Great Western Coffee Shop

When did you last see a train of feathers at your local station?

(http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/feathers_1928.jpg)

https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/news/4372411.sawtells/

and

from http://www.savethetrain.org.uk/oldpics2.html

IIRC The common carrier requirements for rail-freight were based on weight.  I can't imagine therefore that feathers were a very profitable traffic for the railways.   

Why?   It's just an urban myth that a ton of feathers is lighter than a ton of coal.

However, you need many more waggons to carry a ton of feathers than for a ton of coal. 

I don't suppose there's much of a market for feathers now (as opposed to down). What were they all used for: mattresses? Golf balls?

Would that not depend on how compressed the feathers were? Packed tightly in bales could their volume match that of loose coal?

This thread put me in mind of the last item on the following list of goods carried.

Mark

(https://i.postimg.cc/TYtjrh4N/swans-carried-2000.jpg)

In 1879 there was a ridiculous court case in which Benjamin Sawtell, a bedding manufacturer of Melksham, sued the GWR for the non-delivery of 7 cwt. of feathers. These had cost 6d per lb from Wexford, with carriage costs of 9/1 to Bristol, and 25/- per ton (the rate specific to feathers) from there to Melksham. The actual sums quoted in the court report, and which the case turned on, don't add up or make sense, but a possible 2/- for cartage from the ship's side to the station is mentioned.

Swans (dead) and Surgical Operating Tables (folded).  Love it.

It appears we have lost whatever use there was for Sumtache Cleanser

One page from a very substantial book. Now imagining the other treasures within.

Mark

Sumtache Cleanser may have been well-known in the past but now it looks to be long-forgotten.  Google found basically one hit for it, an advertisement in The Chemist and Druggist in 1921 https://archive.org/stream/b19974760M2241/b19974760M2241_djvu.txt (https://archive.org/stream/b19974760M2241/b19974760M2241_djvu.txt)


THE CHEMIST AND DRUGGIST

March '19, 1921

ALLOTMENT of TERRITORIAL AGENCIES

The appointment of Agents for SUMTACHE in
the United Kingdom is now in progress. Further
applications are invited from Merchant Druggists
and Wholesale houses as representatives in certain
areas. Sumtache, the new one-minute
dry cleaner, is fully described in two
previous issues of the "Chemist and
Druggist."

PER 1 /Q BOT.

Protection applied for under P.A.T.A.

In attractively labelled Bottles and Cartons.

Free advertising matter. Sells at 1 2/- doz. to
retailer. Showing this week at the Woollen Trades
Exhibition, Agricultural Hall, London. Write to-day to

THE SUMTACHE 'CO., 31 Gerrard Street - W.1.

Clothes that are dirty, spotted and greasy
Clean with Sumtache — Nothing so easy

Sumtache ran similar newspaper ads only 1921-1923. Then in 1928 along comes Thawpit, pitching exactly the same uses, essentially "do your dry-cleaning at home". But they also say "Thawpit is non-inflammable", quoting (fake) reports of fires caused by the careless use of petroleum spirit. So I would guess that Sumtache (which did not claim non-inflammability) was basically refined petrol.

Thawpit, of course, was carbon tetrachloride, and I presume now no longer allowed.

Just recycled a (dry) glass bottle of Thawpit from the back of a cupboard. The day when, as teenagers, a friend and I accidentally made phosgene will live long in our memory.

Mark

It is true though that a pound of lead weighs more than a pound of gold.

I wonder if Sumtache was French, a derivation/corruption of 'sans tache'? 'Tache' being French for 'stain'.

Stuffing feather mattresses, pillows and cushions. Feather mattresses are still used today, but are not popular, having been displaced by spring and or foam types.
Feather pillows and duvets remain popular.
Down is often considered to be better, but is much more expensive. A basic feather pillow can be purchased for about £5 and is IME far superior to synthetic types. Can be composted when no longer serviceable, unlike synthetic materials.

Leading us even further away from rail, but Featherbed Lane seems a reasonably common name for rural lanes. I've yet to encounter a Duvet Road or Eider Way – though I'm sure someone will come up with an example now.

A feather bed was specifically a mattress, but that sense of 'bed' isn't really used any more.

Well, you wouldn't make a bed frame out of feathers. A motorcycle frame, on the other hand...

What we now call a bed base, bed frame or simply a bed, used to be called a bedstead.

What we now call a mattress used to be called a bed, and was placed atop the bedstead. For example a feather bed, or or a horse hair bed. Straw was used by the poor. A bedslip was a washable cotton cover into which the bed was inserted to keep it clean.

You've reminded me that one of the first films I ever saw was Bedknobs and Broomsticks.