MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Tizer]

I do my best to support nature but there's a limit to what you can put up with in the name of being nature-friendly. I had to stop feeding the birds and discourage sparrows from nesting in our roof because they were breaking through the felt and getting into the loft. Then they'd get trapped and die of starvation. We stopped feeding because the sparrows took over and wouldn't let any other birds on the feeder. And sparrows are supposed to be rare birds now!

The workshop photo is fascinating. Stanley suggests the man in the foreground is making butters pats. A similar tool is the bat (batt?) used to pat the soft clay into shape before firing bricks, though by this time I suppose it might have been mechanised. A set of scales can be used as an alternative to counting. If you were packing a dozen of the items at a time into boxes and they were all of the same weight you could grab a bunch (you'd soon get the hang of getting near the correct number), plonk them on the scales and add or remove as necessary. Also useful for someone who can't count! But in the photo there is only one item on the scales. Another possibility is that what look like butter pats are flatpack cardboard boxes waiting to be opened out and filled with something by weight which is measured on the scales. A bit like packing sweets.

[Stanley]

I've been studying the picture again as closely as I can. I'm beginning to wonder about my bobbin turning because most of the benches have hand operated punches on them and this suggests metal. Also there is what looks like a guillotine down at the end of the room which again suggests metal. At the far end there are belt drives from the shafting which suggests lathes. The time clock looks fairly modern.... 1920s or 30s?

[Wendyf]

The "butter pat" shaped objects look to be made from a thick material(leather?) the far corner of the pile is sagging slightly. There are some neatly wrapped up parcels in the near corner of the photo, and rolls of fabric against the far wall. The man in the foreground is wearing a thick leather apron,does that suggest metal work?

[Tizer]

Is the foreground man operating a small press with his left hand? He's holding the handle as if about to bring down the hinged `lid'. He could be pressing a name into a thin metal plate or it might be printing a name or number onto the flat shapes.

[Wendyf]

Do you think he is cutting out the shapes themselves, then putting them on the scales till he has the right amount in a stack?

[PanBiker]

I have put the picture up again as it's now over on the previous page. It's certainly an interesting photo. Whatever is in the baskets looks different to what is on the bench in the foreground. Each bench looks to have a press or punch of some sort. Are they inserting the objects from the baskets into the ones stacked on the bench? Looks like the back section of the shed has a different function to the front with the belt drives to some benches or equipment. Are the metal box vents in the top left for shed heating, cooling or extraction?

[Tizer]

I've managed to find 4 sets of scales in the photo so they are obviously important to whatever is going on. It looks as if something is being sold by weight rather than number. Either the items themselves, or as I mentioned earlier they are flat boxes to be opened then filled to a fixed weight with something else. The one on the scales is ready to be opened up then filled perhaps? What is the machine in the lower left foreground? It seems to have a counterweight on it.

[PanBiker]

Each bench seems to have a counter weighted punch / press. The ones on the extreme left and right gives a good view. The head or business end of the device seems to be roughly the same size as the objects in the baskets. Are they for embossing, another option I suppose?

[Gloria]

The machine in the lower left foreground looks like a Box and Pan Hand Bending Machine.

[Tizer]

In that case they are presumably folding metal sheet to make those batt shapes? I tend to agree with Plaques that it might be during WW2 and the business was a small engineering firm that would make whatever was needed. The objects could be parts for any one of many things such as vehicles, ships, aircraft, guns and so could be very difficult to identify.

[Tizer]

If Wendy doesn't mind I'll ask you all to have a go at identifying this one while continuing to think about her workshop photo (they are not meant to be related)...

[PanBiker]

Are these slices through fossil bearing rocks?

[Tizer]

Yes, well done Ian, you know my interests too well! But what might the fossils be?

[PanBiker]

They look like beetles or other preserved remains or maybe sections of plant stems.

[Tizer]

Neither beetles nor sections of plant stems, although I can't deny "other preserved remains" as all fossils are preserved remains!

[Cathy]

Amoeba.
Whatever they are, they are quite pretty.

[Marilyn]

Sea urchins?

[chinatyke]

Sections through fossilised bones?

Just had another thought, dinosaur eggs?

[Stanley]

Coprolites?

Maz has confused the issue, she's sent two pics and wants to know what it is.

[Marilyn]

Yes...sorry to push in ( You could have saved it for a later date, Stanley).
I know what it does ( cos it had a big sign at the bottom of it), but wondered what others might think it was used for...

[Tizer]

It's OK Maz, Stanley posted your pics at the same time as giving the correct answer to my mystery object! You were all along the right lines but well done to Stanley, he got it with `coprolites', i.e. fossil poo. Ian suggested fossil beetles which is not surprising as these `coprolitic nodules' were often known as Beetle Stones in the past. My photo is of the top of a table in Lyme Regis Museum. The table top was made for William Buckland, an early geologist (1784-1856) using sectioned coprolitic nodules of about 330 millon years age. More information can be found on the museum's web site and a 15-page PDF file is available for download. The web page is: Buckland table

I have selected out some of the information below.
"He [Buckland] had it made as a curiosity for his drawing room to house a display of coprolitic nodules cut for him by an Edinburgh lapidary. The centre part of each nodule is the coprolite, with a spiral structure of small elongate pieces of brown-stained phosphatised bone from which thin veins spread out, the whole in section resembling a beetle, hence the name Beetle Stones. Coprolite is fossilised excrement, in this case fish excrement."

"Buckland had a particular penchant for coprolites and their value to science in indicating past environments. He used Hyena coprolites to demonstrate the origin on bone cave deposits in Yorkshire and he described Ichthyosaur coprolites from Lyme Regis, drawing conclusions on the diet of the animals, noting the presence of crushed bone material and belemnite hooks. He promoted the agricultural value of crushed coprolites as a source of phosphate fertiliser. Buckland became the subject of coprolitic jokes and cartoons from his friends – so extensive was his interest in this material. Children love to see this table because of references to Dr Buckland’s Poo Table in Museum material and children’s fossil books about Lyme Regis."

It amused Buckland to have tea and cake served on the table in the presence of genteel people who didn't know what it was and it was a good talking point when more educated guests visited. (They were lucky if it was cake they ate - the Oxford prof was well-known for trying out anything that he thought might be edible and guests were served parts of strange animals and strange parts of animals.) Buckland also noted that he often saw ladies wearing ear rings made of polished pieces of coprolite but they had no idea what they were - until he gleefully told them, of course.

[chinatyke]

Marilyn's device looks like one I used in the back of a butcher friend's shop in Burnley for grinding meat and fat and incorporating the various additives like seasoning and cereal for sausage meat.

[Marilyn]

Nearly there, China (you clever young man).
But not for meat.

[PanBiker]

Wool shredder?

[Marilyn]

Sorry, no...