MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Gloria]

Common sense.

[Stanley]

Sorry, no. It's solid and massive but invisible..... Clue, how do you hide something as big as that?

[Wendyf]

Oxygen?

[Wendyf]

Just read the solid bit, not oxygen then!

[Tizer]

The fan in the chimney?

[Big Kev]

I was going to say fire but that's probably the most visible.

[Stanley]

Time for a Xmas present, I don't think you are going to get it.
One very common process when forging bar stock is 'upsetting' the white hot end of the bar to increase the size of it. This can be done with the hammer of course but a far more effective way is to drop the bar end first onto something smooth and solid and let the inertia of the mass of the stock do the work. The anvil is too high in the air to make this easy and so every forge had a large piece of iron with a flat top, often but not always, an old anvil buried in the floor so that only a small area of the top was visible. So the answer is this 'upsetting block' and it was invisible because it was usually covered with a thin layer of dust and muck and was only brushed off when it was to be used.
Next one?

[Stanley]

An update on the anvil.....



I gave my anvil some TLC yesterday and did a bit of research to try to identify the maker 'RH'. I failed in that matter but was reminded that the round hole in the anvil is called the 'pritchel' hole and is used when punching holes. I also found that the smaller anvil is nothing to do with this one, it is a jeweller's anvil.
Now, have a crack at this one.....



All right, it's a steam engine lubricator but there is something special about it. What is it?

[Tizer]

It has Stanley Graham's fingerprints on it?

[Stanley]

Certainly that but it has another distinctive feature. Clue, it was out of date when the engine was built in 1920. Clue, think what high temperature lubricants were available before that!

[Stanley]

I shall kill this one.... It's a lubricator designed to be filled with tallow which gradually melts and lubricates the cylinder. In the early days this was the best cylinder lubricant they had. It was obsolete when the engine was made and installed ready to start in 1920.
Next for shaving?

[Tizer]

I was going to suggest wax but changed my mind thinking that it would be molten at the temperature around the engine and so wouldn't need a special type of lubricator.

[Stanley]

Another specimen from my treasure chests. It's about 9" long and made entirely from non-ferocious metal. Can anyone tell me what it is?

[Tizer]

Brexit warning siren?
Or the contents of a brown paper parcel sent to `Mrs T. May, Westminster' by someone with the initials E.R.G. and having been packed with a black powder since taken away for examination by the Met?

[plaques]

Early design hot water bottle for mill engine engineers?

[Stanley]

Witty but both wrong but funnily enough P is in the right territory. Clue, think heat transfer....

[Stanley]

No offers? I'll give it one more day.... P will kick himself.

[chinatyke]

Water heater?

[Stanley]

So close China and indeed it could be used as a calorifier but the intention was to make a miniature version of a closely related artefact. Think marine steam engines.

[chinatyke]

The opposite of a water heater, a steam condenser?

[Stanley]

You got there China! Perseverance pays off. It's a very good model of a marine surface condenser used to condense the exhaust from a marine steam engine using sea water as a coolant. They were essential as sea water was death to boilers, it encrusted them internally with salt which vastly reduced efficiency but also promoted rapid corrosion. So the exhaust steam was condensed and returned to the closed feed water system in the boat with no added sea water. The make up water for losses was catered for by an evaporator for purifying sea water.
Another consequence of this closed circuit was that no oil could be allowed to contaminate it as that built up on the boiler tubes and again reduced efficiency. So no oil was allowed for internal cylinder lubrication. This meant accelerated wear and it was quite usual for the piston rings of a steamer to have to be replaced and sometimes the cylinder bored, every 5,000 miles approximately. In the early 20th century a firm called Rowan in Belfast who made a piston ring that incorporated springs to maintain wall contact and these were a great success, increasing the time between overhauls. Newton was a great fan of Rowan rings and said that many a time they were as good as a rebore in a lightly worn high pressure cylinder.
Next one?

[Stanley]

Can anyone tell me what this socket is for?

[Marilyn]

A spark plug?

[Stanley]

Not long enough Maz and the wrong shape of splines inside.

[PanBiker]

It looks like a socket for the security nuts on car wheels.