Quote: Stephen Goodlad @ 23rd September 2019, 11:56 AM

It's what I do for a living Herc.
I watch the channel too - but I look at the controls and identify them and of course think - I'd have done that different.

FYI and it probably won't mean a damn thing to you:

As the bottles come out of the capper machine a sensor checks whether they have a cap on and another checks they are filled to the correct height.

The answer is put into a 'bit shift' with either a 1 or a 0 (1 = ok 0 = not ok)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4RWJTs0QCk

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Yes, very interesting but what I am fascinated by is the mechanics of it all. Where do you start to build a such complicated machine to cut, fold, insert, shove, poke, glue, package in quantity, etc, etc. You can get a flavour of this on the Inside the Factory series on the Beeb, if you can put up with Gregg Wallace.

The tomato scanner reminds me of the claim Heinz made in one of their TV ads. back in the mid-60s that they scanned EVERY baked bean, which I scoffed at; BUT fast forward to the late 60s and I actually went to work for them as a sales rep and in the two week training period at their HO in Hayes we had a visit to the factory at Harlesden and blow me down - we were shown that machine which was scanning every bean and blowing the ones not right off with a puff of air, AND at such high speed you could only just see it doing it. And speaking of Inside the Factory they did go to the Harlesden factory and had a similar machine, but this time (as with your tomato one) it scanned the beans in multiples.

So these high-speed scanning checkers are nothing new - incredible technology, which I find fascinating.

"The Secrets of Mr Kipling"

Very good mind-blowing documentary of this massive cake making factory "oop North", where they have spent £22,000,000 alone on a huge robotic line just to make Angel Slices, and I notice voiced over by Tony Hirst who does the "How It's Made" series on Quest.

Just goes to show you can't believe everything you're told on'telly - the so called Food Historian they had on there was saying that "of course there was no one called Mr Kipling as names such that and Betty Crocker or Birdseye, were just names made up by the companies' marketing departments."

I expect Clarence Birdseye is turning in his grave.

the old next door lady gave me some Mr Kipling cakes for mowing her lawn
I may not do it again,they were ghastly, very sweet ,brightly coloured comestibles.Packed in miles of plastic.

Yes, that probably what the £22 mill. machine was packaging - the Angel Slices in the "new" individually wrapped portions. I have to admit I'm not keen on that particular cake, which apparently is their biggest seller, but I'm a sucker for their French Fancies - ummm delish!

Fascinating to watch them being made too...............

Kunzle cakes were the best cakes of my childhood . Alas long gone (both).

That's not one in your picture though,not fancy enough.
I think we got ours from Woolworths,that's gone too.

'The Bodyguard'. I've never seen it before but so far it's good.

Great film but what a hadder that we didn't know why the baddie was doing it, or did I miss something?

Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 25th September 2019, 9:20 AM

And speaking of Inside the Factory they did go to the Harlesden factory and had a similar machine, but this time (as with your tomato one) it scanned the beans in multiples.

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Do you mean Park Royal? I worked all over Harlesden and don't remember a baked bean factory there although there are some big food factories in the industrial estates. One is a cake factory, I used to love passing it because of the smell of syrup and baking. Park Royal just before Harlesden off the North Circular is where most of the big production factories are though, it's London's industrial centre and it's huge. An awful lot of redevelopment going on there now though.

Quote: Alfred J Kipper @ 29th September 2019, 8:08 AM

Do you mean Park Royal? I worked all over Harlesden and don't remember a baked bean factory there although there are some big food factories in the industrial estates. One is a cake factory, I used to love passing it because of the smell of syrup and baking. Park Royal just before Harlesden off the North Circular is where most of the big production factories are though, it's London's industrial centre and it's huge. An awful lot of redevelopment going on there now though.

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It was over 50 years ago I worked for Heinz and so initially gave you the benefit of doubt Alf, but on checking...........
This is one web site:-

Heinz UK sales quadrupled between 1919 and 1927. A 22 acre factory site was opened in Harlesden, London in 1925. It doubled the number of employees at Heinz UK from 500 to 1,000. The larger factory allowed Heinz to mass produce, and pass on the economies of scale to the consumer.
Baked beans were manufactured in the UK from 1928. Soups and spaghetti production began in 1930. Previously these items had been imported from America and Canada. All products sold in Britain were manufactured domestically by 1933, except for four tomato-based products, which were imported from Canada.

And this is another:-

A new soup factory was established at Harlesden from 1934. The three-storey building produced millions of tins of soup a year, across eighteen different varieties. The extension saw the Harlesden site increased from 22 to 40 acres.
During the war, Heinz Harlesden worked with ICI on designing a self-heating can which helped allied soldiers get hot food after D-Day. The company also bought four Spitfires for the RAF.

By the mid-1960s the modernised factory was producing one million cans of beans a day. Britons had became the world's biggest bean-eaters, consuming 16lb per person per year by 1986.

And I remember them showing us that self-heating can in their archive, but were told that was initially invented for Polar expeditions. Fascinating though!

Ah, found it on google, yes Heinz of Harlesden which is in Waxlow Road, Park Royal. I don't know if it was ever in Harlesden and the boundaries changed over the years like they do or the marketers had their say on it with their love of alliteration. Has a nice Hancock's Half Hour feel to it I know. So it's Heinz of Harlesden in Park Royal then. Thought as much. There he is.

I'm watching The Graham Norton Show but I can hardly understand a single word Renée Zellweger is saying.

Graham, Sir Lenny and Louis Theroux are coming across loud and clear.

Is it because she's from Texas?

Hold on, I'm now listening to the same show on my PC via headphones and her voice is somewhat clearer.

Maybe I need a new telly?

I'm now watching BBC Breakfast having been prompted to do so by news stories about Harvey Proctor storming out of a fractious interview with Naga Munchetty about the police's bungled 'Nick the Fantasist' abuse probe.

Prior to his departure, Harvey was clearly dissatisfied with the amount of airtime Naga was allowing him to air his complaints. He also complained about her talking over him.

I have immense sympathy for all those falsely accused as a result of the police investigation but I have to say Naga allowed Harvey a considerable amount of time to express his views and, when she attempted to introduce balance by reading from the Metropolitan Police's response to criticism of their investigations, she was doing her job - no more, no less - and doing it very well.

The short clips available online show Harvey terminating the interview but they don't show the fairness (I might even say tolerance) with which he had been treated up to that point.

The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Quote: Billy Bunter @ 6th October 2019, 3:02 PM

The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

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Is that in France?