Mike Wilson wrote: ↑Tue Jul 11, 2017 11:41 am
Sandgroper.
Your right, I seem to remember Dick saying he originally had a hole down the centre prior to adding a swivel. Water [even a cold mould] and lead do not mix. Being a toolmaker by trade we learned very early on.
Mike
I just had a look through my documents and found the story of the Arlesey Bomb in Alan Brown's own words. The story and much more is printed in my book, "Our Days with Dick". This is how Alan told it.
Did he cast those himself?
There is a story there; I walked into the workshop one night and there was a hexagonal metal block on the bench. You need to relate this to the way this came about. It came about through the discovery that he had made when he had caught two or three perch over at Arlesey over 2-3lbs. When he first approached those perch at Arlesey, he knew they were in a deep trench about 60, 70, 80 yards out from the bank. You have got to remember, in those days, with cane rods, that was a long way to cast especially when the only leads on the market were pierced bullets and coffin leads, which did not have the aerodynamics to get to that distance. Obviously he had the advantage of a fixed spool reel and Mk IV Carp Rod, which was an advantage that most people didn’t have, but, Dick, being Dick, knew that he needed a more aerodynamic lead to give him the distance he needed to achieve to reach these perch. So, there was this hexagonal metal block and it was split in half, there was the tail end of a bomb one end and the blunt end at the other with a hole through its centre. I asked him what it was and he told me it was a mould to make the Arlesey bomb. It was probably the first time anybody had ever used the words Arlesey bomb. I asked him when he was going to do them but he told me that he didn’t know and that he was too busy that night. Something that I didn’t realise was, that when I was left alone in the workshop for much of an evening, Dick was in the house writing articles and, I think, books and such. So in between he kept coming in and out of the hut (Shed/workshop) and he told me that he didn’t don’t know when he would be able to make some but it probably wouldn’t be for two or three nights at least, so I said ‘Do you think I can have a go during my lunch hour from school’? ‘Yes’ he said, ‘You can take it home’. I never asked him anything about it I just thought it was a simply a matter of pouring lead into the mould. This was before the swivel was incorporated in the Arlesey bomb and so a piece of galvanised wire was pushed through the hole. When the lead had set, you just pulled the galvanised wire out and you had a hole which allowed the bomb to slide along the line and be topped at a split shot. In effect it was an elongated bullet rather like an air ship in shape but without
a swivel of course. I took the thing home with me that evening and
couldn’t wait for the next lunchtime to come round so that I could begin the production of Arlesey bombs. I hadn’t asked anything about the procedure and I remember I getting a bean can and some lead strip. In those days we had fires in the winter and so I put the tin on the fire with a pair of pliers and put some of the lead in it. It seemed to take
forever for the lead to melt but suddenly - it was molten! There was
an orifice in the top of the mould to pour the lead in to, so I poured it in and, of course, the thing got dammed hot! Being impatient I put it under the tap and a beautiful shiny lead came out, it was absolutely fantastic, perfect shape, nice hole and lovely and shiny. Greatly encouraged I put the mould back together again, replaced the tin on the fire, pushed the wire through mould, poured the lead into the orifice and it exploded - throwing the molten lead all over the room! Some of the cushions were smouldering, it looked like they had been hit with a shotgun, I’d got pits on my face, though mainly on my forehead thankfully. Although I was quite frightened I thought I would have another go, so I put the mould back together and repeated the procedure and it was fine. No problem at all. Beautiful lead came out, just like the first one; I put it under the tap again and of course next time I poured the lead it exploded again. By this time I was frightened enough to leave it alone.
So you actually cast the first Arlesey Bomb
I can truthfully say I cast the first Arlesey bomb without any doubt, but to be honest I was probably lucky not to have seriously damaged my eyes or at least heavily marked my face during that little episode.
What did Dick say when you told him?
I don’t think I ever owned up to it quite frankly. The next thing that
happened was the inclusion of a swivel into the bomb. When we made
them at a later date it was a quick and simple thing to put a piece of wire down into a bomb with a swivel attached, of course it still acted as a bomb, still had the same aerodynamics but it didn’t twist the line up. It behaved better.
While the basic idea of the Arlesey Bomb had already been published, Alan is right in as much as he cast the first "Arlesey Bomb", Dick was the first to call the ledger weight by that name.
Further to that story I am trying to find out if Arlesey Lake has been filled in and I have asked Simon Walker (one of Disk's twin boys) to have a look for me at some time.