MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Tizer]

Stanley's `Pearl Harbour' records?

[BillHowcroft]

Nice bit of book binding. Is that what they call watered silk?
Minutes of the CHSC?

[chinatyke]

Nice bit of bookbinding. Is that what they call watered silk?
Minutes of the CHSC?

I think it is called watermarked silk. Now imparted during fabric finishing by running the fabric between steel rollers at high pressure which can turn at slightly different speeds. Maybe this simulates an ancient process done with water.

[Stanley]

You're in the right era Bill and yes it's office stationery but a bit specialised.

[chinatyke]

Is it a Kalamazoo ledger?

[Stanley]

No China but I have one of them as well! It's a bit of a cheat actually, here's the answer....



The interior of the ledger consists entirely of leaves of very high quality India Paper which is very thin. It was used for copying letters using the damp paper, copying ink and press method. At the front there is a large index section for recording which page the letters are stored. This one was never used and is beautifully bound.....

[BillHowcroft]

It's about 50mm across. Object sitting in the lower part of plastic (possibly Bakelite) case.

[Big Kev]

Are they flints for a lighter of some sort?

[BillHowcroft]

Nope, not smoking related.

Clue - those parts are hardened.

[chinatyke]

Are they 'break pins' like you get in Tirfor puller handles to prevent gross overloads?

[Stanley]

I've been scratching my head. They look like alternative working points of different sizes for fitting in the business end of of the object. Almost like a deburring tool but not quite.....

[BillHowcroft]

Not for shearing.
Not for deburring.
Right to think an engineer would use it.

[chinatyke]

Not for shearing.
Not for deburring.
Right to think an engineer would use it.

Shear pins - that's the term I was looking for even if it isn't correct. Thanks for jogging my memory.

I'm still looking at the numbers, 46 to 62. I take it that the numbers must mean something even if they don't mean anything to me, just like a lot of your engineering things. Actually, they all look the same diameter to me. Could they be test standards of something?

[plaques]

If Stanley used them for scratching his head they would indicate how hard it was. A poor man's version of the Moh's technique.

[BillHowcroft]

Test standards - you're getting warm now.

[BillHowcroft]

Plaques has it.
Tests for the Rockwell hardness of steel by scratching.
Posh version of running a file over the corner of a tempered job.

[BillHowcroft]

Fuzzed out the name Star Turn hardness comparator because it was traceable on Google.

[Stanley]

That was a good one! I've never come across them, I just try with a file!
Off piste I know but my old mate Arthur Entwistle could identify Stellite rods mixed with ordinary steel blindfolded. When he told me I was sceptical but when I tried him out he got it right every time. I had to use a magnet. He'd worked in tool rooms for years.

[Stanley]

Try this oldie.....

[Stanley]

No takers?

[plaques]

Since you asked. The scale from a maximum - minimum thermometer. Handy thing to have round the house but at the moment can't think of a use for it. !

[BillHowcroft]

I was about to suggest it was a hook rule similar to this one.

[Stanley]

It is a hook rule Bill but nobody has got anywhere near it's use. Clue, forget accepted measurements.

[chinatyke]

Is it for taking different readings from a chart recorder? Perhaps the sort of recorder that had 3 pens that used different scales.

[Stanley]

Sorry, no China but you are on the right lines with different scales.