On Mon, 22 Apr 2013 09:01:06 +0100
yttiw wrote:

I have vague memories of a rather noisy device slowly turning out
soggy charts which had to be hung out to dry when I worked at a
certain establishment near High Wycombe in the 70's. Was this one
of the machines you guys are referring to?

Yes, those are the ones. However, the technology improved a little
over the years and the old wet (and highly inflammable) paper was
replaced by a more stable substance which was much less likely to
catch fire on contact in the bin with a discarded cigarette end.

When I started work at Wyton, a cupboard under the forecasters' bench
was used as storage for old Mufax charts. The first time I accessed the
cupboard, I noticed that I'd got some wet paint on my hand. I mentioned
this to someone else on duty and asked when it had been painted and was
told it had been done a couple of years before. Apparently, the Mufax
chemicals prevented the paint from drying.

The inner cores of the rolls came in useful at times. In the 62-3
winter, a couple were used as supports for the grass minimum
thermometer. V-shaped slots were cut in the end of each tube and then
they were stuck in the snow in the enclosure.

Another use for the cores was as bean-poles. The end of a core was
warmed over a flame for a while until it became softer and could be
widened so another core could be inserted into it. Eventually, you
had a collection of rot-proof bean-poles.

--
Graham P Davis, Bracknell, Berks.
Free office softwa http://www.libreoffice.org/
Carlos Seixas, Sonata nº 1 - best version of this I've found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXox7vonfEg