OK Folks, first a brief history of the original Bedlam (Or Bethlehem), courtesy of eastlondonhistory.com.

Bedlam Hospital, Bishopsgate

TODAY, mental illness is treated as just that – an illness to be treated. But an understanding of its causes, and the treatments for it, is a recent development – if we go back just 100 years, the sick were treated as a danger, to be incarcerated. Go back to the Middle Ages and the ill were possessed by demons.

The treatment of mental patients was often brutal, and nowhere more so than in the most notorious ‘hospital’ of them all, whose very name passed into the language as a byword for the chaos associated with mental illness.

Pastoral

Bethlehem Royal Hospital was founded in 1247 by the Bishopsgate Sheriff, Simon Fitz Mary, as the Priory of St Mary Bethlehem. Today, the site is in the heart of the City of London – Liverpool Street Station occupies the space. But back in the 13th century it would have stood on the edge of open farmland.

Like many abbeys, convents and friaries, whose religious interns led a less cloistered and isolated life than those in the monasteries, the priory conducted pastoral work among the people of London. The hospitals, such as they were, were based in the religious houses, and by 1327 there are records of a hospital at Bethlehem.

Early on the priory catered for general complaints but, in 1346, the Mayor and Corporation of the City took over stewardship of the hospital and, in 1377, Bethlehem began to look after ‘distracted’ patients.

Treatment was rudimentary to say the least. Patients were kept chained to the wall in leg irons. When they became restless or violent they were whipped or ducked in water.

In 1547, the priory was finally dissolved, the Corporation bought the site from the King, and Bethlehem was officially re-classified as a ‘lunatic asylum’.

The definition of a hospital or asylum was a loose one. Little or no distinction was made between criminals, beggars and the insane – all were considered idle in an age when hard work was the road to redemption, hence the whippings and beatings handed out to the lunatics.

The mother of the painter JMW Turner, known for his seascapes, was one of the unfortunate inmates of Bedlam – like many others, she was committed there for “mental instability” and never left it alive.

Shame

So, as the insane were considered a badge of shame upon a decent family – and to enable the West End gentry to tuck away their unfortunate offspring in an asylum on the wrong side of town – a grotesque sideshow grew up at Bethlehem.

From the early 1600s, visitors had been allowed in to view the inmates. Soon a trip to Bethlehem, or ‘Bedlam’ as it became known for short, was one of the great treats of a Londoner’s leisure time, like a trip to the theatre or, more accurately, the zoo.

100,000 people a year were paying to see the patients, who were placed in cages on the hospital’s galleries. Much later, Charles Dickens imagined the scenes in his piece “A Curious Dance Round a Curious Tree” in the magazine “Household Words”:

“Bethlehem Hospital was ‘a dry walk for loiterers’, and a show; when lunatics were chained, naked, in rows of cages that flanked a promenade, and were jeered at through iron bars by London loungers.’

By the time Dickens wrote those words, in 1852, things had changed, at least slightly, for the better. The porphyria of George III had increased the sympathy of the public for the mentally ill and, in 1770, the hospital bowed to pressure. It reluctantly foresook the tuppeny entrance fees being paid by the 100,000 visitors who ‘tended to disturb the tranquillity of the patients’, and shut its doors to the public. The warders even stopped using whips.

By now, the expanded hospital had moved to Moorfields, then to Lambeth, and on to Surrey. Today, the Bethlehem Royal Hospital is in Beckenham.

With all this in mind, who would you like to see chained to the wall in our cyber-bedlam ?.........

Gurgle burble blibble blobble

I actually work at Liverpool street so I think it is safe ot say that I am in bedlam every day

I'll volunteer!

It was all that being chained naked to the wall, with public whippings from authority figures that had you eh?

I actually thought that "One flew over a cuckoos nest" was a good movie & decided to emulate some of the finer points into my way of living!

Chained to the wall? Well there are some permutations of that particular stance that I may get fired up about..

Authority figures. No. Mai aow! Got rid of them upon leaving school at the tender age of sixteen, although some of the legendary cannings are worthy of a story or two.

How about Wolfie!?!

Only kidding mate!

How about Wolfie!?!

Only kidding mate!

I used to run the place

Weho now he's resurfaced having problems with escalators again, but no trolleys this time.

Notable patients of Bethlem hospital:-

Hannah Chaplin : mother of Charlie.

James Hadfield : would be assassin of King George III.

Shane MacGowan : lead singer of the Pogues.

James Tilly Mathews : one time tea merchant and subject of the first book-length psychiatric case study.

Jonathin Martin : the man who set fire to York Minster.

Edward Oxford : tried for high treason after the attempted assassination of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Daniel M'Naghten : catalyst for the creation of the M'Naghten rules (criteria for the defence of insanity in the British legal syatem) after the attempted murder of the Prime Minister Robert Peel.

Weho now he's resurfaced having problems with escalators again, but no trolleys this time.

Notable patients of Bethlem hospital:-

Hannah Chaplin : mother of Charlie.

James Hadfield : would be assassin of King George III.

Shane MacGowan : lead singer of the Pogues.

James Tilly Mathews : one time tea merchant and subject of the first book-length psychiatric case study.

