women dealt with that kind of thing mostly by taking the abuse and not making a fuss for fear of losing their job.

author: CraigHB
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 22, 2016, 04:04:46 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on November 22, 2016, 12:40:04 pmThere is some backlash on the changing ideals of society and it's a good thing that discrimination has been greatly reduced. However, it's easy to say that women had it easier in the past with that pigeon hole of being the happy homemaker. I've heard that before even from women and it's BS. The difference in my mind is the standard of living has fallen for the middle class forcing families into dual incomes where the option was there before. Everybody has it harder now, not just women. Most women did take the option of staying home tending to the family at that time, it was kind of expected. When they had the desire or need to work they had to face discrimination in the workplace. It's harder for both men and women equally to raise a family now, but at least women don't have to deal with what they did back then in the workplace.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 23, 2016, 10:29:58 am
content: Quote from: coppice on November 22, 2016, 12:40:04 pmAfter thinking about your post, I think it is somewhat true. The government here does not want mothers to stay at home. Our ex-PM Mr. Howard extended the age of retirement considerably. If he had his way, all workers except politicians would work until death. The government recently slashed the child support payments for single mums so they fall way below the poverty level, forcing them out to to work. Child care is very expensive, so the powerless are forced into a financial rut.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 23, 2016, 09:57:31 pm
content: The air is suddenly much nicer in here...

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 24, 2016, 10:31:54 pm
content: Quote from: EEVblog on November 23, 2016, 09:57:31 pmNicer but low on oxygen...

author: alank2
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 24, 2016, 11:22:11 pm
content: It may not be a popular opinion or politically correct, but overall, it isn't better for men, for women, or for children these days despite what so many claim.As unpopular as the idea may be, children benefited immensely from having their mother in the home to raise them. Now women have to work twice as hard, both in the world, and at home. On top of that, their children miss out of having their mother take care of and raise them. Feminism teaches women that they can have it all, but there are only so many hours in the day. There will be costs to choices. Some doors open and some doors close. Today's woman definitely has it harder. You don't have to look further then the lowering marriage rates and massive divorce rates to see that women are not being loved and men are not being respected. This is a lose-lose-lose situation for everyone. Women are not happier. Men are not happier. Children are not happier. Some people are getting wise to this and returning to traditional roles because they simply work better.Don't mistake this attitude as any negatively against women who need to or choose to work; I think it should be an option but not a have to, and they should be treated fairly and respectfully in the workplace. I feel for women in the current environment, they have so much on their shoulders. Society raises a bunch of man boys who don't step up and act like men, so women have to do it all when they should have men who provide for them, love them, and honor them.My gripe about the current economic environment is that a family can no longer make it on a single income. This used to not be the case, but things have changed and companies and governments are making more profit at the expense of families. The children are the ones really losing out, being shuffled from day care to day care...

