• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Items that have faded away

Status
Not open for further replies.
Aztec choclate bars.
Black-Jack ointment
&
Double Diamond
all now gone

You can still get Blackjack, its 'official' name is Ichthamol Ointment, try googling it and you come up with adverts for Zam Buk as well, which I never heard of before.

Bought some of what i thought was Wrights Coal Tar soap recently, but when I read the lable propely it said 'Coal Tar aroma'. Bit tooo smelly for the missus - who made it disappear within hours.
 
I have thought of something that I think very few will remember "Horlicks Tablets" I used to love to put them in my mouth and suck them till they disappeared. Dek
 
Rosie one of the hair lacquers in a tube was called Miners. Does sanitan (I think thats what its called) still exists which you used to put in a bucket and fill it with water to drop soiled nappies into.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
H Dek: I remember tins of Horlicks Tablets. I first bought them when the Co-op Grocery shop went self serve on Stockland Green in the mid 1950's. Haven't heard of them for years.
 
I have thought of something that I think very few will remember "Horlicks Tablets" I used to love to put them in my mouth and suck them till they disappeared. Dek
When i was an 11yr old, i bought Horlicks tablets during WW2 to make up for lack of rationed sweets, i have never understood how they still sold them in our local chemists when you could not get jars of Horlicks. Len.
 
Don't think OMO washing powder is around now.

OMO is still about Wend------

"Omo, Unilever’s international-brand washing powder
Omo is a blue detergent powder launched in 1954, and became the Unilever spearhead in the synthetic detergent market. New Blue Star Omo was introduced at the end of March 1963. Today, Unilever is aggressively promoting Omo all over Asia and Africa, packaged in quantities down to 35 gram. Unilever’s brands Persil, Omo and Skip (other Unilever brands include the pre-war brand Sunlight, Sun, Vim and Surf) are engaged in fierce competition with Procter & Gamble's washing powder brands for pole position in just about every world market.

P&G was the first to use one brand name for its leading detergent (Tide) in some countries and another brand name, with a different package (Ariel) in the others. Unilever copied this policy. The company markets Surf in many countries and Omo in the remainder. The products are almost identical. But the packages are dissimilar enough that retailers stock Surf in the same section with Omo, often at the same price, so consumers must believe they are different products"
 
The most ambitious advertising campaign ever attempted in the UK aimed at British children in 1956 in advance of the film. The product that came and went...... The Davy Crocket hat.
 
Thanks Lencops.

Whatever happened to Parkinson's gas stoves ?

Remember the screw top pòp bottle with the orange coloured washer.

Parkinsons became Parkinson Cowan and the site they were on is now the retail park in Stetchford and Parkinson Cowan I believe were swallowed up by Valor Heating. Pop bottle with screw top and orange washer was Mason's pop.
 
The most ambitious advertising campaign ever attempted in the UK aimed at British children in 1956 in advance of the film. The product that came and went...... The Davy Crocket hat.


I saw a character wearing one of those hats at the Bromyard Folk Festival this year. Just why I do not know but some weird types roll up every year.
 
Mmmmmmmmmmm. Horlicks Tablets!
I remember wondering why they needed quite so much packaging. First the tin itself - which I think was sealed firmly round the middle with either green or blue sticky tape. Once you had got it open, you were faced with two long paper-wrapped rectangles each containing about 10 individually-wrapped rectangular tablets. Plus there were always a couple of extra wrapped tablets at one end, *outside* the wrapped rectangles. I never understood why.
But they were good....

Later, you could buy them as round tablets wrapped in a paper tube.

Haven't seen them for years though.

Angela
 
There was a superb collection of "packaging" ar Gloucester Docks, now unfortunately no longer there. I believe it was the "Robert Opie" collection and consisted of all sorts of once common household products, some of which I rememebr well others that I have never heard of but all fascinating and excellent ways of jogging ones memory.

Changing the subject slightly, does anyone remember Currys when they retailed items other than electrical ones? Im sure a neighbour had a Currys bike, probably made for Currys rather than by them.
 
Remember the" Rolls Razor Co" ? an interesting excercise in manufacturing and retailing thus cutting the middle man out, it seemed to work for a while but eventually collpased. They made several different types of domestic electrical appliance. the name John Bloom has sprung to mind, I believe he started the company.
 
Last edited:
Wireless Names.
Radio, or rather wireless, was the thing in the 50s. Remember Radio Rentals radios?
Every home had a Mullard, Ferranti, Goblin, Ultra, Ferguson or GEC . Bush is still alive, but probably made in China now.

Bill mentions Rolls Razor. Very simple technology. We had a Rolls washing machine and all parts were easily replaceable. John Bloom was the boom to bust owner.
 
I remember theose radio makers. Mullard were probably better known for their valves and other components. Im no expert on these "thermionic devices" but as I understand it the electon flow had to be excited by the built in heaters that eventually failed resulting in a "dead un"

I can remember a large table radio back in the early 50s that we had, it was made by a company called "Pilot" unless that was just the model name but it had a tuning aid that Im sure many here will recall, refered to as a "magic eye". In the case of this "Pilot" it was a valve bounted I think in front od the speaker that only started to glow when the signal strength was sufficcient so it effectivly indicated when one should stop "twiddling"

The wooden case was of the 30s art deco style and I would imagine that was the time it was built, with a shortwave band the makers went to great troulbe to mark all the many contries that could be picked up, for some reason the one I remember was "Hilvasum" althought I dont think it was spelled like that.

https://www.bvwm.org.uk/tour/photos1.htm
 
Thanks Bill.
I certainly do remember the magic eye. On the wireless, the small knob was for finding the station, and the big knob was for fine tuning.
In the late 50s and into the 60s, I used to listen to Radio Hilversum, Moscow, Deutsche Welle, American Forces Network, etc, on my short wave radio - a heavy-duty steel job, which was used in tanks! An RCA Victor - army surplus, for which an electronics-savvy mate made a step-down transformer. Make do and mend times.
The aerial ran from my bedroom to the end of the garden! The world was my oyster in Smethwick!

Found this site about wireless models through the years. Marvellous.........

https://www.thevalvepage.com/radios/rad1940.htm
 
We had a portable, battery radio, a VIDOR, which was about the size of a small suitcase and very heavy. We spent rainy nights in our B&B on holiday in Weston listening to Luxembourg fading in and out.

What became of the Test Card (and I don't mean the cricket scores !)
 
Christopher Iceland do Jubly's but can't get them in coke flavour at the moment. I think Iodine or something the same colour is used in hospitals abroad?. My mom used to love the chocolate whirl with a wall nut on top. One of my twins bought her one on the way home from school and had ate half of it before he gave it to her. Jean.
 
I remember my Gran had a Cossor Wirless. I have looked all around be can not find it.
Powered by HT Battery, Grid Vice Battery and Glass Accumalator.

I had an Eveready Sky Leader in late 1957 very much like the Sky Master which came out later in 1963.
 
Does anyone remember the Hoover 'constellation' vacuum cleaner? It was shaped like a flying saucer, and moved on a cushion of air.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top