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Hot water bottles

rosie

rosie

brummie
When I was a child my hot water bottle was made of brown "crock" as we called it. My brother had a larger one and I still have both of them although they haven't been used for sixty years at least! We also had a rubber one in the shape of a dog, rather like a soft toy but with no stuffing. I didn't like the crock one after it had gone cold and I was frightened in case I knocked it out of bed.
rosie.
 
i had a rubber hot watter bottle. one night i got in bed and ooo the bed was soaked. the dachshund had chewed it to bits.
 
Could be worse Pete. My mother had an aluminium one (sounds silly I know). She went to sleep with it close to her chest and woke up with a painful burnt chest.
 
I've seen all three in my time, but I always termed the metal ones as dangerous. The crock ones were OK to warm the bed up an hour before you got in and then stand it on the floor. Rubber ones had that peculiar smell. On the whole you can't beat an electric blanket.

Maurice :cool:
 
mikejee said:
Could be worse Pete. My mother had an aluminium one (sounds silly I know). She went to sleep with it close to her chest and woke up with a painful burnt chest.
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we had one they were dangerous with out a sock on them. as that comic said "too risky"
 
I am sure they made an electric hot water bottle once. Made from Bakelite it had a plug socket on the neck where the stopper would normally go.
 
During the war, I imagine that pre-war rubber hot water bottles would not have lasted for the duration. And supplies of new ones would have been non-existent. For that reason my childhood recollection is entirely of crock bottles. Sometimes one of those made especially for the purpose with a large diameter screw cap halfway down their length. And sometimes, in our house, one of the crock bottles which the ginger beer came in. “Stone’s Ginger Beer” I think it was called. They worked very well but still didn’t prevent regular chilblains.

Always wanted to see in use the copper warming pan which hung on the wall as an ornament. But that was never resorted to.

Chris
 
I was talking to an elderly lady once who said they used to put a house brick in the oven then wrap it in a towel.
 
mw0njm. said:
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(Blimey!)

That sparks a memory of an immediately postwar device which was essentially a metal box with a electric light bulb in it. I think we had one but I never saw the benefit of it as far as I remember. Might have been regarded as too risky for a child.

And certainly wouldn’t have wanted one of those electric hot water bottles. Electricity + water + my precious person? No thanks....

Chris
 
mw0njm. said:
my nan did she never had hot water bottles
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I think I experienced that, too. Quite logical really – more mass in a brick than an equivalent volume of water and therefore should absorb more heat – and let it out for a longer period. Principle of the storage heater, I suppose.

As I recall it, okay provided you didn’t let it get unwrapped.

Chris
 
ChrisM said:
(Blimey!)

That sparks a memory of an immediately postwar device which was essentially a metal box with a electric light bulb in it. I think we had one but I never saw the benefit of it as far as I remember. Might have been regarded as too risky for a child.

And certainly wouldn’t have wanted one of those electric hot water bottles. Electricity + water + my precious person? No thanks....

Chris
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i was thinking that Chris. anything goes wrong with the thermost.and you have a bomb in bed with you.
i remember the box with a bulb. waste of time.
 
Some of you guys were lucky. When we were kids mom used to get the steel plates out of the oven of the 'black lead grate' and put those in our beds, or sometimes had a brick warming up in the oven and wrap it in cloth before putting it in our beds. Just prior to the war my brother and I were bought hot water bottles in the shape of a teddy bear. It was brown crock with white ears. I still have mine. No I don't use it! Use my wife instead
 
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