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 25, 2016, 01:44:03 pm
content: Those poor people having to do their amateur dramaticsI like the older documentaries but the scripting and acting is very obvious. It was a new type of program for those days though. We made films long before we made documentaries.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 25, 2016, 01:53:37 pm
content: Quote from: alank2 on November 24, 2016, 11:22:11 pmYour points are quite valid. I think there is a lot of confusion when it comes to sexism and women’s roles. I think in the early days the equal rights brigade thought that the way to make things right was to make it possible for women to do exactly what men do. There are of course plenty of cases where women would need to go to work for example if they are single the same as single men do, but unfortunately the current economic climate and particular form of capitalism we now live under and are subjected to has put us into a position where most family units need to have two working adults in order to survive which is not right either.In a family be it the man or the woman that goes to work it should not be necessary for both parents to work. But in a combination of we are all equal and lowering wages both women and men have to work and yes you are right it puts undue strain on families and society. Heck as a single bloke with no outgoings but needing to live and on the lowest mortgage you can get I could not afford to work one day less a week which is not great when you consider that I have a cheap mortgage and all I really do is eat sleep and work.Unfortunately is also very difficult to have an adult debate about this sort of thing as you immediately get called sexist in today’s society. As a child it was actually my mother that we saw less of. Although it was not until later we realised her wages weren’t great and she managed to spend a lot of them before she even got home each day but we were mostly brought up by our father who also worked as many hours if not more than our mother.The question that really needs sorting out first is how come a family cannot survive on the wages of one worker. Back in the days this film was made it was quite feasible. We also used to live in a more cohesive society. Although both of my father’s parents worked and both in good jobs when he came home from school he would go to his neighbours house play with her son and she would be like his aunt. We don’t have that anymore. A lot of things have changed and it is a combination of changes that have brought about the current situation.Personally I don’t quite understand why this film was called a woman’s touch. As it was quite clearly shown the lady in question was an engineer just the same as every other engineer on the project. It was actually a programme about how they make electronics for the space industry or how they did. The sooner we stop putting emphasis on things either way and just accepting that everybody has the right to pursue whichever career they prefer or way of living if legal and moral the sooner we will stop having problems and silly debates which quickly descend into name-calling. But at the end of the day our political overlords are sitting behind our backs laughing their heads off as they fully benefit from today’s capitalism.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 25, 2016, 02:41:03 pm
content: Quote from: Simon on November 25, 2016, 01:53:37 pmBecause it was filmed in the '60s when a woman engineer made rocking horse shit look like a commodity? Male nurses were an uncommon sight in that era and I wouldn't be surprised if I found a contemporaneous documentary about the same entitled 'The Man's Touch'. Both were just against the normal expectations for gender roles for that era - I'll bet my 'auntie' Pat, who was a Doctor at St Thomas Hospital in the '60s, lost count of the number of times a day that someone called her 'Nurse'.Oh, and Simon? Please, less run-on sentences and the occasional paragraph break. That was a real pain to read.

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 25, 2016, 02:46:59 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on November 25, 2016, 02:41:03 pmSorry about the rambling. Speech recognition can be too easy. Should really go back and edit after I gas.Sent from my phone so mind the autocorrect.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 25, 2016, 05:10:37 pm
content: Well, south Africa, and almost everybody who is middle class or higher will have either a day maid, live in maid and possibly a gardener as well. Yes it is a job with a specified minimum salary, benefits and some protection in law. Those who can afford it will have live in maids and gardeners, with them in many cases regarded as nearly family, often having a higher pay than average, and often with the children at least being given access to education as well.On the other hand, there are also "Madams from Hell", who treat the staff like slaves, and who pay less than minimum wage, plus charging for living in, meals and with little time off. Illegal and if caught they will face a fine, unless they also have been cheating the taxman, which then looks at it more seriously ( of course ) and they often get away with this for years.Here there is a large problem with unemployment, and any income is seen as good, if you do not qualify for government benefits, like a childcare grant ( and there are families who all live on that one single sub $100 per month grant) or a pension. If you can get a job where you get over $200 per month and are otherwise unemployed you will take it.No, I do not have a maid, though many around me do. Both can't afford it, and have learnt to do my own stuff, as my mother ( who was a stay at home mum) did not have one since the 1970's

author: Simon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 25, 2016, 05:37:00 pm
content: And in the film it is clear that this family had a maid that would be looking after the children, possibly she had already been a mother herself. I have a friend that used to live in chile where having a maid is not uncommon.

author: rfeecs
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 25, 2016, 06:36:11 pm
content: It's odd this thread has morphed into a discussion about the maid. When I saw the first comments about exploitation I thought "no..." Back then, a lot of my middle class friends and neighbors employed black housekeepers. No one was being exploited.But then I also remembered. This is the USA in 1962. Even in the liberal west coast it was a segregated society. The schools were de facto segregated because the neighborhoods were segregated. The neighborhoods were segregated because of a legacy of racial covenants.Housekeepers, janitors, cleaning ladies, etc. were the only types of jobs these ladies could get.I'm still not saying that the family in the video was exploiting the maid.On a note related to the video, I noticed Margaret Hamilton, another NASA women engineer of the era, just received the Presidential Medal of Freedom:https://www.nasa.gov/feature/margaret-hamilton-apollo-software-engineer-awarded-presidential-medal-of-freedomhttps://youtu.be/X1PNp_YggAA

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2016, 09:30:31 am
content: Quote from: rfeecs on November 25, 2016, 06:36:11 pmOK, the US had segregation in the 1962. Except when it came to getting poor black ladies to clean up and cook the food for their white masters. That to me is exploitation. There is a really good movie called The Long Walk Home, which is based upon the Montgomery bus boycott of the mid 50's. It summarised the segregation but highlighted too that some wealthy white people with servants at least had the courage and humanity to stand up against the segregation and racism.We exploit the cheap labour from poor Chinese women when we buy cheap electronics made in China. We don't give them a thought as we score a bargain.

