MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Gloria]

Good, that's near enough, well done Stanley. It's a Maudslay.

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[Stanley]

Oops! Sorry about that Gloria.... You'll have to post another now!

[Stanley]

Any idea what this is all about?

[Tizer]

Is it something to do with clocking in and out from work?

[Gloria]

Is he doing a polishing process?

[Tizer]

He's Jacob Rees-Mogg's driver waiting for the `guvner' to phone him and say `Get the Bentley out, Horace'.

[chinatyke]

I can't work out what the pedestal thing is, it is a very substantial lump. Weighing machine/ weighbridge?

[Wendyf]

It looks a bit like a prison cell.

[PanBiker]

I would guess a weighbridge operator as well.

[Stanley]

Wendy is very warm!

[Stanley]

I'll give it a bit longer but you are going to kick yourselves when I come clean. Follow Wendy.....

[Marilyn]

No idea...

[Big Kev]

Is it a prison punishment machine? Winding the handle for several hours a day for no specific purpose?

[Stanley]

Kev has got it! See THIS explanation. It is 'crank punishment' used in prison as either punishment or as part of a sentence of imprisonment with hard labour.I see it is also the origin of the term 'screw' for warders as this refers to them adjusting the mechanism to vary the amount of effort needed.

[Gloria]

Is it something to do with Calderstones?

[Stanley]

No Gloria. See the above. It's in a prison cell at Wormwood Scrubs in the 19th century.

[Gloria]

No Gloria. See the above. It's in a prison cell at Wormwood Scrubs in the 19th century.

Ooops I never saw that.

[plaques]

The crank. A short YouTube on prison punishment. The Crank..

[chinatyke]

Kev has got it! See THIS explanation. It is 'crank punishment' used in prison as either punishment or as part of a sentence of imprisonment with hard labour.I see it is also the origin of the term 'screw' for warders as this refers to them adjusting the mechanism to vary the amount of effort needed.

I wasn't aware that prisoners did useless hard labour. I thought they did tasks like breaking stones for roads. It seems pointless and idiotic. The good old days, eh?

[Marilyn]

I don't think it is such a bad thing. Keeps you fit and warm. It is repetitive, so you can just ZEN out and think your own thoughts. And you will sleep better for it.

[Stanley]

Somehow I don't think the people doing it would agree Maz.
China, remember Dickens asking the ghost if there were no treadmills? They were used for useless punishment as well.

[plaques]

I don't think it is such a bad thing. Keeps you fit and warm. It is repetitive, so you can just ZEN out and think your own thoughts

How about this one which was part of Oscar Wilde's hard labour. Stand in line with your cap on so you could only look forward, no talking. Bend down pick up a large stone.Take three paces sideways to the left. Put stone down and stand up. Bend down pick up the stone and take three paces to the right, put stone down, stand up. Repeat again for 8 hours.
How long would you last? China is right, barbaric.

[Stanley]

[Marilyn]

No worse than some household tasks...if you are the one doing them every day!

[PanBiker]

Or many kinds of piecework.

Watched in the Factory the other night and there was a woman there who had been putting the half cherries on top of Cherry Bakewells by hand for 30 years. Sally used to sew the binding on over a thousand pairs of slippers every day when she worked at Peter Blacks. Cars are built that way on the JIT production line each operative only completing a specific but accurate number of tasks then doing it again day in day out. The difference of course is that all these examples have purpose and you get paid for doing it.