MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Gloria]

Interesting, never heard of one of those.

[Stanley]

Brass finishers had the same design of lathe Gloria but made in iron. The beds could be over 20 feet long and had multiple heads and tailstocks. The workers were very skilled and usually specialised in one operation. They did everything by hand even threading with chasers. I never saw one being used, they tell me the skill with threading was the initial 'strike' into the workpiece, after that the chaser guided itself.



Here's an oldie. Can anyone comment on this lady at Budenberg and Scheaffer's works at Altrincham in the 1980s? Again, it's very skilled hand work.

[Gloria]

Is she scribing dials??

[Stanley]

Spot on Gloria! Now tell me what sort of ink she used and what the rolls in the cubby holes are..... (You didn't think I was going to let you off that lightly did you?)

[Gloria]

Do they cover the disc in a permanent ink then scribe the details into it??

[Stanley]

No Gloria and I will not tease you any more. Budenberg's preoccupation was to find a perfectly black medium that was indelible and not affected by UV in the light. In the cubby holes there are rolls of Letraset that were made specially for them with the relevant markings for standard dials in the right order on them, this was a permanent true black.
However, if they were refurbishing an old dial they kept to the original design which on the older Schaeffer Gauges was a German version of Gothic script. This had to be done by hand and over the years they had found one Chinese resin that fulfilled all of their requirements. Problem was that if they bought from commercial sources they didn't get the highest quality. The resin was ground daily on a glass plate by the lady using pure Oil of Terebinth as the medium and a 7lb bucket lasted for perhaps a couple of years. At that point a director flew out to China, went straight to the source, was treated like an honoured guest and brought back the finest pigment available.
There's a little known fact for you!

Next for shaving?

[Tizer]

What do you think the identity is of this strange looking thing?

[chinatyke]

Drippings from an aluminium alloy casting (moulding) process.

[Tizer]

You're on the right lines but not aluminium.

[PanBiker]

Candle Wax?

[Steeplejerk]

Looks like Lead to me!

[plaques]

Melted fuel rod from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

[Tizer]

Not wax, lead or fuel rod. Keep on trying! (I'm glad that Ian suggested candle wax because that was what I thought when I first saw the image.)

[StoneRoad]

White Metal (as in bearings) or Pewter ?

[chinatyke]

Silver?

[Stanley]

Babbit metal melted out of an old bearing.

[Gloria]

Silver anode for use in silver plating??

[Marilyn]

Cockatoo Poo...

[Wendyf]

[Tizer]

None of the above, not even Maz's cockatoo poo which is a creative suggestion - I know she's very familiar with the material!
The correct answer is really quite simple - think about where I spend my holidays.

[PanBiker]

I know what it is but I cheated so won't spill the beans.

[Marilyn]

Do you spend your holidays in Mother Shipton's Cave, near Harrogate?...because I have been there and seen weird drippy stone objects...
Or do you spend your holidays filling odd shaped cavities with that space-invader foam stuff?

[Tizer]

No Maz, we go to Cornwall and are interested in industrial archaeology. But I liked your comment about `drippy stone stuff' in caves, I suppose you do get that sort of thing looking like my object and your description is accurate because it's technically known as `dripstone'. But my object isn't stone.

[Gloria]

Tin ore??

[Cathy]

Mercury

Does Mercury solidify... I've no idea.