MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

Ian is near enough....



It's the sharpening stone that is part of the accessories included in the Swiss Army knife Janet and Big Harry bought me many years ago.... It was reckoned to be the ultimate knife and has everything you can think of including safety pins and a sewing kit! (There's a piece of string as well!)

Next for shaving?

[Stanley]

Thinking caps on?

[Stanley]

[David Whipp]

Stakes for nano-vampires.

[Whyperion]

tile spacers ?

[Tizer]

Fossilised peanuts after 30 years in a tin can?

[PanBiker]

We've had this one before and I can remember what they are, I'll not put it up just yet.

[Big Kev]

Dead easy I suppose. But where did it come from and why two firms named on it? Bit esoteric but could be educational.

I'm looking for items like this to decorate my fireplace...

[plaques]

Sneak into Bancroft Engine room and 'borrow' theirs.

[Big Kev]

Sneak into Bancroft Engine room and 'borrow' theirs.

You think they'd notice?

[Stanley]

I know about the nameplate..... And yes, there is a story to it.
But back to the fossilised peanuts! Nobody has got there yet!

[David Whipp]

Widgets for midgets.

[Tizer]

You put them on a wet cloth in a warm place and they germinate and allow you to grow your own matches (an austerity measure).

[Stanley]

I like the answers but you haven't got the right one. When you are putting new irons on a pair of clogs the clog nails leave holes in the sole. These are the small wedges that were driven into the holes to seal them before nailing the new irons on.
Next for shaving?

[Tizer]

Right. What do you make of this?

[chinatyke]

Look like parts of railway line points. Don't know where but I'm guessing someone retained them when they closed the railway sidings or similar. Could it be Colne?

[Big Kev]

I'd have said railway or tram lines. A sculpture to mark an old route or station?

[PanBiker]

It looks like the mount used to have a plaque embedded in the concrete. I would agree that they look likes some kind of track, but they don't look like modern rails. Could they be from a test track, Stephensons Rocket maybe?

[chinatyke]

but they don't look like modern rail

Just remembered something, the track was changed from Broad to Standard gauge by Great Western Rly in 1892. Could it have been something to do with that? Maybe a section retained by a museum?

[plaques]

Richard Trevithick's first cast iron track at Coalbrookdale, Cornwall. Thought I could see a waterwheel in the background also just read a book on Steam engine pioneers. Could be totally wrong though.

[Stanley]

Only trouble with that P is that Coalbrookdale is in Shropshire....
I'll go with redundant track and knowing Tiz, the west Country. It's not early CI track because that was cast with a fish belly and in shorter lengths. This is much later rolled rail.

[Tizer]

China was on the right lines (haha) very quickly with his reference to railway line track, and Kev is right too that, like a sculpted monument, it marks the location of something. Yes, it's made from real railway points - the V at the bottom is the `frog' and the top ends would be connected to the switch blades - but it's not from a test track and nothing to do with a change of track gauge or with Trevithick. Nor is it in my favourite haunts here in the western peninsula (and it's a long way from Barlick!). Ignore the age of the rails or you might be switched down the wrong route! The railway is a side issue but provided a convenient local source of rails to make this monument which marks the lives of two people, father and son, and their local 18th Century activities. And yes, you've spotted there is something in the background but it didn't have a waterwheel. It happens to have a tenuous link with Mrs Tiz but that won't help you!

EDIT: I've just looked back and re-read Stanley's post. Note his comment: "It's not early CI track because that was cast with a fish belly and in shorter lengths. This is much later rolled rail." That comment is a good clue. Ignore the fish belly and concentrate on the material.

[chinatyke]

click here

During the 19th century, the railroad frog was fabricated from standard carbon steel rail. During this period, there were many designs for the rigid frog from riveted plate frogs to the current AREA standard rigid frog. In the late 1800s, however, R.A. Hadfield of England developed "Hadfield Manganese Steel." The unusual properties of this manganese steel, as well as its toughness and ability to withstand severe impacts, made it most suitable for railroad service. The first manganese steel castings were made for street railway frogs. The success of manganese steel in the street railway castings led to its use in steam railway special work frogs, crossings, and switches. By the first decade of the 20th century, the rail-bound frog was introduced to the American railroads. Since then, the rail-bound manganese frog has progressed through many design improvements. Currently, there are new designs being developed to meet the needs of the heavy-haul railroad.


Is that it? Hadfield manganese steel?

Google is a wonderful tool, gives me instant knowledge of things I know nowt about.

[Stanley]

Puddled iron and rolling mean either Black Country or Sheffield to me....

[Tizer]

A good try China and definitely on the right track (no pun intended!) but I'm looking at some decades earlier and a man whose work preceded Hadfield's. Not Black Country or Sheffield. My man's middle name will give a clue to the location.