[Leica] Hanky - the new pen thread

[Alex Brattell <alex@zetetic.co.uk>]

>. The resulting
>leakage current decreases battery life often by more then half to what is
>expected. Use a dry clean Hanky or other cloth to wipe the prints of as soon as
>possible.
>
>Regards,  Horst Schmidt


I agree  with your use of a capital aitch in Hanky.
I used to think that the Hanky was simply a place to blow one's nose.
Until I travelled in Africa and realised that leaving your snot in a special
cloth that you kept in your pocket and carried around with you was just a
weird quaint and disgusting western habit.

This absurd realisation helped me to reappraise the role of the ancient
square of cloth in my pocket.

Nowadays I still always carry a Hanky but am extremely reluctant to store
snot in it.
It has become primarily a remover of fingerprints, pollution and general
crud from spectacles, Leica rangefinder windows, filters, lenses, negatives,
scanners and other modern delicate surfaces. I am lucky to have many very
old soft and knackered Hankies that excel at these important everyday tasks.
The Hanky is a vital piece of equipment!

When I started to use a Leica rangefinder (only January 1998) it took me a
while to learn how to handle it, pick it up, change the film, without
smearing fingerprints all over all those optical surfaces. A t-shirt will
get you through the night, but the Hanky is the donkey's bollocks.

Unfortunately there are no brand names or collectible status-conferring
types of Hanky, so I can't see much mileage in this. (On the other hand, I
once met a man who claimed to once have owned Napoleon's penis, so why not
his Hanky?)

Alex
(glad to be able to share that one at last!)





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                         alex@zetetic.co.uk
    http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~abrattell/

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