No . 130 The Trusty Servant steps were being taken to contain consumption of oil and to enquire into the possibility of converting oilfired boilers into gas-fired at a cost of about £ 28,000 . It was agreed in June 1974 to proceed but by October 1974 the decision had been deferred over concerns about the rising price of gas .
The vast consumption of energy by Science School is a recurring theme . What was going on there ? Collegemen physicists attempting nuclear fusion ? Commoner biologists propagating cannabinoids for local resale ?
Martin Gregory ( Co Ro , 62-99 ): I have a vague recollection of timing changes to try and get all hours up to books in reasonable daylight . It was a good year for teaching electrostatics , as keeping the heating low in winter dropped the Saturated Vapour Pressure of water so that electrical leakage across insulators was much reduced ( bigger sparks from the Wimshurst machine ).
There were many scheduled and unscheduled power outages so that candles were at a premium . Smelly or not , there was a run on them . At the end-of-term concert in New Hall there was a brilliant display of
College candelabra to enable the event to go ahead . Afterwards , there were complaints about Win Coll ’ s insensitivity in burning so many candles when they were in short supply .
We lived in 79KS in one of the two College houses built in 1964 and demolished recently to build Ridding Court . We noticed that we had very few power outages relative to our neighbours . It turned out that the pair of 78KS and 79KS , unlike the rest of Kingsgate Street , were on the same circuit as the Judge ’ s Lodgings in the Cathedral Close and thereby should have been immune from breaks in supply ! Nevertheless , having young children and giving tasktimes at home , I rigged up one of my Victorian Stirling engines with a generator to provide some basic emergency lighting .
Fiona Smith ( piano and cello teacher , 64-12 ): During one Sunday morning service in Michlā , there was a power cut , so no electricity for the organ - Peter Tombling ( Coll , 46-52 ; Co Ro , 57-98 ) was at a loss . My husband Julian ( Co Ro , 53-92 ) asked two boys to use the wooden pump handle at the back . It was a bit noisy , but worked wonders , and the choir on Decani had a most entertaining grandstand view : the boys really had to work hard , leaping up and down . During the service all the hymns , canticles and the anthem went with a swing !
Jock Macdonald ( Co Ro , 64-01 ): Having just returned from a sabbatical term in Rome , my memory is of the usual gloom of Div Rooms . I remember more the rather friendly candle-lit atmosphere of 10 College Street , Ted Heath arguing lugubriously for the three-day week and Mr Gormley ( NUM President ) being easier to listen to : his voice had more vibrancy than the PM ’ s .
Finally , typical Colin Badcock ( Coll , 39- 43 ; Co Ro , 49-76 ; Fellow , 77-92 ) in The Trusty Servant : The oil crisis shook us a bit , but did not immediately sheik us as much as expected . We are used to power cuts now , and every house carries a huge stock of tollies , Camping-Gaz , Tilley lamps and whatnot . This year , almost uniquely , they were not needed , but we were short of warmth and bath-water . As the oilflow was reduced to a trickle , statistics poured from the Bursary ...
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