answer this and win a prize !!!

[Spycam]

Long,long ago, when televisions were black & white and had valves if a TV engineer got a new soldering iron, there was one thing they had to do
to it before use. They don't do it these days.

I want to know
a) what?
b) why?

Oh! and they "tin" the tip....that's not the answer I am looking for.
Prize...
An office swivel chair or homebrew wine fermenter.

[Spitfire]

Roy, I`m assuming that we are talking about an electric soldering iron here. If so, then I`d guess that the earth cable was disconnected in the plug. Early TV chassis were `live`, therefore `live & earth` were prone to producing quite spectacular firework displays when they came into contact with each other..

[Spycam]

JIM !!! what can I say? I thought I had a good'un, but I was wrong.
Well done.
Pick a prize..

[Spitfire]

Roy, Your reply is prize enough[][][:p]. I don`t wish to sound ungreatful but we have just recently replaced our computer chairs and my days of homebrewing are long behind me. Just ask my wife what she thought of my 10 gallon fermenting tub overflowing (remember the Quatermass experiment?) all over the clean laundry in the airing cupboard!!!!!!!

[Spycam]

I'll never get rid of stuff at this rate []

One more question BBC VHF band 1 405 TV.....

What was Holme Moss rope ?

[Spitfire]

A band of vertical interferece appearing on screens in the area local to the transmitter, caused by (in part) by pulses from Holme Moss and the inability of the TV`s of that era to deal with them.
How did I know that? Personal memory, Google, Wikepedia? Not telling [][][]

[noel]

can't we have a question about rubber Roy.? I'm good at that.[:p]

[Spycam]

Noel, who was "Rubber Roy"? sounds like a 1950's comic hero.

[Caroline]

Rubber Roy, the Bendy Boy!

[Spycam]

"Rubber Roy, the Bendy Boy!"

That's great Caroline [][]