MYSTERY OBJECTS

[EileenDavid]

Are they used in manufacturing of watches and clocks and what makes it special is it was made in Providence Rhode Island and they were normally made in Switzerland? I once smuggled a micrometer into South Africa with inches and millimeters as my brother couldn't purchase one there.

[Stanley]

Eileen, International Smuggler! Who'd have thought it? Nothing peculiar about the fact it was made on Rhode Island. The Americans were very good at small tools and measuring devices and exported all over the world. There is something quite unique about it. Let's give it another day and see if anyone can crack it. One of my treasured possessions and came to me with a bunch of strange stuff I got from a workshop sale.

[Bradders Bluesinger]

The barrel seems to be "lockable".....
Measures upto 1/4 " thickness.....
Glass?
Steel?
Does it have a Frank Whittle connection , maybe ?

[Stanley]

I can see I'll have to put you out of your misery. "The Brown & Sharpe Micrometer Caliper adopted by the Master Mechanics Association as the U.S. Standard Measuring Instrument. The introduction of the micrometer caliper to the mechanical world came about by the visit of the two partners to the Paris Exposition in 1867. Attention there was called to the invention of a Mr. Jean Laurent Palmer who had patented a measuring tool in France, in 1848. This greatly interested both Mr. Brown and Mr. Sharpe. A combination of the Palmer design with an idea for a measuring tool submitted by a Bridgeport brass manufacturer only a few months before, quickly suggested the modern tool so familiar to all mechanics and so permeating all modern manufacture. Its development in succeeding years brought notable credit to the company."

The picture is one of the original B&S micrometers. They were introduced originally for measuring the thickness of sheet metal, that's why it only measures to 1/4". It soon became obvious that it was so efficient and useful it was made in larger sizes. Mine is stamped 'J Nubley', the original owner. I have quite a few small tools with his name stamped on them. A nice link with a man who evidently bought and used the most up to date tools.

[Stanley]

[EileenDavid]

Stuff Eileen

[Stanley]

You are forgiven Eileen but it's a bit more exciting than the normal run of 'stuff'. Look more carefully, what sort of stuff?

[Nolic]

Stumped???? Nolic

[Wendyf]

Beachcombing stuff?

[catgate]

Looks like the contents of a piano keyboard makers scrap bin to me.

[Whyperion]

Some kind of panel beaters dollys and pullers ?

[Bradders Bluesinger]

Ivory and Bone ?
Stuff for making other stuff out of....!

[Stanley]

Catty and Brad, near enough! It's not a piano-key maker but an ornamental turner's scrap box. I got these in a mixed lot out of an old workshop. Off cuts of Ivory, bone and exotic hardwoods all used for ornamental turning. Illegal since 1947 but these escape the CITES regs because there is no doubt they are much older. Indeed, some of it could be Mammoth Ivory recovered from glaciers. It's a little known fact but most piano keys are made from mammoth ivory because it was harder than fresh material. There are two Ivory billiard balls as well....

[Stanley]

[Stanley]

A deathly hush.... Perhaps this might help you:

[Bradders Bluesinger]

Dr. Bodum's prototype ........

[Stanley]

You've lost me Brad. The object is a spare barrel for a Kirkham's HP lubricator. Not a lot of them about and I have three rescued from the Lark Street works before it was demolished.

[Whyperion]

I was going to say a bucket with a hole in the bottom and no carrying handle but thought that answer too obvious.

[Bradders Bluesinger]

Sorry Stanley !....Bodums make cafetierereres (spel )
PS ....and ,as an aside, every time I press the plunger down I think of Alec Guinness and the River Kwai...!

[Whyperion]

So if we link up one of the steam engines to a Bodum cafeteirery thingy , then the cooled water after the third expansion cylinder can just fill it with hot enough water , if we have a power take off we can grind the coffee beans and an eccentric off the lub system can push the plunger down for us, the ultimate coffee machine fitted in at Bancroft ?

Fit a pipework system around town and we have our own supply of on tap coffee to all the coffee houses in town - only problem one cannot select easily ones blend of choice without multiple pipework. Roasting can also take place from the bolier heat output as well.

[Stanley]

[catgate]

Organic free range haemorrhoid.

[Bradders Bluesinger]

Fresh supply of pipe cleaners.......?

[EileenDavid]

mop head taken from an obscure angle or is it part of the great barrier reef Eileen

[Whyperion]

Close up of vermiculite ,or , knowing Stanley , some part of cotton in one of its stages of life or processing.