Is This A Wind-up?

[MusingMuso]

"Yak may safely graze", to get this minimally back on topic.........

 

  Barry

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Well, actually Barry, we never left the original topic, because it's about pulling the wool over people's eyes; or at the very least, pullovers.

 

llamas may seem like incredibly boring animals, which of course they are, but significantly, they are related to the Alpaca. By a strange co-incidence, at least one large pipe-organ was funded from the proceeds of manufacturing mohair, which I believe comes from Alpaca wool. Even stranger, is the fact that the same source of wealth, Mohair, also funded the Victoria Hall, Saltaire, (named after Sir Titus Salt) which now houses the Reed Organ Museum, operated by Pam and Phil Fluke.

 

Unfortunately, all three animals (the llama, alpaca and the yak) spit and smell horrible, but they have talent, unlike the man who built the organ funded by the manufacture of mohair. They climb mountains, act as transport and can be eaten in moments of desperation.

 

The Llama was, of course, the inspiration behind the "pushmepullyou" in Dr.Doolittle, which lends the animal certain literary credentials, even if the animal didn't know from whence it came or to where it was headed. (It must be a natural academic).

 

There are other connections in the musical world, such as the fact that Michael Jackson owned a llama by the name of "Billie Jean."

 

Then there is, of course, the very wise and learned the Dalai Llama, who wears splendid gowns in bright colours, just like the "graduates" of the RBSO.

 

Furthermore, the Alpaca is incredibly ugly; like a cross between a sheep, a camel, and a fluffy goat: the same cross-bred ugliness very apparent in the Saltaire pipe-organ at the URC.

 

I hope that Barry doesn't think that we move AWAY from topics. We simply use our academic minds in the most obtuse ways, and like the Yak, the Alpaca and the Llamas of this world, we can usually make it back home without being guided.

 

Now.....what was the original subject?

 

MM

[pcnd5584]

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Well, actually Barry, we never left the original topic, because it's about pulling the wool over people's eyes; or at the very least, pullovers.

 

llamas may seem like incredibly boring animals, which of course they are, but significantly, they are related to the Alpaca. By a strange co-incidence, at least one large pipe-organ was funded from the proceeds of manufacturing mohair, which I believe comes from Alpaca wool. Even stranger, is the fact that the same source of wealth, Mohair, also funded the Victoria Hall, Saltaire, (named after Sir Titus Salt) which now houses the Reed Organ Museum, operated by Pam and Phil Fluke.

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God - how do you know this stuff, MM? Do you have a thick book containing a veritable mine of information, all cross-referenced and indexed?

 

Unfortunately, all three animals (the llama, alpaca and the yak) spit and smell horrible...

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Sounds like our choristers.

 

... but they have talent, unlike the man who built the organ funded by the manufacture of mohair. They climb mountains, act as transport and can be eaten in moments of desperation.

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Nope - it still sounds like our choristers.

 

 

There are other connections in the musical world, such as the fact that Michael Jackson owned a llama by the name of "Billie Jean."

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... and a monkey named 'Bubbles' - but that is another story.

 

Incidentally, I see that he has recently released a new single, entitled Do let your son go down on me.

 

Furthermore, the Alpaca is incredibly ugly; like a cross between a sheep, a camel, and a fluffy goat: the same cross-bred ugliness very apparent in the Saltaire pipe-organ at the URC.

 

MM

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Sheep - ugly?! But no!

 

Sheep are beautiful, cute and cuddly....

 

Having said that, a cross between a sheep, a camel and a fluffy goat* does not sound that cute.

 

 

 

* Just how fluffy are we talking here, MM?

[MusingMuso]

God - how do you know this stuff, MM?  Do you have a thick book containing a veritable mine of information, all cross-referenced and indexed?

Sounds like our choristers.

Nope - it still sounds like our choristers.

... and a monkey named 'Bubbles' - but that is another story.

 

Incidentally, I see that he has recently released a new single, entitled Do let your son go down on me.

Sheep - ugly?!  But no!

 

Sheep are beautiful, cute and cuddly....

 

Having said that, a cross between a sheep, a camel and a fluffy goat* does not sound that cute.

* Just how fluffy are we talking here, MM?

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I know more.......I "kid" you not.

 

The Jaquard Loom, invented I think just before 1800 or so (patented I believe in 1801 or 2), is regarded as the perfect piece of machinery. This was the device which made mass-production of patterned carpets, and other woollen materials, possible.

 

The Jaquard Loom uses the punch-card mechanism which raises and lowers the different colours of weft; thus making a repeating pattern in the material, as the weft is woven into the warp.

 

At this point, Barry is possibly wondering where all this is going, but we are still on track, I can assure him.....stay with us Barry.

 

It was the self-same punch-card mechanism from which the automated player-organs, operated by pneumatic-action (using SHEEP leather), derived, but in place of mechanical (tracker-action) pins, a pneumatic key-frame was installed, which then operated the pneumatic relays and motors of the ventil chests in fair and dance organs made by such as Mortier and Gavioli in France, Italy and the Low Countries.

 

Thus, we have a direct link between textiles, mohair, wool, sheep, alpaca and pipe organs.....but then some more....because the Jaquard Loom was also the first example of a linear programme, which gave rise to the punch-tape controlled machinery of the 1950's....the forerunners of digital computerisation as we know it to-day.

 

Ironically, the great Charles Babbage absolutely hated street organs and pianos, to the extent that he, and Mr Bass, (the brewer) raised the matter in parliament, and had buskers removed from the streets. No soooner had computers been made electronically rather than using tracker-action (as was the curious, but incomplete "Difference Engine" designed by Charles Babbage; now in the Science Museum, Kensington)) they were immediately designed into micro-chips, as first invented and used by Allen Organs via the US military research labs.

 

I do hope Barry is following this protracted "thread"......

 

Now, "pcnd" claims that sheep are beautiful, cute and cuddly.

 

Not a bit of it!

 

Sheep are potential killers in fluffy disguise. I know from bitter experience never to mess with sheep. Only last year, rescued a lamb from a wire-fence, which would have been fine, but for its' brother, who saw me as the enemy. Like a ball of wool flying off my mother's lap when she realised she was about to burn a cake, this courageous little beast attacked with all the venim and intent of a King Cobra; smiting me in the hip at about 60mph and knocking me off my feet, down a steep grass bank and onto the road far below; having somehow somersaulted over a dry stone wall backwards and upside down.

 

Nasty little beasts!

 

Now the Alpaca may be ugly, but it has a unique hair-style, only otherwise seen in a certain city of England, somewhere in the North West, which may or may not be connected with "Titanic" and a certain young lady by the name of "Eleanor Rigby."

 

Say what you will, but I'M SURE I've seen this hairstyle in a cathedral organ-loft.

 

http://www.fotosearch.com/DSN004/1766731/

 

http://www.stuarthowatson.co.uk/IT/index.html

 

 

 

MM

 

 

PS: In the next instalment, we will consider the cam-brake mechanism of the huge mill cotton-drums which weighed over a ton, but which could be speeded-up or slowed by a single cotton-thread without it breaking, and designed by a certain Mr Bill Bradley, who also very cleverly invented a two-wheel-drive motorcycle!

 

PPS: What are books?

[Vox Humana]

I used to know a girl called Yak - not inappropriately as it happened. She used to spell it backwards though.