MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

It's a little gizmo for sharpening the cutting blades in my old electric razor. The brush is to clean the bits of Stanley out of them.

[Marilyn]

Well, apart from the sharpener bit, I got the rest right.

Think the latest one is some kind of boiler/furnace for heating of water. I note the pipe that comes out and goes up the wall.

[Stanley]

Close but no cigar. It's connected with steam.

[chinatyke]

I guess it is a venturi usually used for 'drawing' water say from a boiler feed water well in case the electric pumps couldn't be run, a back up or safety device. This one looks as though it might be actuated automatically or remotely by compressed air. The steam went through the venturi and water was drawn in from the side pipe. They have them on steam traction engines for drawing water from streams and ponds, although much smaller than this.

[Gloria]

Looks like an health and safety nightmare---they'd have a field day with that nowadays.

[Tizer]

For a moment I thought it was a Steele's mashing machine in a brewery but that would have an opening at the bottom rather than the pipe being connected to something else. In the mashing machine the grist (ground up malted barley) would have entered the wide horizontal pipe from the grist case (inverted pyramid) on the floor above and hot water would have come in from a side pipe. The resulting mixture (mash) would be pushed along the horizontal pipe by an Archimedean screw and drop through the open end into the mash tun. The brewer (with a pipe full of old Condor in his mouth and a pint or two of `best' in his belly) would have one hand on a slider that controlled the grist falling into the pipe and the other on the tap for the hot water. The temperature of the mash had to be 150 degrees F and if it varied by by more than a couple of degrees the day's brew would be ruined.

[Stanley]

Sorry, none of you are there yet. Think of James Watt and how he improved the Atmospheric engine.....
Gloria, extremely safe and it would be exactly the same under today's regulations.

[chinatyke]

A steam condenser? Maybe on the condensate return line going back to the boiler feed water well? Just a guess!

I remember the name of what I was trying to describe above - an ejector.

[Marilyn]

An ancient coffee machine. A latte, anyone?

[Stanley]

China has got it but not quite right. It's the jet condenser on Bancroft engine where cold water is dragged in from the lodge to mix with the exhausr steam to give the 25" of vacuum that makes the engine more efficient. It is lept clear of water by the air pump I posted earlier. James Watts' major contribution to the steam engine.



What exactly is Stanley doing here?

[Cathy]

Prospecting for gold

[Marilyn]

Cleaning out a plastic container by swilling it with wet sand?

Love the outfit. Nice legs!

[Marilyn]

Hmmmm....could you be trying to collect BLOOD WORMS?

[Pluggy]

Knowing Stanley its probably something to do with cooling/feed water for a mill engine..........

[Stanley]

None of the above anywhere near... (By the way Maz, restrain yourself but you're right, this was thirty years ago when my beard was still black!) Try a bit of lateral thought.... (It's in me memoirs....)

[EileenDavid]

Testing to see how deep the water is. Eileen

[Marilyn]

Building a fish trap.

[Tizer]

Auditioning for Crocodile Dundee!

[Gloria]

Would you have been expected to walk along those planks Stanley? There looks as though there are gaps at the sides of them.

[PanBiker]

Those are not gaps Gloria they are "self accessed risks", or certainly were before the Elf and Safety fairies spoilt everything. Nowt wrong as long as you knew where the gaps were.

[Gloria]

The elf and safety fairies could hold their field day down there.

[Marilyn]

Planks? Gaps?

Do I need to blow the pic up to know what you are on about?

Cos I can't see any planks.....

[Stanley]

Maz, bit of a mix up here. Gloria was talking about Edna Lumb's painting of the boilers at Ellenroad on 'Steam Engines and Waterwheels'.
Nobody has got the current object yet so one more clue. It's the Macquarie River at Dubbo, NSW and it's in me memoirs.

[Cathy]

Are you rinsing out a sock Stanley (after all that panning for Gold) ?

[PanBiker]

Planks? Gaps?

Do I need to blow the pic up to know what you are on about?

Cos I can't see any planks.....

Not Stanley in the river Maz, the boiler picture before it.