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2016, 09:48:07 am
content: Quote from: SeanB on November 25, 2016, 05:10:37 pmWhat's wrong with the middle class or higher that they are so useless?

author: jonovid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2016, 10:31:58 am
content: looks like the middle class of the USA just had it, with all the BS of political correctness.as with hollywoods feminist movies still in production, now made irrelevant,because Trump Win& so the media's political correct narrative is exposed as a lie.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2016, 10:51:45 am
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on November 26, 2016, 09:48:07 amthere are enough in Aus and NZ, so ask them.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2016, 03:30:38 pm
content: Quote from: jonovid on November 26, 2016, 10:31:58 amPlease add a trigger warning to your post. I feel unsafe here.

author: tronde
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 26, 2016, 06:03:43 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on November 26, 2016, 09:48:07 amhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_consumptionhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspicuous_leisure

author: VK3DRB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 12:09:30 am
content: Quote from: tronde on November 26, 2016, 06:03:43 pmIn China, what we call conspicuous consumption they call "saving face". When they immigrate to Australia, some do not realise in our culture it is considered bad taste. In France and Sweden, flaunting wealth publicly is also considered crass. In contrast, in the UK and the US, I think flaunting wealth is considered more socially acceptable.People can do what they want with their loot, but I would not want to be married to a woman who has to have that Louis Vuitton Clutch bag at $34,000 that serves no purpose but just to show off. A $34,000 oscillscope would be much better value!.

author: jonovid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 12:52:12 am
content: Quotetheir is nothing to stop a Woman becoming a managing director in a electronics related company.She would not need Hollywood or the US media to do that.

author: julian1
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 04:45:53 am
content: Quote from: jonovid on November 27, 2016, 12:52:12 amCarly Fiorina at HP for instance. I'm surprised hollywood hasn't made a movie..

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 04:57:48 am
content: Quote from: julian1 on November 27, 2016, 04:45:53 amShe is conservative, doesn't fit the Hollywood narrative.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 01:52:21 pm
content: Quote from: VK3DRB on November 27, 2016, 12:09:30 amNot in the UK. Very, very definitely frowned on. You've only got to look at English idioms to see that. It's partly why the truly rich British dress so badly except for very formal occasions. We don't mind quiet understated wealth; but "showing off" - especially when it involves money - is a cardinal sin in the UK.Don't forget that the British way of disapproval is very understated too. On seeing a brash display of wealth an Englishman might say "That's more than a bit off" and it could convey as much disapproval as a half dozen swearword laden sentences from an Aussie.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 01:59:35 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on November 27, 2016, 01:52:21 pmThe validity of what you said depends a lot on the circles you move in.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 02:14:06 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on November 27, 2016, 01:59:35 pmI don't think it does actually. Over the years I've rubbed shoulders with people all the way from hereditary peers from the House of Lords (i.e. proper aristocracy) to the poorest working class folks and I'd say the attitude was pretty much universal.

author: coppice
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 02:17:57 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on November 27, 2016, 02:14:06 pmTry rubbing shoulders with some City of London types, and see if that adjusts your opinion.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 03:10:07 pm
content: In the old days Rolls Royce never advertised engine power, displacement or type, they just described it as "adequate". The older ones were a masterpiece of understatement, and were designed to be as quiet and as smooth as possible, but capable of a good turn of speed when needed, but still smoothly. Not quite the same these days though, but they are still a status symbol, unlike the more "brash" sports cars.But they are difficult to work on, and spares required a call to Crewe, and a list including chassis number, so they knew which parts to send you. Those special 3 pin interior lamps as well, I did some work, using the old base and some donor bulbs along with some cement to provide the strength, and the older models still used DCC wire inside the looms.But you could not tell the engine was running unless you looked at the fan at the front to see it was turning. That is engineering and attention to perfect balancing. Was not called a Silver Ghost for nothing. My dad loved them, just from the detail and the workmanship, plus you could go 300km on an untarred road without getting dust all over the interior, and not feeling every rut in the road and every corrugation.

