MYSTERY OBJECTS

[chinatyke]

One last guess. Is it something to do with the 'indicator diagrams' that you have mentioned several times in connection with the efficiency of steam engines?

[BillHowcroft]

Knowing your background, is it from the textile industry for checking the pitch of the warp threads?

[Stanley]

Sorry but nobody has got it and I know how frustrating it can be so I'll knock it on the head. It's a printer's rule for checking the space a given number of characters takes up in different font sizes.....
Next for shaving?

[BillHowcroft]

So it's a pica pole like this one briarpress.org/25566 ?
How long is it and is it double-sided?

[PanBiker]

Slightly wrong with your URL insertion there Bill. You used the right insertion tool in the editor but you need the full string as below

http://www.briarpress.org/25566

You can add description text in the lower box as well which would display as below:

Bills Link or any other descriptive text

It suppresses display of the actual URL string in the post, both have the same functionality.

[BillHowcroft]

Got that. Should have tested the link.

[Stanley]

Not quite the same Bill. It's not for measuring individual letters but the length a string of characters takes up when set. Double sided, one side is a standard 12" or 35cm rule, the other has multiple scales for 6/12, 5/10 and 8pt. The maker is 'Cornerstone'.

[Gloria]

Try this, oops done it twice, can't seem to be able to delete one.

image.jpeg

[Pluggy]

I did it for you Gloria.

[BillHowcroft]

Looks like an assembly fixture of some sort.
Too clean for ceramics.
Is it for soldering silver tea pots?

[Stanley]

Intriguing..... I don't know what it is but I'll guess that you hang something in the staggered hooks at the end and adjust it to a standard weight. It has the feel of a weighing machine to me.....

[Gloria]

Well done Stanley, we photographed it in Bulgaria.

image.jpeg

[Stanley]

It was the adjusting screw that gave it away I think.
Another one?

[Gloria]

We saw this on the same old farm in Bulgaria, it's only small and we have no idea what it could have been used for. Any ideas??
Note wooden helical gears.

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

[Tizer]

A mangle perhaps?

[Gloria]

It was tiny, my husbands finger was touching the gears, so you can see how small it is.

[Tizer]

A mangle for dolls' and teddy bears' clothers! (haha). More seriously, it could be for something like collars perhaps.

[Gloria]

Don't know about collars, it was in the outback of Bulgaria. We thought pasta possibly, should have asked.

[Stanley]

It's for squeezing something to either make it uniform thickness or to get moisture out of it. Well made and I'd favour a food use. The Bulgarian woodworms are savage little beasts!

[BillHowcroft]

Shame they put that piece of softwood across the top.
Did the gears mesh?
Biscuit roller?

[Gloria]

Yes the gears did mesh.

[Stanley]

Crafty bit of carpentry whatever it was made to do.

[plaques]

Why helical gears? Possibly because if you tried to make a standard six tooth gear wheel at this diameter out of a single piece of wood then you could almost guarantee that the cross grain ones would snap off. Also, since there is no loading spring to bring the rollers under pressure it looks like its made to squeeze something that you wouldn't like to put under a rolling pin. Stanley's tobacco perhaps.

[Gloria]

Note the piece of wood to stabilise it?? Whatever goes through it hasn't stained the rollers, so I don't think it is paprika, there's a lot of that out there.
How stupid am I for not asking??

[Tizer]

Gloria's is an interesting object, whatever it was for. Don't let me stop you all continuing to discuss it but here's something else for your consideration. Sorry for the poor quality but it's scanned from a book. The object is set amongst trees, in case you weren't sure what all that stuff around it was!