MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Bodger]

Hjorth lathes, boston, us, used for making springs !!, don't ask me how ?

[Bodger]

http://www.datamp.org/images/26908-1.jpg

[Stanley]

Bodge has it exactly. Used for making any coil of wire. Using the tool the wire is fed into a mandrel in the lathe. The 'petal' plate is an adjustment for different thicknesses of wire, the recesses are different depths. It was amongst some tools I bought in a shed clearance and it was years before I found it when I got access to Google.
Next for shaving?

[Stanley]

Try this one....

[David Whipp]

Used with a bar through the hole to rotate something with two holes in it?

[Pluggy]

For opening and closing stop cocks in holes. Except its not big enough.....

[PanBiker]

I would agree with that and also that it's not big enough, multi tool though, two different sized ends.

[chinatyke]

Is it for holding the governors balls apart to check the operation of the steam valve when you are installing one of your steam engines?

Another thought, for opening the small Trisure bungs in oil drums?

[Stanley]

I have to come clean about this one.... I don't know whether it's still there but just as you got into Oldham on the Rochdale road, almost under the big railway bridge, there used to be a wonderful marine store and I often took an odd half hour to have a browse. I saw a couple of sizes of this tool and bought them. The bloke behind the counter said that he was glad I was buying them because that meant that I could tell them what they were for. I told him I had no idea! That was why I was buying them. I have never pinned them down properly but my favourite is for removing those counter sunk circular conical nuts that went on the end of a protruding thread and were flush with the surface. They had a slot like a normal countersunk screw but a screwdriver was no use as the end of the thread interfered with the blade. Anyone got a better idea? (They're ex-army surplus...)

[chinatyke]

Ahhh, a marine connection. Over to you Thomo ...

What you say, Stanley, sounds feasible because those flush conical nuts were used in wooden boat construction.

[David Whipp]

Fresh conical nuts sounds better than governor's balls...

[Stanley]

China, when I say 'marine store' I mean one of those places that sell everything from a pin to an anchor, not necessarily maritime equipment. Goes back to an earlier time when rag and bone dealers were often described as 'marine stores'. You know what I am like with archaic language.

[Stanley]

Further to marine stores... Paul Brydon, Barlick's most prominent rag and bone man, had one leg and a pony and two wheeled cart. He collected in Barlick and Earby early in the 20th century. He had premises at the bottom of Commercial Street and later on Longfield Lane near the waterfall. Both places were noted in the trade directories as 'marine stores'. Here's a rag and bone man with the typical horse and cart in Salford in the 1970s.



Right! We need another object.... Clue, it came from the same source in Oldham as the last one... So, unusual.

[David Whipp]

Sextant box.

[Stanley]

Too small David. There's an association with time..... No! Don't get excited! It's not a chronometer, a bit more technical than that.

[Tizer]

There might be a cat in the box but perhaps we'll never know.

[plaques]

There might be a cat in the box but perhaps we'll never know.

Would that be Schrodinger's cat? Actually its a gold plated Astrological chart ring for predicting potential catastrophic doom events that may befall Barlick.

[Stanley]

Does this help?

[David Whipp]

Stamps or stencils?

[Wendyf]

The numbers seem to correspond to adult shoe sizes.

[Stanley]

Not there yet. Look at the size and think of time.....

[Gloria]

Something to do with weights and a pendulum clock???

[chinatyke]

Why isn't there number 1 and 1¹₂ ?

Is that a clue?

[Big Kev]

Do you put them on a pendulum to finely adjust a big clock?

[Pluggy]

Do you put them on a pendulum to finely adjust a big clock?

Rich man's pennies ?

It fits the clues, but I can't help thinking it's severe overkill, you'd want to use something long term that didn't break up a pretty set. Having said that, I haven't a clue....