MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Cathy]

Haha, hello puss, they always find the best spots.

[plaques]

Back to the mechanical bits, and no you can't sit on it.

[Tizer]

The stand....this is undoubtedly an example of what was known as a Grandad Riser. You would have four of them, and put one on each leg of Grandad's chair so that he could see out of the window.

[Stanley]

Xmas tree holder. Here I stand!
Green jobbie... I'm not going to spoil it for Glo and Cath..... Clue, it's non drybaulic.

[Gloria]

Bottle screw jack????

[plaques]

Here's another bit of the same green jobbie.

[David Whipp]

Xmas tree holder. Here I stand!

I think we've moved on the the greasy green jobby...

The specific use of the Christmas tree stand is as a spinner to make it easier to put the lights on. (Really useful when you've got 170 to do for the shop fronts in Barlick. We also use them in Santa's Grotty.)

Green jobby - what's baulics got to do with it? A Victorian something for lifting hernias?

[Stanley]

Surely Gloria is right?
It's an old engineer's joke, the drybollick jack. Also known as the diabolic jack.

[plaques]

At the risk of being boring I have to say you're wrong. Somewhere in a shed dweller's dark corner there's probably one of these untouched for over 30 years. The ratchet pecker is pushing something down not lifting it up.

[Gloria]

?????? pleeeease put us out of our misery, I cannot see what else it can be.

[Tizer]

So it's a press of some kind...used as a printing press for producing subversive leaflets? Or Stanley's trouser press?

[plaques]

Sorry about the suspense Gloria. Must have watch too many Boris Karloff - Bela Lugosi movies in my youth.

Its a Bradson No 14 stand drill. Still useful on metals that require a constant cut so to avoid work hardening.

[Stanley]

Huh! Of course it is, I've worked with them and should have known that..... Try this one, another ratchet....

[David Whipp]

Oil pump?

[Stanley]

Yup, low pressure lubricator on the Bancroft engine. Try this one....

[Stanley]

Not one offer?

[Cathy]

Brake pads?

[plaques]

Only because you asked. The top and bottom of a long forgotten filter unit.

[Stanley]

No, sorry but you are nowhere near. Think steam engines.

[chinatyke]

Corroded flange and backing plate?

[Stanley]

Getting closer but not there yet.

[Gloria]

Some sort of CAM arrangement??

[Stanley]

I can see why you'd think that Glo but no. I think this is too specialised and I doubt whether anyone will get it. What you are looking at is one of the non-return valves that controls the flow of water through the air pump bucket and also the delivery plate on top. They sit on a circular grid and the rubber flap only allows water to flow one way, the way you want it, out of the pumping chamber. Tou can see how the saucer has broken and the repeated flexing of the rubber has broken part of it off thus destroying efficiency. I made another saucer and fitted a complete set of new rubbers. It gave me another 2" of vacuum which saved a lot of coal. Try this one. All right, it's a pair of spectacles but there is something special about them.....

[Gloria]

It looks as though one side is longer than the other.

[LizG]

One side 'hooks up', the other side 'hooks down'? I don't know why.