Well. Let's see what I've got then.
1. The tractor, which helped rebuilt post war Britain's agriculture, was the Ferguson TEF20. A two wheel drive, four cylinder petrol engine, four speed machine powered by an engine that shared a block with the Triumph TR2 and the Standard Vanguard. It was a moleste sucess, due to Harry Ferguson's revoloutionary three point linkage system, which made farm implements part of the tractor, rather than something dragged along the ground. There are many still in service, including those converted with a 3 cylinder Perkins P3 diesel engine, later available from new. There was also a four cylinder diesel (made by the Standard motor company) which wasn't as popular due to it's cold starting problems. This particular tractor was later replaced by the Ferguson 35 (later Massey Ferguson, after the merge with Massey Harris). Until around five years ago, the smaller Massey Ferguson machines were still manufactured at the UK based Coventry factory. The larger machines have been made in France for some years.

2. The bus (featured in 'Summer Holiday') was an ex London Transport AEC Reagent.

3. Mr Singer, designer of the famous Singer sewing machine, previously sold a design for a steam powered earth moving machine and started an ill fated theatre company, which ran him bankrupt. Shortly afterward, he found a discarded sewing machine and decided he could improve on it. The result made him amazingly rich, pretty damn
famous and he died leaving a string of grieving women and about sixteen children.

4. The Spanish Waiter, in 'Still Crazy' is nowdays Britains leading Ali G impersonator and gets more work than the real Ali G.

5. Fred West's cousing works for Bird's Eye Walls in Glouscter and looks like Ricky Tomlinson.

6. Kate Winslet's first TV role was on the Sugar Puffs add.

7. The Square firebox ,widely adopted by the Great Western Railway, was the Belpaire firebox pioneered by Frenchman Louis Belpaire. It featured a water jacket, which helped heat water on it's way to the boiler and had a greater heating surface than previous designs.

8. Norman Cook, Pete Tong and Eric Morrillo, all used a mic which had been stuck up a friend of mine's arse earlier that day.

9. The gas spraying light aircraft, in Goldfinger, were Piper Cherokees.

10. The saying 'In the limelight' comes from the days when theatre light was created by heating pieces of quicklime in a dangerous oxygen hydrogen flame.

11. There are many websites dedicated to PEZ dispencers.

12. When condom machines bear warnings of eletronic alarms, they're nearly always lying.

13. Charlie Chaplin made all of his silent films without any prior written script and often made up the story as he went along.

14. There is no such species of cat as the panther. It is a name given to several large black cats, generaly the black leopard.

15. The concert hall, of the Sydney Opera House, has very poor acoustics, the Albert Hall is even worse.

16. The Morris Minor was originaly called the Mosquito.

17. The famous Spitfire was based on the design of a previous racing aircraft.

18. The system of glass lenses, in British Lighthouses, can weigh up to four tonnes and usualy floats on a round bed of mercury which produces so little friction, that a two tonne lens can be rotated using three fingers.

19. A queen sized bed will not fit up the stairs of a Sydney terraced town house and must be brought in over the front balcony.

20. A standard farm's electric fence has a voltage of over 10,000 volts, but the amperage is extremely small.
( The Togaboy The world will end on, Fri 18 Mar 2005, 11:01, Reply)