I just LOVED reading this Jane! It reminds me of my Granny (SHE claimed it was her from Scottish side more than her English one), and how being practical, resourceful and persevering will suddenly become virtuous again in the world we presently live in! (I am also DELIGHTING in the stories of how everyone came to bobbin lace!) Best,Susan Reishus(Jean's post below:) Date: Sat, 23 May 2009 08:17:08 +0100 From: "Jean Nathan" <j...@nathan54.freeserve.co.uk> Subject: [lace] obsolete technology
Donlt know if this is possible in this case, but when I was teaching typing man years ago and the school got electronic typewriters, the cost of the ribbon cartridges became more than the budget allowed for them. So I pushed a pencil with flat sides (hexagonal or octaconal proably) into the hole with "spikes" on the underside of the ribbon cartridge that wound the ribbon on when in the machine. There was a small catch which stopped the ribbon rewinding, and by pushing this so that it released the ribbon I was able to rotate the pencil and rewind the ribbon. Admittedly they were carbon ribbons and not thermal, but as there were what I considered to be large gaps between the letters on the ribbon, I rewound then at least twice for students to use in normal classes - they got a new one for exams. I then found a source of bulk ribbon of the correct width, and found a way of removing the cover from the cartridge - wasted a couple in finding out how to do it without breaking anything, and replaced the three-times used ribbons by refilling the empty cartridge with a new length of ribbon from the bulk reel. Jean in Poole, Dorset, UK - To unsubscribe send email to majord...@arachne.com containing the line: unsubscribe lace y...@address.here. For help, write to arachnemodera...@yahoo.com
