Slightly off-topic but funny, none the less.
During my electrical apprenticeship, I got sent way out in the sticks to fix the oven in a shearing shed.
I made sure I had plenty of Simmer-stats and high-temperature wire with me.
When I got there, I almost did a double-take, what I was met with, was something that Noah may have used to cook on the Ark.
This oven was a very elderly storage range, with two hot-plates on top, made of cast iron, with concrete as the insulation in it, these things used to have to have a concrete pad poured under them because of their weight, these things weighed a tonne.
Anyhow, I managed to get the thing going, it was run off the Night-rate and heated up over night and would remain hot enough to cook on all day, provided you kept the huge covers on the hot-plates on the top.
One added bonus of these ovens, is that due to their design, they used to heat the room they were in as well.
I happened to be relating my travels to the Senior Inspector at work, when a huge grin ran across his face.
He told me that when he first started his time, the new electric ranges (as we know them now) were being installed in houses and the older storage ranges were being taken out and thrown away at the local tip.
One particular day, this guy and the electrician he was working with, were taking this storage range to the tip in the back of a mid 1960's Ford Escort van (Paul, can you help with a pic of this vehicle?), they made it to the last corner heading up to the tip when the electrician took the corner too sharply and the right side tyres blew and the vehicle tipped over on it's side, caused by the oven falling over in the back, no-one was hurt but I'm told it was rather hard to get the van back on it's wheels again!
