Record postage charge?

[Dust Jacket Collector]

This nice WW1 silk could be yours from ABE for a somewhat overpriced £21.34. However it has to come from Canada & the seller is asking for £77.88 postage! Presumably it’ll be delivered by hand!

[Moonraker]

This happens occasionally with eBay vendors, usually in North America, who quote very high postage rates (though not to the extent of Dust Jacket's example). I suspect that this may be due to the vendors using eBay's Global Shipping Programme . One still has to wrap the item securely and post it to eBay's Shipping Centre, which will then "take care of all the details" -for a significant fee. (I do note that the item above is listed on Abe.)  I once queried the high p & p cost with a US dealer, who immediately quoted a realistic amount.

It's a little off-putting when a vendor insists on sending an item - such as a postcard - that cost £5-6 by "signed for" when a free Certificate of Posting provides cover up to £20. Time was when I had to trek to the sorting office to collect it when I'd been out and unable to sign for it. At least Covid prompted Royal Mail to put such items through one's letter-box with, presumably, the postperson "signing" for it.  Not so reassuring when the item was too big for the letter-box and was left on one's door mat.  A couple of years ago, I paid several hundred pounds for an album of photos showing the 1910 army manoeuvres and had to be in to be certain of accepting it.

[Chasemuseum]

I recently purchased a Mk I electric signal lamp via eBay from a UK dealer. He sent it through eBay Global Shipping. There was something wrong in the paperwork and it has been seized by Australian Customs.

Despite the best efforts of the vendor and myself to have eBay seek the return of the lamp to the UK, they would not be bothered and the lamp has been destroyed.

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/WW1-SIGNAL-LAMP-1915-BY-ARTHUR-LYON-amp-WRENCH-LTD-MORSE-KEY-AND-LAMP-BLACKOUT-/304735064604?nma=true&si=U%2B0YisIM6CRpLhAzChFCBULjX3s%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

 

  

Your postcard is probably at similar risk because it portrays a gun !

 

 

 

[Waddell]

5 hours ago, Chasemuseum said:

Despite the best efforts of the vendor and myself to have eBay seek the return of the lamp to the UK, they would not be bothered and the lamp has been destroyed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ouch! Are Ebay legally allowed to do that? It's not actually their property.

Scott

 

[Chasemuseum]

They do what they feel like. They refunded my payment and paid out the vendor. As far as they are concerned thats the end of the matter.

 

I have another better example of this rare lamp but missing the telegraph key. This would have allowed me to complete my lamp with original parts. Having a fully complete lamp, I had intended to fabricate the main missing components of the new lamp and on sell it as a "restored" example. I expected to be able to sell the restored lamp for at least what I paid for it, probably more.

 

This is part of trying to get fully complete examples of WW1 technologies. The Lucas lamp which replaced the Mk I lamp was manufactured in huge quantity. There were three models during WW1 (ignoring the larger Long Range version), the Mk I, Mk I* and Mk II.  The Mk II is the most common. A complete example of one of these comprises:

The lamp body with the electric lead about 1.2m long and two pin plug. The light bulb in the lamp is a "pip top" bulb which was evacuated after assembly via the pip. A WW2 bulb has the pip concealed in the metal ring around the base of the bulb.

The lamp box, with lid and 2 compartments, canvas cover over the lid and 2 press studs to secure the canvas. Also a leather carry strap in two pieces with a brass buckle. Inside the lide on one side is a telegraph key, female connectors for plugs, and two instruction labels.

Inside the box is the CES:

     - Operators manual

     - Spare bulb tin, with instructions painted inside the lid showing how to replace a bulb  and wrapped in cotton wool, three spare bulbs

     - Spare parts box, small cardboard box with spare plugs and connectors for leads. This is usually stored in the spare bulb tin.

     - Shutter lens cover to use at night

     - 3 x coloured gels to use at night

     - metal spike and spike extension to use the lamp without the tripod

     - For Mk I lamp only, an adapter to fit on the tripod to permit the lamp to be used on the tripod (Mk I* & II both fit the tripod without needing an adapter)

     - Operators work light that can be hooked onto a tunic button or a nail with a 1m lead to the battery connections

Additionally you need a Mk III helio tripod, with a WW1 date. The Mk III tripod continued in service in WW2 and was manufactured in quantity during WW2, however there were some significant changes to the design which leaves a WW2 instantly recognizable as being the latter type. Oddly, the Mk number was not changed.

 

My point is that if you want a fully complete example, you typically have to find several examples to assemble one fully complete unit. The Mk I lamp tripod adapters are particularly rare, I have not been able to locate one.