Jonathin Martin : the man who set fire to York Minster.

Edward Oxford : tried for high treason after the attempted assassination of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Daniel M'Naghten : catalyst for the creation of the M'Naghten rules (criteria for the defence of insanity in the British legal syatem) after the attempted murder of the Prime Minister Robert Peel.

Nice bit of research there P.H. - you seem to know your way around...

Nice bit of research there P.H. - you seem to know your way around...

Not so sure I'd go so far as to say that but I can fumble around on google and occasionally strike lucky. The internet is a powerful tool that can turn a complete klutz into a facade of an expert.

A while back I was lumbered with writing a report about surface condenser ball cleaning systems.

Interlude before the Bedlam minds go into interstellar overdrive : These are systems that auotmatically inject foam balls into the seawater circuits of power station turbine exhaust steam condensers. These balls then pass through the condenser tubes cleaning micro fouling off the surface and are then retrieved from the outlet water before discharge back into the sea.

Anyhow I knew next to <deleted> all about ball cleaning systems but an hour on google produced a four page report that looked almost professional. It almost certainly would not have past muster in front of a powergen engineer but it gave our client a broad overview and he was happy with it.

Anyhow I knew next to <deleted> all about ball cleaning systems but an hour on google produced a four page report that looked almost professional. It almost certainly would not have past muster in front of a powergen engineer but it gave our client a broad overview and he was happy with it.

Similar system used to clean beer lines of the accumulated scale that collects. Also used in high pressure O2 and other gases on thing like Compression Chambers. The problem with O2 is that any scale or burr can cause micro pieces of dust to collect and potentialy cause a spark which is never a good thing in an O2 line.

CB

I have some nitrogen if that is useful guys...maybe a 850 bar push will clear the lines, just let me know ok? Causes no corrosive damage to the lines however if in a confined or non vented area on gas escape you will probably die. Let me know.

.

Ah well as I started this crazy thread I guess it's up to me to chuck in the first inmate.

So in no particular order in you go :

ROBERT MUGABE

Robert Mugabe once was hailed as a symbol of the new Africa, but under his rule the health and well-being of his people have dropped dramatically, which is as much an abuse of human rights as arbitrary arrest and torture. According to the World Health Organization, Zimbabwe has the world’s shortest life expectancy—37 years for men and 34 for women. It also has the greatest percentage of orphans (about 25%, says UNICEF) and the worst annual inflation rate (1,281% as of last month). He last allowed an election in 2002 but “won” only after having his leading opponent arrested for treason.

I have some nitrogen if that is useful guys...maybe a 850 bar push will clear the lines, just let me know ok? Causes no corrosive damage to the lines however if in a confined or non vented area on gas escape you will probably die. Let me know.

850 bar is substancial pressure. Most of my serious hydraulic gear doesn't approach that!

BTW - I'd like to commit CC to the lunatic assylum. Too much nitrogen in the blood!

I have some nitrogen if that is useful guys...maybe a 850 bar push will clear the lines, just let me know ok? Causes no corrosive damage to the lines however if in a confined or non vented area on gas escape you will probably die. Let me know.

850 bar is substancial pressure. Most of my serious hydraulic gear doesn't approach that!

BTW - I'd like to commit CC to the lunatic assylum. Too much nitrogen in the blood!

Well sound Man, you should never assume that one cannot test at that pressure in my asylum.... you may not have the ability, but I do! A N2 converter will push your hydraulic gear into next week! Thus you should be sent to the lunatic asylum with a 30 bar of nitrogen up your bum!

Your still sound Man!

I have some nitrogen if that is useful guys...maybe a 850 bar push will clear the lines, just let me know ok? Causes no corrosive damage to the lines however if in a confined or non vented area on gas escape you will probably die. Let me know.

850 bar is substancial pressure. Most of my serious hydraulic gear doesn't approach that!

BTW - I'd like to commit CC to the lunatic assylum. Too much nitrogen in the blood!

Well sound Man, you should never assume that one cannot test at that pressure in my asylum.... you may not have the ability, but I do! A N2 converter will push your hydraulic gear into next week! Thus you should be sent to the lunatic asylum with a 30 bar of nitrogen up your bum!

Your still sound Man!

thanx man - all my lines are TP of about 1500 Bars! What the hel_l - i work in PSI - TP = 25,000 PSI.

"The pressure cooker". - for all the deep fried nuts - on special today here in Bedlem.

Deep fried nuts being the operative word!

.

Today's Inductee :-

OMAR AL-BASHIR, come on down.

Omar al-Bashir retains his position as the worst dictator because of his ongoing deadly human-rights abuses in the Darfur region of Sudan. Over the last four years, at least 200,000 people there have been killed by pro-Bashir forces. Nationwide, 5.3 million have been driven from their homes, and more than 700,000 have fled the country. But at the UN last September, Bashir blamed international aid groups for exaggerating the problems as a ploy to raise money for their organizations. And in November, he argued that war-related deaths in Darfur were less than 9,000. Despite agreeing to a 60-day ceasefire last month, he has been accused by his people of ordering troops to continue their attacks.