openspaceman

And you could extract the logs too

This one I haven't used much, the only significant thing I can say I did with it was when we had a complaint one of the ponds had blood in it. Sure enough the red stain showed up as little red singular bodies but I searched a bit and decided it was Haematococcus pluviali which is common in bird baths and probably got transported on birds' feet. So in the main I have just used them at home to show the kids things like hairs, insect wings and antennae etc. I had intended to look at pollen spores but fungi may be interesting too, just a matter of getting round tuit.

Sorry, no sense of humour, too far up the A spectrum

This one came from the chemistry (life sciences) department when they went over to some fancy digital thing. Yes it is a bit limiting for ease of use but I don't use one hardly ever now. What impressed me most with the digital offerings was the software that allowed stacking of images, focussed on different depths of the object, so that the whole cross-section of something like Spirogyra can seem all to be in focus.

Looks easier to use than mine but I bet it's nowhere near the mass

Nice, perhaps I should cash one of mine in and buy some bitcoins Thanks

Are the prices realised available anywhere?

It's an interesting one, it certainly works with apples but I thought one of the reasons the water content of logs went down in winter was to concentrate salts and sugars in the sap which the act like antifreeze. Are the cells damaged in softwoods that survive temperatures down to minus 40C?

Yes water in the wood will boil off just as soon as the water vapour pressure in the wood exceeds atmospheric pressure, that's all boiling is. One reason a microwave works so fast is that the energy is delivered directly into the molecules of water in the wood so they heat up and vaporise. With the conventional oven you have to first heat the air and this then delivers heat to the outside of the log. The wood then conducts that heat into the log, First the surface layers dry out and finally the heat gets into the middle. Also as you approach 100C the capillary attraction water has for the vessels in the wood drops to zero. So soaking a log in an oven set to 120C for 24 hours dries it from the outside in as long as it isn't too large, the maximum size would be dictated by the ratio of rate heat could be delivered to the surface to the rate the heat can be conducted through the wood (damned if I can remember the name of the coefficient). Once you exceed 120C at any part of the wood it first gives off Volatile Organic Compounds and from about 330C the wood breaks down, trouble is the nascent char formed ignites at around 200C in the presence of air so it generally behoves one to stay under 120C as otherwise hot spots inevitably develop. Most kilns work by heating air to increase its water holding capacity, this low relative humidity warm air both delivers heat to the wood to increase the vapour pressure of the water in it and absorbs the moisture as it reaches the surface. An ideal dryer warms ambient air, passes it over the logs and vents it at ambient temperature and fully saturated, in practice this is unattainable so a good drier delivers about twice as much heat as is necessary to vaporise the moisture removed.

In fact raise it's temperature to 90C for a few minutes and that sterilizes the soil.

Except they charge the soil at the inert rate and estimate the putrescible content and charge the full rate on that bit, often only 2% of the whole.

I'll retract that, today the BBC reported they had been reprieved but they were attack dogs.. I feel the few that replied have missed my point that even if they are too aggressive to be re-homed then another option should be found for their few remaining years.

Yes I had it on board from the outset that there was almost certainly a good reason they couldn't be rehomed to a domestic situation and to keep them in an institution would cost money but it's more to do with the compact between man and other animal. I see WRAC patrolling the local barracks with dogs in between the perimeter fences and I don't want a dog like that to accompany me on my walks. If service dogs can be awarded medals for heroism then lesser dogs should be able to live out their days, even though I know many dogs end up being killed before their time. In the case in point I believe they were used to locate IEDs rather than being attack dogs.

Would any of our ex services readers like to comment on the petition to save these ex services (2 army one police) dogs being euthanased because they are unsuitable for adoption post retirement? I can understand them not being suitable as domestic pets and having a cost to keep but it seems an unfair end after faithful service.

I hadn't realised such 'phones existed, it does away with the need to have a separate box for the picocell. So a 4G router with an external aerial would replace a landline and poor adsl. In practice here near Crediton we do seem to need to reboot the router about once a day but otherwise two of us have good broadband service simultaneously wheras the adsl would fail with two people online and windows 10 pc could not update itself.

Yes. I completed all the online form but failed to send photos of documents they asked for. Received notice the account would be closed so transferred any balance to another account. I presented myself with my documents to the local branch to close my savings account but was told my account had now been re approved

My brother gets 30MB/sec download on 4G and you actually need very little for voice, maybe only 100kB/sec so you could use EE Voice Over Internet Protocol inside the house depending who your cellphone contract is with. I am being sent a 1800MHz amplifier as used in the old car kits and shall report how that works.

No the antenna can feed a car kit because they have an aerial connection and cellphones don't seem to.

It's fairly simple, the external antenna has gain, about 8 decibels which sort of means it delivers over twice as much signal to the device it is plugged in to, it comes with 2 x 5 metre coax leads which a 4g router can use but if you have a car kit in the house where it can plug in and you connect the cellphone to the car kit. The antenna will need to be mounted outside and high but within 5m of where you plug the cellphone in

I had a similar problem at my brother's, between Tiverton and Crediton in Wickamula's bailiwick. His broadband was crap too so I took a 4g router and external aerial to him and data works fine. http://www.4grouter.co.uk/4G/Fullband--FBXPMIMO-8dBi-peak-gain---Cross-Polarised-Outdoor-4G-MiMo-Antenna-for-optimum-4G-signal-reception---supplied-with-2-x-5m-long-antenna-cables.-FBXPMIMO_4G_Antenna.html#SID=6 Is the sort or aerial which I leave at an upstairs window but will move into loft this weekend, when I will get the actual details. To use voice you could use a car kit to plug the antenna to

That's right it is fairly light and uninspiring as a firewood but its main attribute is that it doesn't rot or get affected by other bugs, so it will keep for a few years in the stack whereas birch, sycamore and ash have to be split and used the by following season

Well I'm a couple of years older than Stubby and don't consider myself much of an expert on the subject, having only worked with saws in England; in the days of ground skidding in the woods we used chisel chain on 60cc saws, at the stacking area we used semi chisel chain on an 80cc saw with a 15" bar, I consider we had good reason for this. Much the same reason sawmills got to prefer forwarded timber.

Any good? Any problems with it?

Looks like a bargain compared with the link I posted.

I can't add much to what has already been said but if there is a cold draught from the stove when you open the door this points to a circulation in the house. The house is warmer than outside so that warm air from the house is rising and getting out somewhere, this has to be replaced so the cold slug of air in the chimney moves into the house, similar to the way they used to ventilate mines. I have seen this before with a new installation AGA in a large victorian that wouldn't draw, in that case the AGA was removed as they considered it unsafe, but the reason was that the AGA was a lifestyle desirable but the house was owned by a well to do family who had full central heating and maintained all rooms at 20+C and there was a large open fireplace a fair distance from the kitchen. Thus air from the house was leaking upstairs as well as up the lounge chimney so the AGA flue was the way the air got in to replace it. A hair dryer may work but if you want something a bit more powerful and light the logs http://woodpelletfuel.co.uk/leister-wood-chip--pellet-boiler-igniters-75-c.asp Never seen this make but it looks similar to the one I have on my woodchip stoker.