MYSTERY OBJECTS

[PanBiker]

I think thats just the angle of the shot Liz, creating a bit of an optical illusion. If you look closely there is a shadow to the right on both arms which confirms both loops are in the conventional orientation.

An early par of safety specs with plain lenses?

[plaques]

They are your old sleeping glasses. (Steam Engines and Water Wheels 10 Nov). The wire side pieces are specially designed to stop them falling off when you're nodding off. They are now probably sat on the mantle piece only to be used for after dinner emergency nods.

[chinatyke]

Borrowed from Cosmo Smallpiece?

[Marilyn]

Borrowed from Harry Potter...

[Stanley]

Or even John Lennon! Apart from one specific matter they are normal specs. It's the specific you are after.

[Marilyn]

The arms come apart from the bit that sits on your snozz or they can come completely apart into two halves? ( magnetic)

[Gloria]

Can they, when not in use, and not on the top of your head, be flicked over onto the back of your head and they don't fall off??

[hartley353]

Are they clinic glasses, that kids got in the fifties, some had to wear them with a plaster on one lens.

[PanBiker]

Are they the crush proof "memory metal" jobby's.

[Cathy]

I think they may have extendable arms, and the part that goes over the nose looks to be at a strange angle.

[Marilyn]

Like for Pinnocchio to wear Cazza? When his nose grows his glasses extend?
(Zooooooom) ha ha

[plaques]

NHS glasses. Can't see you parting with any money!

[Stanley]

You’re all skirting round the answer but not getting the specific. It's all a long time ago and very few will remember even if they are old enough. These are my army issue glasses that I got when I was called up in 1954. The unique feature is that the side arms are flat spring steel made that way so that when you wore them under a gas mask the side arms didn't leave a gap at the side of your head which would have allowed gas to enter when you breathed in.



Here's a blast from the past for you! Stanley at Sennerlager in Germany in 1955. I had broken my glasses in an accident and so was excused duties until the new ones arrived from UK. The bloke on the left is Mick Burgess, regimental boxing champion, best gunlayer I ever came across and all round good egg. He was unique in that he volunteered for the Green Howards after he came out of prison because the judge promised him five years hard labour next time he appeared before the bench. Mick found out that the Green Howards was a Rifle Regiment and they never marched, everything was done on the double with rifles at the trail. He didn't like this so he deserted and joined the Cheshires. It took them 18 months to catch up with him but in the end they left him where he was, I suspect the fact that he was the regiment's best boxer had something to do with it. I got into trouble later in a bar in Berlin when a very large and very angry Argyll and Sutherland Highlander took a dislike to me (Very common, they didn't like being called 'sheep-shaggers') and Mick tapped the man on the shoulder and said "Leave my mate alone". That solved the problem! Johno was a curiosity, a national service man but ten years older than most of us, but that's another story....
Remember what I said yesterday about national service? It was a disaster at the time but on the whole one of the best things that ever happened to me. By the way, one for the military vehicle buffs, the machine behind us is an Oxford gun-tower. (LINK)
Now we need another object.......

[plaques]

Scale is Centimeters. Little inches not insects.

[PanBiker]

It's obviously for cramping something specific up or clamping another piece to something 1" wide but what?

[hartley353]

It has the look of a chain splitter.

[plaques]

Hartley353, Spot on. I thought it might be a mistake putting something on made in Manchester.

One of my old motorcycles was a Sunbeam S8 shaft drive. Didn't need these gadgets. Thought PanBiker would get it
Here's the other side.

[plaques]

Last one for this week.

[chinatyke]

Self locking latch on something. ISO container door or truck cargo door?

[Stanley]

Jaws on a key-cutter or shaper?

[plaques]

Stanley's right again. I knew when he mentioned posh birds I was dealing with experts.

I always remember the answer given by Sir Mortimer Wheeler in "Animal Vegetable and Mineral" when the question master, with a smile on his face, told Sir Mortimer he was wrong!
Sir Mortimer's reply was. Sorry you are wrong "I dug it up".

[hartley353]

Hartley353, Spot on. I thought it might be a mistake putting something on made in Manchester.

One of my old motorcycles was a Sunbeam S8 shaft drive. Didn't need these gadgets. Thought PanBiker would get it
Here's the other side.

Renold chains looks to have reached the end of the line now, very sad. Some where amongst lifes clutter I may still have a handbook for a S8.

[PanBiker]

Thought PanBiker would get it
Here's the other side.

Agreed, I should have although not used or needed one for 35 years or more. My current and last bike is an 1100cc shaft driven beast, a much more civilised arrangement than sprockets and chains, and a lot more efficient at delivering the torque.

[Stanley]

Try this one....

[Gloria]

You turn the screw and move something held in the "T" piece up or down?? It doesn't travel a long way.