MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Gloria]

Don’t know, but I’ll have a guess, are they for locking around something to unscrew it?

[Tizer]

Are they for blocking the flow through a flexible pipe in an emergency?

[Gloria]

Are they for blocking the flow through a flexible pipe in an emergency?

Good one Tizer, hadn’t thought of that

[plaques]

Nearly all Stanley's mystery instruments appear to be on the painful side. It would surprise me if they weren't involved with castrating sheep.

[Stanley]

Oh you crafty beggar Ken! And everything was going so well! Yes, they are clamps for the scrotal cord for castrating larger animals up to horses and cattle, with hot irons.



This iron was heated to dull red and used to simultaneously cut and cauterise the wound.Then the whole was covered with Blue Salve which was mercury ointment. Sounds horrendous I know but animals castrated like this would get up, drink and walk normally. Other, more modern methods cause more pain to the animal.



Blue salve.
Next one?

[Stanley]

Any idea what this was used for?

[Gloria]

Is it for dropping a trailer into, like an artic, for manoeuvering in the yard?

[Big Kev]

House moving dolly?

[Stanley]

Guess who dropped straight onto it!



Spot on. A house move in Northfield. I watched them all day. fascinating process. The house cost a dollar, the expense was in the moving and buying the plot for it to be installed on. All the doors opened and closed accurately after they settled it on the foundation which was a tornado cellar.
Next one?

[Tizer]

I did think those tools might be for castration but I thought we'd exhausted all those objects by now. Do you collect castration tools by any chance?

[Stanley]

No but I have used them all in my time. All part of a rich and interesting life Peter.



Too easy as a general subject I suspect but what can you tell me about what is going on in this image?

[Bodger]

A metal rung ?

[Stanley]

True, It made these ladders much stronger but I need more than that Bodge....

[Gloria]

Ladder lashed to a chimney.

[Tizer]

It looks like extra safety precautions - was it in preparation for Prince Philip making trip `up top' on a chimney?

[Big Kev]

Is it to pull the ladder up the chimney?

[Stanley]

No Kev. It's not a good one because the answer is so obvious, Peter got there, it's steeplejack's laddering. The pic grabbed me because there is so much information in it. The ladders themselves, Yorkshire ladders, using the chimney band for a dog, the lightning conductor tape and the head line from the pulley at the top. It's Peter Tatham's ladders on Ellenroad stack.
I'll try to think of a better one.

[Tizer]

Right, I've ended several objects a bit too quickly lately so here's one for you all to try and answer so I can make up for my sins! What can you tell me about the contents of this image?

[Gloria]

A day out in Wales in years gone by.

[PanBiker]

Or a bit nearer home, Tintagel Castle?

[Big Kev]

A fair bit further north west of Wales I reckon

[Gloria]

Ladies View in Killarney?

[Big Kev]

Dunluce Castle in the background and the Giant's Causeway Tram?

[Stanley]

I'm still wondering what powers the carriage?

[Tizer]

Drat, Big Kev has got it spot on - `Dunluce Castle in the background and the Giant's Causeway Tram'. (How did you work it out Kev? I did a Google Reverse Image search and the pic didn't show up so I thought I was on safe ground!) The pic is of an artist's impression of the Giant's Causeway Tram passing the ruins of Dunluce Castle. The tram was in operation from 1887 to 1949 from Portrush to a terminus at the Causeway Hotel. It actually began life in 1883 but only to Bushmills and was later extended to the Hotel. In 1887 it carried 64,000 passengers.

And as Stanley asks, `what powers the carriage?'