MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

Any takers? You've seen it before......

[Steeplejerk]

Sett square

[PanBiker]

Spirit level?

[Stanley]

You were on the right track Ian butTom has it, a big set square I found in the roof space at Ellenroad buried under rubbish. Some roofer was really pissed off at losing it!
Next one?

[PanBiker]

I know what the bloke that lost it must have felt like.

My first day at work in 1970 was actually enrolling at Burnley College for my 5 year City & Guilds course. At Lunch time I went down to Sutcliffe Tools in town and bought the start of my tool kit which was a pair of CK side cutters with orange handles and a pair of CK snipe nosed pliers. I carried both of those in my overall pockets for my entire career in field & bench servicing for the next twenty years. After that for the next 15 years in computer servicing and network installation. When I was working as Network Manager at St Teds in Burnley. I left the side cutters somewhere above the roof tiles while routing new network infrastructure. During the Building Schools for the Future project, Teds was bulldozed to the ground and a completely new school (Blessed Trinity College) was built on the site. My side cutters were either recovered by someone else or are part of the foundations for the new school. Never had a pair of side cutters since that were as good as that first pair!

[Tripps]

I can relate to that Ian.

In the army the

snipe nosed pliers.

wre known as "Pliers Wiring No 81" and universally referred to as "81's".

Never far from hand over many years.

[Stanley]

What is it?

[Big Kev]

Lobster or crab trap?

[Gloria]

I’m with Kev.

[Cathy]

Looks to be Seafood related in some way

[Stanley]

You're all on the right track, It's a North American native tribe fish trap.
Next one?

[Stanley]

What is it?

[Stanley]

No Takers? I shall give it until dinnertime....

[Cathy]

Does it oil part of a loom?

[Stanley]

No Cathy but you are on the right track, it is loom related.

[Stanley]

One last clue..... Think about the healds.......

[Big Kev]

A bunch of heald chains. Used for suspending the healds or heddles in the loom as they were more durable and easily adjusted than strings

[Stanley]

Yes Kev, Exactly right. Now we have to find another object.....

[Stanley]

What is it?

[PanBiker]

Button polishing shield as issued to service personnel.

[Tripps]

They were known as Button Sticks. I think I remember that mine was in a sort of bakelite material not brass. Thank goodness - one less item to polish.

[Stanley]

Mine was Bakelite as well David.....



What is it? (Original spelling please, not Anglicised version.)

[Tripps]

Mine was Bakelite as well

Actually I never used it, all the time I had one. By the 1960's buttons were not brass which needed polishing, but something called "Staybright" which did what it said in the name. It just became an item which had to carried around the Empire, and from time to time, accounted for - on your AF 1198.

That sounds like "The Ipcress File"

[Stanley]

I was not so lucky, my buttons were brass and then there was the badges and collar dogs to shine up That was demob group 54-06.

[Big Kev]

What is it? (Original spelling please, not Anglicised version.)

Eierschalensollbruchstellenverursacher, boiled egg topper.