Plate and film Cameras
Plate and film Cameras
Battersea Power Station 1955
Battersea Power Station 1955
Battersea Power Station 1955
Cars
Cars
Battersea Power Station 1955
3D Printing
3D Printing
3D Printing
Geological Museum 1975
Geological Museum 1975
Adrian's Memories
Bill Haylor
Bill Haylor lives here in Copthorne, is now in his 90s, and is one of the ablest characters I know.
A mechanical engineer and welding specialist. He was always fascinated with bicycles, here he is riding his 'bone shaker' in the Copthorne carnival in the 1970s.
The float beside him with the Dalek on it was by the Convent School and won that year. One of the pupils fathers was a special effects man with the BBC which helped a lot !!
This is one of the cycles he asked me to photograph for him im 1998. Rudimentary front suspension and intricate rear axel mount. Taken on the Olympus C1400L exactly as it arrived with him.
Many years ago in the '70s Bill had the idea of a children's book about two dolls travelling the world for Virgin Atlantic.
I did a handful of composite photos to get him started, quite difficult in those days with photoshop in its infancy.
In his 90's he decided to make a batch of replica 'penny farthing' cycle lamps, based on old photographs.
He designed it himself and made all the tooling for a batch of 100 lamps. Including the burner oil tank and wick control mechanism.
The lamp hung from the hub of the main wheel, the arms at the top kept them central. The only bought in pieces were the glass lenses and red and green ports. He has sold nearly all of them
Bill is also very artistic and can cut superb silhouettes with scissors and paper. He would work from images from magazines or television and send them off to be signed where possible.
Most were signed and returned. He then did a montage of the silhouettes on a page in their usual surroundings, here are some examples:
Bill's speciality was precision welding. He perfected a system of welding to be able to build up weld metal on an item so that it was perfectly homogeneous.
It was used in the vehicle industry on press tools. When a tool was damaged or had to be modified he would go to the factory with his equipment and work on it in situ.
He built the metal up so it could be re machined down to the required size with no 'blow holes' or other irregulatories.
In the 1970s he made many special stainless steel assemblies to hold gemstones for display purposes for the Geological Museum.