MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

Ah, thanks for that. I hope their electric clock is more reliable that our two in Barlick.
So, a church in Nelson?

[Tizer]

On my PC , right clicking on the image to get the drop down menu does not give a Google search option despite Google being set as my default search engine. I would try the other option Gloria, drag the image into the Google Image Search box, works for me every time.

None of those works for me. The only way I've managed it is to open a second Firefox window, put the cursor in the Google search box of that page, click the `Images' link at top right to give me the Google Images Search page. Then I have to drag the mystery image from OG onto that Google Images search box - but I'm not using a widescreen so I have to alter the size of one of the windows so I can see them both to drag from one to the other.

[plaques]

I'll close the mystery object since its only become a guessing game. Its Colne St Bartholomew Church. A few years back they had an open day where those with a head for heights could climb to the top of the roof. I thought Wendy may have got it.

[StoneRoad]

I did a similar exercise a few years ago at a church my father in law was familiar with (He had converted it to use electric light many years previously).
I don't have that good a head for heights, so getting up there was quite an achievement - I did take some pictures ...
http://www.ipernity.com/doc/312383/album/956046

[plaques]

A bit of optics but what exactly is it?
.

[PanBiker]

Is it a pocket microscope?

[Stanley]

My first thought is the same as Ian's.

[plaques]

Not a microscope, more in Tizer's field.

[chinatyke]

Is it a refractometer?

[Tizer]

Not a microscope, more in Tizer's field.

Stanley and I have been discussing binoculars on OG so I'll guess it's a monocular or telescope.

[plaques]

Its a telescope but different in its day. What makes it special?

[Tizer]

Was it the first to use a zoom function like modern binoculars rather than the old sliding tubes type of telescope magnification?

[plaques]

Spot on Tizer. Heavy little lump, 30mm object lens, two focus adjustment screws one front one aft, says X25 but I don't know what this means. Absolutely useless, I can see better just by squinting. Fortunately got it through a string of 'give away's'.
Next please.

[Tizer]

We used to have an old monocular. It looked just like a binocular sawn in half. Easier to carry in a pocket in the days when all binoculars were big beasts; but not much good in use! Jim Al-Kalili has a good TV programme on the history of the telescope. It starts out thousands of years ago when people were making stone dolmens and shows one in Portugal which is like a tunnel. It's thought they used to judge when to plant crops by looking at the position of the stars and the tunnel points at a specific part of the low sky where they could check their star. There's a theory that the tunnel acted in some ways like a pinhole camera and helped them focus on the star.

Let's see whether anyone can identify what is shown in this photo...

[Cathy]

Old damaged terra-cotta roof tiles.

[chinatyke]

Is it volcanic lava from a vent?

[Stanley]

Are they bits of broken stoneware edging strips? Down the side of garden paths for instance....

[Gloria]

Earthenware downspout/guttering?

[plaques]

Roman villa water supply pipes. Where? no idea. Why because Tizer is interested in this sort of thing.

[Tizer]

No correct answers. Yes, Plaques, but Tizer's interested in the sort of thing Chinatyke has suggested although the object is nothing to do with volcanoes. Nevertheless, he's got the closest to the answer.

[chinatyke]

No correct answers. Yes, Plaques, but Tizer's interested in the sort of thing Chinatyke has suggested although the object is nothing to do with volcanoes. Nevertheless, he's got the closest to the answer.

I can only think that I'm close because it is not earthenware (guessing again!)
Is it foundry slag from iron smelting/purifying/casting?

[Tizer]

No, sorry! But you were close with volcano because you were thinking of something not made by man.

[chinatyke]

You've got me stumped!

Fossilised stumps?

[Stanley]

Is it slag that has been poured off the main body and then been cut and moved before it has fully solidified?

[plaques]

Following China's suggestions. Resultant 'piping' of lava-flows-on-Hawaii's-big-island covering vegetation, trees etc, leaving a hollowed out section.