MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Marilyn]

I see the man bending down and tending to something at the front seems to be fiddling with some sort of fire box...at least the bricks are blackened there giving the impression of burning.

[Stanley]

Bodge and Stoneroad have got it. It's a half-sized replica of a Newcomen Beam engine built by enthusiasts in New Zealand.



My Carleton College students watching the full size replica of the Newcomen engine running at the Black Country Museum in 1991. Now I have to think of another.....

[Stanley]

The mystery here is what is his name. I know he owned the Great Todber Steam Museum and made his money as a dry stone walling contractor.

[Gloria]

Tom Varley???? Only cause I googled it.

[David Whipp]

I'm guessing Gloria is right?

How about this one.



Not the brick...

[Stanley]

Never seen anything like it. It looks like a template for trimming slate?

[David Whipp]

Sorry Stanley, no connection with quarrying.

Here's a slightly different picture of this mystery object. You can't make out the Patent Number on this one - but it has got a good pedigree.

[Marilyn]

Anything to do with chickens?

[Stanley]

I'm with Maz. Bob hole for a hen hut?

[David Whipp]

Chickens is on the right lines, but not a bob hole for a hen hut....

[Stanley]

Top off a brooder?

[Marilyn]

When I first saw it, I thought it had something to do with chickens because I have seen those cross beams on chicken ramps in hen houses. It looks a bit like a 'pet door' in the first photo too...and the small size if made me think chickens. The shape of the slot had me thinking of getting chickens necks in there and holding them until chopped.
then I got to thinking I must stop these barbaric thoughts.
as there is no stain below the slit, guess it is not a killing place.

promise I shall go to therapy soon...

[Cathy]

Can't think what that notch is for, but is it a gate type thing to direct chickens in different directions??

[Steeplejerk]

Pigeons ??

[David Whipp]

Not there yet - certainly hens rather than pigeons, and pedigree poultry at that...

[Marilyn]

Is it to hold their feet whilst they are being groomed? Some pedigree chooks have a lot of feathers around their feet...

[Stanley]

Top off a transport box?

[David Whipp]

More to do with the breeding...

[Gloria]

Part of a nest box?

[Marilyn]

More to do with the breeding...

Oh dear...do we really want to know what gets poked through that slot?

Is it so the male can mate with the female without damaging her?

( eeee...why am I thinking Amsterdam?).

[Cathy]

Don't really want to know what those 2 pieces of iron are coming down to a scroll at the end of each one....
but maybe they are a clue.

[Tizer]

I can see you need a scientist's input on this one...
The idea is that the device separates the male from the female bird (I first wrote `separate the cock from the hen' but then thought better of it knowing what internet forums are like) and initially the bottom board is in the down position. Then the board is lifted to allow the male to see the female. A soon as the male makes a run at the female the board is slammed down, leaving one very frustrated male bird hopping about. This process is repeated a number of times until the male is judged to be sufficiently motivated to perform at his optimum...and the female is thinking "For goodness sake let's get this over with". Then the board is lifted permanently and nature allowed to take its course. The poultry keeper is advised to stand well clear and not to return until the dust has cleared and the feathers have settled.

[Marilyn]

Really?
(are we getting carried away?...these are chickens and this is nature...why complicate things?)
Must admit I was going to use the word 'cock' and rewrote it.

Now I am thinking that I don't really want to know. What happens in the chook shed stays in the chook shed.

Is the apparatus used to remove the 'fighting claw'? ( again not to damage the female during mating)

Think it is time to reveal the answer before we all have to don protective glasses...

[Stanley]

Tension mounts......

[David Whipp]

What mucky minds some of you have!

Gloria is right...

Part of a nest box?

These were used 60 or so years ago when my mum and dad were pedigree poultry breeders. So that you could keep track of which hen and cock were the parents of each chick, you need to know which hen has laid each egg.

Each cockerel served a particular hen hut (it was more straight forward than the vivid contributions from some of your fevered imaginations!), so you knew who was daddy.

All the nest boxes were fitted with one of our mystery object doors. The sliding piece of plywood was left in the open position. When a hen entered to lay an egg, its movement past the hanging wires caused the plywood to drop - trapping the hen in the nest box.

When the eggs were collected a number from the ring on the hen's leg was transferred to the egg before being released. This allowed the lineage to be recorded.

Son Tom found the nest box door when clearing out part of the family glory hole in the incubator house built by dad at the bottom of our garden in the late 1940's or early '50s.