Trumpy,

Things have changed a lot since those days. There are *very* few people who don't shower at least once daily thesedays. Attitudes to that kind of thing are similar to those in the US/Canada etc. You may have just met a smelly guy [Linked Image] The climate probabally had something to do with it. It's a bit like living in a very well air conditioned building at all times.

But, in the past thing definitely were different. You have to remember too that pre WWII showering wasn't too common anywhere in the world until a considerable way into the 20th century. Western Europe's development was very badly held up by WWI and more particularly, WWII which pretty much obliterated the entire European consumer economy. Manufacturing capacity was entirely focused on war supplies and a lot of the industrial base was destroyed by bombing on both sides. The electrical infrastructure, particularly in contenental europe was largely wiped out too. It took a couple of decades for things to return to normal and catch back up. So, you start seeing major improvements in standards of living in the post-war boom period which, for Europe, was in the 1960s, not the 1950s.

While the US, Canada and probabaly Australia and NZ were having fairly prosperous 1950s Europeans were generally still just putting the place back together.

Bare in mind the UK had food rationing from 1940 until 1954 !
Clothing was rationed - as there was nothing but very basic fabrics.
Furnature sales were restricted to only newly weds, new homes and those who had been "bombed out".
Petrol (gasoline) was rationed so severely that people simply stopped buying cars and many were put into storage for the duration of the period.
Fuel for heating was also seriously limited.

While the Republic of Ireland had declared itself neutral, largely to avoid being bombed/invaded, during WWII it also pretty much had no ability to import/export during the period so rationing applied here too. In some cases far more severely as we didn't have the manufacturing base to survive without imports. E.g. there was a period when there was almost no coal, oil or gas. The railways had to re-instate modified 1920s steam locomotives buring dried turf. ESB had to look at generation of power from turf and to squeeze what it could out of hydro. Delivery of goods went from diesel trucks back to horse and cart!

I'm not 100% sure of the details of what happened in continental in the aftermath of WWII, but if anything it was a lot more extreme than the situation on the British isles.

In general that period did hold up european consumer society for a considerable period of time. Some places recovered more quickly than others too.

If it hadn't been for aid from the US and Canada in the form of major loans and the establishment of the forerunners of the European union which pooled resources and focused developement on the continent. There was a serious risk that Europe could have spiraled into a total mess. Although, there was a major industrial, financial and technological base to build upon. It was just a matter of picking up the pieces.

As for the water chemistry, it varies substantially from area to area. The water in Ireland is generally soft to very soft with a few exceptions where there's a lot of limestone (however it may be artificially softened during the treatment programme to prevent pipe damage.)

I know there are certain parts of England where, due to the prevailance of limestone (they don't have the white cliffs of dover for nothing) you end up with extremely hard water which can cause big problems for heating systems, kettles etc.

I think in general it reduces the lifespan of electric showers fairly drastically. They just clog up within a few years of operation.



[This message has been edited by djk (edited 01-07-2007).]