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 03:10:26 pm
content: Quote from: coppice on November 27, 2016, 02:17:57 pmNo, those are the type everybody else disapproves of. I had an office in Cannon Street for about three years, there was quite an art to finding a pub that wasn't full of loud mouthed yobbos in expensive but ill fitting suits swilling over priced lager or champagne.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 06:06:54 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on November 27, 2016, 01:52:21 pmLet me guess, these drivers are American tourists:

author: Cerebus
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 06:43:38 pm
content: Quote from: zapta on November 27, 2016, 06:06:54 pmYup, definitely. It's the first thing American Conservatives do when they get here along with wearing loud shirts, talking too loudly in public, telling us they saved our arses in the 2nd World War and waving large handfuls of Benjamins around.Don't be stupid. Exceptions do not make the rule. There has to be a minority behaving in a particular way for the majority to have cause to have become disapproving. Anyway, odds on that most of those cars are owned by Russians, if you want to see tasteless conspicuous consumption in London, look for rich ex-pat Russians.

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2016, 08:36:48 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on November 27, 2016, 06:43:38 pmYes, exceptions. Here is one more exception with plenty of bling.

author: timb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 28, 2016, 12:52:36 am
content: Quote from: SeanB on November 27, 2016, 03:10:07 pmI always found it interesting that modern Rolls-Royce cars have a button designed to lower the hood ornament (The Spirit of Ecstasy) into the hood. Apparently it was very common for people to steal the ornament from parked vehicles! Can you imagine having the solid 24k Gold (or even the diamond encrusted) version and having it stolen? That'd suck...I also heard the hood ornament has her own personal "safety" system; if it receives an impact from any direction it's automatically pulled down into the hood compartment via a spring loaded mechanism. Apparently it's to prevent someone from being impaled if hit by the car.Doesn't Rolls-Royce also have the option of producing the interior wood trim from a tree on your own property? For an extra fee they'll come and collect a tree (or trees) from your property, process it and turn it into the interior trim. That's luxury! (Or is that Bentley or someone else who does that? I'm pretty sure it's Rolls.)Quote from: zapta on November 27, 2016, 06:06:54 pmNotice how they're all from Dubai or the UAE... You literally have to be an Oil Barron to afford the gas on those V8 and V12s!

author: CraigHB
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: November 28, 2016, 04:27:29 pm
content: Quote from: Cerebus on November 27, 2016, 06:43:38 pmI'm not a conservative, but I do like my loud shirts

author: zapta
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 28, 2016, 05:52:23 pm
content: Quote from: timb on November 28, 2016, 12:52:36 amI didn't know that palm trees are that useful for car trims.There is a RR dealership down the street here but I never paid much attention to it. The Lamborghinis are much more exciting.

author: SeanB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 28, 2016, 06:21:55 pm
content: Quote from: zapta on November 28, 2016, 05:52:23 pmThey would always keep the remainder of the log that produced the original trim in case you needed a replacement interior part, which they then would make out of that log of veneer, so that the new part would match both colour wise and grain wise, so there would be no difference in the panels. Leather as well, they would keep a swatch of the original leather as cured, so when you ordered a new set of seat covers a decade or three later they would be able to match it from the incoming blemish free ( the cows they used had to live on farms where there was no barbed wire or thorn hedges, so the hides were flawless, a single blemish and they tossed the hide to another leather user, only perfect hides here) hides, and use the original patterns to cut them out and sew them together for you.Using your own wood from your holdings would not be a stretch, as they would make the interior in any wood that was close grained, hard wearing and workable. Do not think they ever used ironwood, as that you probably will want to cut using carbide tooling, as it is as dense as steel.They used to make the knobs out of ivory as well, either elephant, whale or hippo, on request.