MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Tizer]

I'd never heard Heron used as his name. Live and learn!

[Stanley]

Quite right all of you. It was the variation in the spelling of his name that suggested it.

[Stanley]

Any ideas what this is?

[Cathy]

Has it been in the sea Stanley?

[Stanley]

Yes Cathy and for a long time!

[Bodger]

The first Rolex Oyster on test, it's astronomical !!

[Stanley]

In a way that's right Bodge and yes, it is connected with astronomy.

[PanBiker]

Antikythera mechanism which was an very early astronomical computer.

[Stanley]

That's right Ian. I looked into it and found to my surprise that a man called Michael Wright had done the impossible, worked out what it was, how it was made and most amazingly built a replica. I worked with Michael a lot when he was a keeper of scientific instruments at the Science Museum and for some reason that included steam engines.
See THIS BBC account, well worth reading, includes an account of the friction between parties over the reconstruction.
Next one?

[Stanley]

Who is this and where is it?

[chinatyke]

Lady Whatsit on her 3 legged horse.

[PanBiker]

Gertrude Bell, "Queen of the Desert", she could be compared as a female version of Lawrence of Arabia. Came across her in one of my books on early 20th century history. I would say the location is Baghdad as there was a documentary made "Letters from Baghdad", it's been on TV and I think it's available on DVD.

[Tripps]

I did a quick speculative google, and came up with Gertrude Bell, but dismissed her.

The Building Regs were a bit slack in those days.

[Stanley]

Quite right Ian. Gertrude Bell. A fascinating woman and all part of the larger story of how we 'improved' Mesopotamia!
Next one?

[Stanley]

Can you tell me what's going on here?

[chinatyke]

The night they drove old Dixie down ...

Virgil Caine is my name and I drove on the Danville train. 'Til so much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again. In the winter of sixty-five, we were hungry, just barely alive. I took the train to Richmond that fell. It was a time I remember, oh, so well.

[Wendyf]

The night they drove old Dixie down ...

Virgil Caine is my name and I drove on the Danville train. 'Til so much cavalry came and tore up the tracks again. In the winter of sixty-five, we were hungry, just barely alive. I took the train to Richmond that fell. It was a time I remember, oh, so well.

I hope you are right China, as it gives me an excuse to share this:

The Band.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jREUrbGGrgM

[Stanley]

Sorry, no. Clue, for the record, they are adding something to the track not destroying it.

[Tizer]

Putting in a water trough for engines to collect water `on the go'.
Or putting in an extra line of rails to make it dual gauge track.

[Stanley]

Sorry no. I embedded a big clue, the word 'record'. Concentrate on that.

[chinatyke]

Working on the chain gang?

[Cathy]

It’s the longest train line from ‘somewhere to somewhere’, sorry I don’t know from where to where.

[Bodger]

Laying board for a speed attempt bicycle ?

[Stanley]

Ahhhh... Bodge is on to it! Now, who, where, when and how?

[Stanley]

Come on! Bodge gave it to you!