MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

Seven inches diameter Gloria.
Sorry China, nothing to do with weaving. Click to enlarge..... Read the small print!

[Gloria]

Is it part of the Wilby Supplementary Governor??

[Tizer]

Have you just made that up Gloria?
I think it's the the bit that they forgot to fit during the assembly of the spaceship that has just crashed on its attempted landing on Mars. It was a critical piece of the astrolabe and had to be so finely made that the only man who could do it was a monk in the Barlick monastery hidden away in the mountains of Middle England. When the time came to launch the spaceship nobody could find their way back to the monastery so they had to go ahead without it.

[Wendyf]

Is it part of the Wilby Supplementary Governor??

Brilliant Gloria, even if it's wrong you deserve a round of applause!

[Gloria]

Ha ha no I haven't made it up...I looked on t'internet. Don't know if it's right, but it does sound good.

[Tizer]

Ah, here we go...James Lumb of Perseverance Engine Works, Elland, Calderdale, maker of stationary engines According to Grace's Guide. So it's one of his bits for an engine - but I don't know what the bit is other than a gear/cogwheel.

[Stanley]

Gloria is on the right track. Forget about Engines and Governors. James Lumb made something else that was very widely used.
Think recording more than control.

[Cathy]

And here I was wondering if it was part of the lock of your 'home safe' Stanley, obviously not... haha

[Gloria]

This took a bit of finding
Lumbs Patent Portable Speed and Variation Recorder????

[Tizer]

It looks like Gloria has the answer with her `Lumb's Patent Portable Speed and Variation Recorder'. This image is in the James Lumb web page on Grace's Guide and the mystery object appears to be on the drum...

[Stanley]

Exactly right Gloria! I didn't think anyone would get it. The gear wheel was in the drive train between the pulley at the bottom and the governor. Different sizes could be fitted to accurately translate the RPM on the drive to the recorder so it was accurate.



If you look at Charlie Meecham's pic of the engine in 1970 when it was still running the mill you'll see the Lumb Recorder in the centre in front of the LP cylinder with the oil can on top.

Just for interest here's the pic he took of the mill on the same day.



Note the bus parked near the base of the chimney. This came from Wigan every morning bringing women in to work at the mill. The driver worked as well and took them home at night while their children were cared for in the nursery attached to the mill. 'Britain's Bread hung by Lancashire's Thread' as late as 1970!

[Gloria]

Wouldn't have got it Stanley if it wasn't for your clue.

[Tizer]

Well done, Gloria!
Now then, what's this all about...

[David Whipp]

Wheel Tax evasion...

[Gloria]

A wild guess....rice thresher???

[Cathy]

Is it meant to illustrate a particular progress in farming?

[chinatyke]

Unicycle prototype.

[Stanley]

Ikea delivering a flat pack one wheeled barrow.....

[PanBiker]

From the sled to the wheel?

The bloke looks East Asian, Chinese maybe?

[Tizer]

Some creative answers there, thank you! Ian is right to suggest `Chinese', but the first one to respond, David Whipp, has given a concise answer to part of the puzzle - the man is evading wheel tax. Well done David, was it a guess or are you hiding a greater knowledge of this mystery? However there still remains the question of why the man has the wheel off his barrow? If he can't put the wheel on without evading tax then he can't use his barrow. Catch 22. Any suggestions?

[David Whipp]

Knock me down with a feather! That was just the first daft answer I thought of...

[David Whipp]

I now know that it's part of a collection of 19th century photographs of Shanghai by English photographer William Saunders...

[Tizer]

I found the image in a an article on the Web together with an explanation. The barrows were used as taxis for ferrying people about. They had to take the wheel off the barrow to avoid the wheel tax - but where did that tax have effect?

[David Whipp]

How to take the tax out of taxi, if that's not too taxing a question...

[Stanley]

Crossing a bridge or ferry?