MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Cathy]

Some pottery clay.

[Big Kev]

Quartz?

[Stanley]

Is it Chrysolite? Raw asbestos?

[Tizer]

Kev is correct with `quartz' but there is something special about this quartz. What is it?

[Cathy]

It's a hundred million years old, and it has 2 faces on it. One is of an old angry man and the other is of a monkey in profile.

[chinatyke]

Rutilated quartz?

[PanBiker]

It's a hundred million years old, and it has 2 faces on it. One is of an old angry man and the other is of a monkey in profile.

I can see both of them also, do you spot unusual cloud formations as well Cathy?

[Cathy]

Yes I do , the other day I saw the shape, in detail, of a Koala. Lovely.

[Big Kev]

Smokey Quartz?

[Tizer]

China's got it - my specimen of rutilated quartz. It's quartz crystal naturally run through with golden, needle-like, fibres of rutile, titanium dioxide, TiO₂. Each needle is a single rutile crystal. It's used as a gemstone and most of it comes from Brazil and India. The specimen is about 2 inches in width.

[Stanley]

Impressive and I would never have got it.....

[Stanley]

I suspect this is too easy...... But just to make it a bit harder, why the shape? There is a very particular reason.

[Cathy]

Ice cube tray, but don't know about the particular shape.

[Stanley]

You've got the first part right Cathy, now how about the reason it's that shape.......

[Cathy]

Is it so that you can slip the ice cubes into the top opening of a drink bottle?

[Bodger]

More surface area for freezing

[Tizer]

It's to make the ice cubes have hemispherical ends and when you put them in your G&T they float prettily with only that curved end projecting from the liquid. Due to the density of ice relative to water, nine tenths of an ice cube are below the water line and the heavier cylindrical part of these ice cubes would lie below the water level.

[PanBiker]

Bravo, now that's a proper answer!

[Tizer]

My first thought had been that it's for making suppositories. I mentioned elsewhere how part of my Boots dispenser training had involved making tablets, pills, potions and suppositories. For the latter you had a metal mould with bullet shaped holes into which you poured the molten material, usually based on cocoa butter because it has a very sharp melting point that coincides with body temperature. The `positories from this blue plastic object would be rather large and probably of more use to veterinary surgeons (not for their self-application, I hasten to add, but for treatment of larger mammals). Mind you, humans are getting bigger...

[StoneRoad]

The shape is so that they will come out of the mould more easily.

[Stanley]

Sorry no. I have no doubt you are all correct but that isn't what I am after. Forget the shape of the moulds, concentrate on the overall design. There is a reason for it.

[Cathy]

Is it made of silicon or does it have a special design, like fruit shapes , at the top opening?

[Stanley]

Normal PVC I think Cathy. You are getting close when you mention openings, there aren't any thus making it spill-proof. It is filled by taking a plug out at the end. This a good clue as to how it is used.....

[Wendyf]

Is it to put in an insulated cool box?

[Stanley]

No, the normal fridge.