MYSTERY OBJECTS

[David Whipp]

Incontinence roll holder, from when the building was used by Luxan.

[PanBiker]

The leaf spring mounted on the side does not compress it springs in the opposite direction. Locking mechanism on the pin arrangement through the shaft is over engineered for what it does, why use an allen screw through the side to lock it when it would have been much simpler to make the adjustable pin arrangement itself from threaded rod?

[Tizer]

..why use an allen screw through the side to lock it when it would have been much simpler to make the adjustable pin arrangement itself from threaded rod?

Perhaps because you'd set it once and never again, or set it only rarely and didn't want anyone fiddling and putting it out of its place?
Every home should have one!

[Stanley]

If it isn't for making Scout woggles it has me beat!

[PanBiker]

At first glance I thought it was a bell actuator switch from above a door but the leaf spring is not isolated from the rest of the body. Spring action is in the wrong direction as well. Slotted arrangement at the top could lend itself to some other piece interfacing with it to actuate the leaf spring but to what end? No electrical switching properties possible so cant be used to count or trigger something else. There are no manufacturers marks on it to give any clues but it is quite well made.

[Stanley]

While you are cogitating about the previous object, have a crack at this one. All right it's an oil can but what sort and what is special about it?

[PanBiker]

it has a flexible spout no doubt to get into awkward areas possibly in the nooks and crannies of a steam engine?

[Tizer]

You can pump oil out of the spout in an upwards direction and thus oil machinery from underneath instead of by gravity feed from above.

[Stanley]

All true but can someone be more specific, like what make and why it is famous?

[David Whipp]

Because it's yours, Stanley.

[PanBiker]

Acme..

[Stanley]

Perhaps too obscure. It's a German Reilang oil can, widely regarded as the best in the world. I looked them up, they cost £31 now, good job I bought two.....
Next for shaving?

[PanBiker]

So, my proper mystery object has us all beat?

[Stanley]

I can't speak for anyone else but it has me beat. Funnily enough the analogy that kept popping into my head was expansing castration rings for young pigs and taking the tails off lambs but it isn't that.

[Gloria]

It looks vaguely familiar but no idea what it is.

[chinatyke]

Looks like a mounting foot for an open-plan office partition screen. Oxymoron?

[Tizer]

Oxymoron? Isn't that a washing powder?

[Stanley]

While you are thinking, have a crack at this. Can anyone tell me what this very skilled lady is doing?

[Gloria]

Is it something to do with tachographs??

[Stanley]

I can see where you are coming from Gloria but no. You are in the right field, measurement.

[Tizer]

She seems to be measuring the distance (radius) from the centre of the white disk to some other point and the disks look like they are recording charts out of a machine of some kind. Are they measuring the change of temperature (or pressure) with time?

[Stanley]

Sorry Tiz, much more simple. The discs are metal, enamelled white.

[Stanley]

This has stalled hasn't it. The lady was at the Budenberg Gauge factory near Altrincham in about 1988. Budenbergs were refurbishing all my gauges from Ellenroad free and I was visiting to see the factory. Fascinating how some processes hadn't changed. This lady is hand painting pressure gauge dials and her work was amazing, such skill. Normally they used Letraset as it was the most fade resistant black available. However, if they were refurbishing an old gauge they painted it by hand in the original style, very often German Gothic script. The 'paint' was a black pigment ground with solvent at the bench on a piece of plate glass. The source was China and every year a director went to China to bring back a bucket of the pigment. They said that if the went and collected it personally they were sure of getting the highest quality. See this LINK for a short history of the company. When I went there it was still family run and although it looked incredibly old-fashioned they were making the best gauges in the world.
Next for shaving?

[Stanley]

Try this one....

[David Whipp]

For pressure testing?

(I must be under pressure; I was sure I posted an object yesterday morning...!)