Lyr Add: Ould Alarum Clock

Subject: Ould Alarum Clock
From: Shimbo Darktree
Date: 16 Oct 99 - 11:58 AM

This came from the singing of The Clancy Brothers or The Dubliners
- sorry, I can't remember which.

THE OULD ALARUM CLOCK
 
When first I came to London, in the year of '39,
The city looked so wonderful, and the girls were so divine,
But the coppers got suspicious, and they soon gave me the knock,
I was charged with being the owner of an ould alarum clock.
 
Next morning down by Marlborough Street I caused no little stir,
The I.R.A. were busy, and the telephone lines did burr.
The judge said, "I'm going to charge you with the possession of this machine,
And I'm also going to charge you with the wearing of the green."
 
And says I to him, "Your honour, if you'll give me half a chance,
I'll show you how me small machine can make the peelers dance.
It ticks away politely till you get an awful shock,
And it ticks away the gelignite in me ould alarum clock."
 
Said the judge, "Now listen here my man and I'll tell you of our plan,
For you and all your countrymen I do not give a damn.
The only time you'll take is mine - ten years in Dartmoor Dock,
And you can count it by the ticking of your ould alarum clock."
 
Now this lonely Dartmoor city would put many in the jig.
The cell, it isn't pretty, and it isn't very big.
Still and all, I would have left the place, if I had only got,
Me couple of sticks of gelignite, and me ould alarum clock.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ould Alarum Clock
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Oct 99 - 12:27 PM

Hi, Shimbo - I've been enjoying the lyrics you posted. Posting lyrics was the original purpose of this forum. It often doesn't generate a lot of discussion, but there are many of us who read the lyrics and enjoy them.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ould Alarum Clock
From: Margo
Date: 16 Oct 99 - 01:00 PM

What is gelignite? Is that dynamite?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ould Alarum Clock
From: Joe Offer
Date: 16 Oct 99 - 01:40 PM

Well, Margo, I knew it was some sort of jelly explosive, but you motivated me to look it up. Webster's New World, Ma Offer's favorite dictionary, says gelignite is a sensitive blasting explosive that is a mixture of nitroglycerin, nitrocellulose, etc. It's also called "gelatin dynamite." I wonder what's in the "etc."
-Joe Offer-

Click here for a story about a possum and a stick of gelignite, which makes me think that "gelignite" and "dynamite" may be synonymous in some places.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ould Alarum Clock
From: Wolfgang
Date: 20 Oct 99 - 12:04 PM

a link to an older thread with slightly more information.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ould Alarum Clock
From: Shimbo Darktree
Date: 23 Oct 99 - 12:42 PM

Thank you for the comments, Joe.

Wolfgang, my apologies. I swear I searched the data base
and the threads before posting (also used various spellings)
Don't know what went wrong.

Margarita, my understanding of "dynamite" is that it was
the original explosive made by Nobel.
However, it was unstable and dangerous. Some type of clay
was mixed with it to stabilise it, and it was marketed as
"gelignite". It now tends only to be dangerous if it gets
old, because it then "weeps" nitroglycerine.
This is all from a non-expert, by the way.

Regards,
Shimbo

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ould Alarum Clock
From: Wolfgang
Date: 26 Oct 99 - 04:53 AM

Shimbo, I even have 'added' lyrics that were already in the DT. It happens and you never know after why.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Ould Alarum Clock
From: _gargoyle
Date: 27 Oct 99 - 04:58 AM

From the 1939 edition of Fortunes in Formulas" Nitro-glycerine is an oily liquid readily soluble in most organic solvents, but becomes solid at 3 to 4 degrees above the freezing poiint of water, and in this condition is less sensitive. It detonates when heated to 500 degrees F, or by a sudden blow, yielding carbon dioxide, oxygen, nitrogen, and water. Being a fluid under ordinary conditions, its uses as an explosive were limited, and Alfred Nobel conceived the idea of mixing it with other substances which wouuld act as absorbents, first using charcoal and afterwards and infusorial earth, "kieselguhr," and obtaining what he termed "dynamite." Nobel found that "collodion cotto" - soluble gun cotton - could be converted to treatment with nitro-glycerine into a jellylike mass which was more trustworthy in action than the components alone, and from its nature the substance was christened "blasting gelatin"

"Dynamite is ordinarily made up of 75 per cent nitro-glycerine, 25 per cent infusorial earth;dualine contains 80 percent mitro-glycerine, 20 percent nitro-cellulose; rend-rock has 40 per cent mitro-glycerine, 40 percent nitrate of potash, 13 percent cellulose, 7 percent paraffine; giant powder 36 perent nitro-glycerine, 38 percent nitrate of potash, 8 persent sulphur, 8 percent rosin or charcoal."

"Acetone is the solvent used in the preparation of "cordite."