 

[Dust Jacket Collector]

As with most such organisations they have a total disregard for, and ignorance of, history. It’s all about the now.

[GWF1967]

5 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

 It’s all about the 

Money!

[Chasemuseum]

For certain retail merchant services it is very much about the money. Their customers; both buyers and vendors can go to hell as far as they are concerned so long as they maximise their profits.

 

To me its about preserving elements of historical technology, to assist the discussions of historical events, and to assist the education of those with an interest as to how and why events occurred.

 

My wife likes to tease our youngest daughter about her response when a reference was made to life "before the internet". For so many people, they have trouble understanding that WW1 was primarily a horse transport war, that the design of most artillery was to limit weights to what could be moved by teams of horses. That the use of electricity, dry batteries, telephones and flashlights was actually a new technology that most WW1 soldiers had not encountered prior to their army life. 

 

That WW1 was a technological watershed. Many changes only spread through the western world during the 1920s (widespread electrification of street lighting, lighting into offices, factories and dwellings) but that the war had created the demand, that technologies existed, could be made available and could be economically viable.  

[Gunner Bailey]

On 22/02/2023 at 03:57, Chasemuseum said:

For so many people, they have trouble understanding that WW1 was primarily a horse transport war, that the design of most artillery was to limit weights to what could be moved by teams of horses. That the use of electricity, dry batteries, telephones and flashlights was actually a new technology that most WW1 soldiers had not encountered prior to their army life. 

 

That WW1 was a technological watershed. Many changes only spread through the western world during the 1920s (widespread electrification of street lighting, lighting into offices, factories and dwellings) but that the war had created the demand, that technologies existed, could be made available and could be economically viable.  

For balance : In 1917 the British Army had 370,000 horses in France. However, by the end of 1918 the ASC had 7,045 motor ambulances, 23,133 cars and vans, 34, 865 motorcycles and 56,659 lorries and tractors in service. In contrast the the Germans remained wedded to the horse even into the 1940s.

Yes, I agree about the Great War being a technological watershed. Look at the advances in aviation in just 4 years. 

Edited 26 February , 2023 by Gunner Bailey

[Chasemuseum]

A certain amount of swings and roundabouts.

A light field gun with ammunition in the limber or a GS wagon each represents a 1 1/2 tonne load, or a nominal 30cwt (to confuse our USA brethren who mostly have never heard of a hundredweight and confuse people with their short ton.) This requires 6 horses to move cross country at speeds up to a trot, or 4 horses to move on made roads that include hills at a horse's walking pace.  The GS wagon can operate with only two horses on made roads on level countryside.  So the walk is about 4 mph and the trot about 8mph. A GS wagon with a 4-horse team will occupy about about 15m of road. As horses are a ruminant animal, they can only work about 8 hours a day with the rest required for sleeping, eating and chewing. For a short period they can be worked longer hours but will rapidly start dropping condition and if their health is compromised recovery is slow requiring several months out to pasture. Their feed although nominally plentiful across Europe and for Germany not affected by the blockade (unlike petrol/diesel/kerosene fuels) is verry bulky and represented a huge imposition on the logistic network.

Lorries by comparison, the British military standardized on 30cwt and 3 tonne models. A lorry of the period could generally travel up to 12 mph. It only occupied about 6m of road length and needed another 4m to thew next vehicle. Although they required a very high level of daily maintenance, in practice they could operate up to about 16 hours/day so long as additional personnel were available to conduct maintenance and stagger driving. The downside of course was that lorries were easily bogged so very much restricted to made roads, often difficult to recover when bogged and the petrol and oil required became critical war supplies.

With lorries there is the ability to reverse so loading bays of depots could be designed more efficiently with a single drive through lane and a reversing area to docks/storage piles. By comparison horse transport cannot reverse and all loading bays need to be arranged for 1-way drive through with the wagon/limber left parallel to the dock/depot. At Western Front rail sidings this is less critical as the standard 2-axle rail wagon could only carry about 4 tonne so a line of wagons parallel to train could unload multiple wagons simultaneously and it would take three cycles of GS wagons to unload a train where lorries would nominally need two cycles although in practice could often achieve this with one.

Post war, in civil service solid tyre lorries were able to operate at up to 20mph on macadamised roads (many wartime models could not get past 15mph no matter how good the road was). Post war models targetted this potential maximum speed. In the early 20s with advanced chassis design, the weight of the lorry was substantially reduces, mechanical reliability improved, and with pneumatic tyres speeds up to 30mph were often viable. 

100 years later, a 15t semi-trailer is carrying a 40t load on highways at 70mph and a maintenance availability of over 95%.