Hurricane Bawbag

Born and bred in Scotland I was proud to see my fellow country men & women flippantly stick their two fingers up at the hurricane force winds that battered Scotland on the 8th December 2011. Winds reaching 80 mph in populated areas and 165 mph at the top of the Cairngorm mountains ripped through Scotland for about 14 Hours, but it was the sense of humour of the Scottish people that went through the Internet’s Social Media networks like a storm.

The Met Office released a red alert weather warning on the 7th December the first ever to be issued for wind in the United Kingdom

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On the 8th of December whilst Scotland was being battered with the now known Cyclone Friedhelm, on the social network Twitter a little known person from Scotland wrote this:

“#scotstorm should be renamed “Hurricane Bawbag”.. #HurricaneBawbag is on the way folks be prepared !!”

Mel's Original Tweet

Her name was Mel Fraser, little did she know what she had just started. Within 1-2 hours the Twitter hash tag #HurricaneBawbag was trending and was top of the Worldwide Trend list. Its was so popular that Wikipedia had made a page about Hurricane Bawbag

The word Bawbag is a Scottish slang word for a man’s scrotum, the sack that holds the testicles. But in Scotland it’s a word that is used to:

Insult People: “Your a fucking bawbag”

Say Hello To Others: “Aw right bawbag”

Refer To Someone As An Idiot: “See that wee Jimmy, he acts like a bawbag”

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The momentum of this hash-tag #HurricaneBawbag, was fuelled with witty patter and banter from the Scottish Twitter community. Over the next 48 hrs there where thousands of tweets from around the globe all commending the attitude the Scottish people had towards mother nature, the ability to laugh and joke about ourselves is what gives Scots their unique sense of humour admired around the world.

Below is some of the most popular Tweets:

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As the day went on a guy called Conor Guichan was standing at his window video recording the Bawbags destructive force when this happend:

Conor’s video went viral across Youtube and Facebook it then got the remix treatment from the Youtube community and the Sun newspaper. He is now known as the “OMG Trampoline” guy.

Both Mel & Conor have now been all over the News networks all over the UK.

Well Done Mel & Conor.

Mel’s Twitter Page

Mel’s Original Tweet

Conor’s Facebook Page

Conor’s Original Video

Great Western Road

Known as the longest road in Glasgow Great Western Road (A82), begins in the St. Georges Cross area of central Glasgow at junctions with the M8 and the A804 and ends at the main roundabout in the Old Kilpatrick area in Dumbarton were it is renamed Dumbarton Road then Stirling Road.

As the road makes it’s way north west through the city it passes a number of the city’s finest terraces, including Alexander “Greek” Thomson’s Great Western Terrace, and Devonshire Gardens. The road runs through Kelvinside, Anniesland, Blairdardie.

The Great Western Road is around 10.7 mile long and has also been nicknamed ” The Boulevard “, all though the Great Western Road is renamed at Old Kilpatrick the A82 continues its route through Scotland.

It is the principal route from Lowland Scotland to the western Scottish Highlands, running from Glasgow to Inverness, going by Loch Lomond, Glen Coe and Fort William. It is the second longest primary A-road in Scotland after the A9, which is the other principal route to Inverness from the south of Scotland. It continues north and passes the western fringes of Rannoch Moor and through the spectacular Glen Coe. The road then crosses Loch Leven and runs along the side Loch Linnhe to Fort William. From Fort William it follows the line of the Great Glen (through which the Caledonian Canal also runs) northeast through Fort Augustus and up the western shore of Loch Ness before ending at junctions with the A9 in Inverness, a total of 167 mile.

Ross Ensign 16 – 20 Camera

Ensign

• In 1834 George Houghton joined the Frenchman Antoine Claudet to manage a glass warehouse in London, under the name Claudet & Houghton. It became George Houghton & Son in 1867, then George Houghton & Sons in 1892.

The company’s headquarters at 88/89 High Holborn were called Ensign House in 1901, and the production of the roll film brand Ensign began in 1903. The first Ensign logo was a shop sign with the letter “N” inside, and was replaced in 1911 by the name ENSIGN written inside the British marine flag.

• In 1903, the company was incorporated as George Houghton & Sons Ltd., and in March 1904 it absorbed Holmes Bros. (the maker of the Sanderson cameras), A. C. Jackson, Spratt Bros. and Joseph Levi & Co., to form Houghtons Ltd. The new company carried on the production of the smaller companies it had absorbed, and notably continued production of the Sanderson cameras until 1939.

In the early 1900s the company built a factory for the production of cameras on the Fulbourn Road in Walthamstow. In 1908 this was the biggest British camera factory.

Houghton was a renowned maker of magazine cameras like the Klito. Another characteristic product of Houghton was the Ensignette, a folding camera developed by the Swedish engineer Magnus Neill.

• In 1915, Houghtons Ltd. came into a partnership with W. Butcher & Sons Ltd, founding the joint venture Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Co., Ltd. to share the manufacturing facilities. (This agreement was essential for Butcher, which had no manufacturing plant and was mainly trading imported German cameras before the outbreak of World War I.) The two companies Houghtons and Butcher continued to trade separately, and the camera designs remained distinct.

The two trading companies finally merged on January 1st, 1926 to form Houghton-Butcher (Great-Britain) Ltd., which was renamed Ensign Ltd. in 1930. (The manufacturing company based at Walthamstow kept the name Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Co., Ltd. until 1945.) The new trading company kept many of Houghtons and Butcher’s camera ranges. In 1939 it introduced the Ensign Ful-Vue box camera, one of the most popular cameras of its time in the UK.

The headquarters of the trading company Ensign Ltd. were destroyed by an air raid on the night of September 24–5, 1940. The assets of this company were taken over by Johnson & Sons, but the trademark Ensign was kept by the manufacturing company Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which assumed the advertising and distribution of the Ensign cameras alone until 1945.

• In 1945, Houghton-Butcher Manufacturing Co., Ltd. associated with the film maker Elliott & Sons Ltd. (maker of the film brand “Barnet”) and became Barnet Ensign Ltd. In 1948 Ross and Barnet Ensign were merged to Barnet Ensign Ross Ltd., which was finally renamed Ross-Ensign Ltd. in 1954.

After World War II, the company soon abandoned the sophisticated Ensign Commando rangefinder camera and continued the range of Ensign Selfix and Ensign Autorange folding cameras, while introducing new models like the Ensign Ranger or the Snapper. Among simpler cameras, a new version of the Ensign Ful-Vue was released in 1946, which was further developed to the Ful-Vue Super and Fulvueflex pseudo-TLR..

Ross

Of Optical Works, 3 North Side, Clapham Common, London, SW4 (1922)

Ditto Address. Telephone: Battersea 3876-7. Cables: “Rossicaste, Phone, London”. (1929)

Ditto Address. Telephone: Macaulay 2472. Cables: “Rossicaste”. (1947)

• 1830 The Ross firm was founded by Andrew Ross in Wigmore Street, London.

• c1840 Ross started making lenses for cameras. The lenses were engraved A. Ross, London.

• 1858 Andrew Ross died, a year before the firm moved premises.

• After Andrew died the firm was run by his son T. R. Ross, and the lenses were engraved Ross, London.

• 1859 The firm moved to Brook Street with a sales department in New Bond Street.

• 1922 Listed Exhibitor – British Industries Fair. Manufacturers of Cinematograph Projectors, Photographic Lenses, Lenses for Aeronautical Cameras, Photographic Cameras, Prism Field Glasses, Telescopes, Sporting, Military and Naval. (Stand No. G.61d)

• 1929 Advert in British Industries Fair Catalogue as an Optical, Scientific and Photographic Exhibit. Manufacturers of Photographic Lenses, Cameras, Prism Binoculars, Field Glasses, Opera Glasses, Telescopes, Terrestrial, Astronomical, Cinematograph Projectors, Search-light Arc Lamps, Equipment, Optical Lanterns, Aeronautical, Astronomical and Nautical Instruments, Lenses, Prisms of all kinds. (Scientific Section – Stand No. O.32)

• 1937 Aero lenses, binoculars and telescopes.

• 1947 Listed Exhibitor – British Industries Fair. Manufacturers of Cinematograph Projectors, Arc Lamps, Epidiascopes, Photographic Lenses, Binoculars, Telescopes, Scientific and Optical Instruments including Autocollimating Goniometer and Optical Benches and Special Optical Systems. (Olympia, Ground Floor, Stand No. D.1692)

• 1948 Ross Ltd joined with Barnet-Ensign Ltd. to form Barnet Ensign Ross Ltd. Clearly it was hoped that with the addition of Ross’s quality lenses to their existing range of cameras, B.E.R. would become a force to be reckoned with.

• 1954 It was about then that the company changed its name again to Ross Ensign and it produced classic 50s roll film cameras, like the Selfix and Autorange, which are still popular today with many collectors.

• By 1955 Ross Ensign had moved production from Walthamstow to Ross’s Clapham Common factory, where they continued to produce cameras along with lenses and binoculars.

• By 1961, Ross Ensign had gone.