MYSTERY OBJECTS

[PanBiker]

First purpose built fully automatic example?

[Tizer]

As far as I know, it's not that, Panbiker. Stanley is correct about it being on a headland because he can see that it's hardly elevated above the ground level...and there lies a clue to what's so notable about it.

[PanBiker]

Found it!

It's a good one Tiz.

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Berry Head - Shortest, Highest, Deepest in the UK

Berry Head

[Stanley]

I was thinking it might be the shortest......

[PanBiker]

That was my search term and the result is quite surprising.

[Tizer]

Well done, Ian, a good bit of sleuthing! And thanks for the link to the Berry Head page on the Photographer's Resource web page. I hadn't seen it before and it's very informative - the first photo, the aerial view of Berry Head, is great. We were there a couple of weeks ago and it brings it all back to me. That quarry is vast and I still wonder how they got the stone from there to the top of the cliff to build the fort. Did they cart it up the steep incline? Or is that a more recent feature and they took it off by sea, into Brixham harbour then through the town streets and up to the headland? Alongside the big building behind the lighthouse is an 1802 sentry box which I photographed. It's octagonal, four blank walls and four doorways. The walls within have little interconnecting windows, presumably so the sentries could speak to each other. It must have been cold up there on a windy winter's night!

[PanBiker]

I could only find it on an image search, quite a lot of different shapes and heights out there.

[Tizer]

I noticed in some descriptions in tourist leaflets and the like it was described as "tallest and shortest". Some folk don't seem to know the difference between tall and high or can't see the contradiction in terms!

[Stanley]

Maz has sent this one.....

[Marilyn]

Apologies for the quality of the pic, taken in quite dark conditions in a museum.
Basically, it is a board with nails in it and the nails have numbers imprinted on the nail heads.
Can anyone tell me what they may have been used for?
I can give clues if needed.

[Stanley]

They remind me of the studs the GPO and Leccy Board used to hammer into telly and electric poles to identify them.

[chinatyke]

They remind me of the clocking in system at Loveclough printworks when you took your 'peg number' from the board and dropped it through a slot into the timekeepers office. Known as "pegging in"...

The same system was also widely used in mines and explosive factories. We even had a similar system on the chlorination plants at the last chemical site I worked to identify who was in the particular building in case of a major accident.

[Tizer]

Something to do with convicts? (We sent you a lot of convicts in the past so you must have had a way of counting them!)

[Marilyn]

Good answers!
You deserve a clue. We were in a Railway Museum. ( one of our camping companions is a railway enthusiast )

And we might do things slightly different here...( who knows?)
Febby laughed when I read out your answer Tiz. He was " most amused". High praise indeed.

[David Whipp]

Some sort of indicator board to show the progress of a train along a line?

[Marilyn]

No, sorry David.

[Stanley]

Typeface for a ticket machine?

[Marilyn]

I shall reveal...
Railway sleepers were deemed to have a life of 35 years, so when they were laid, a nail with year of laying was hammered into each sleeper. Thus it identified the age of the sleeper.
Simple! Effective!

[Stanley]

You were hard on me there Maz! I was so close!

[Gloria]

That was a good one.

[Tizer]

Very interesting, Maz, I've not heard of such a thing being used in Britain. A crafty choice of mystery object too - I was thrown off track (no pun) by seeing consecutive numbers and assuming it must be for counting or distinguishing people or objects. Whereas when they being used you wouldn't have seen them set out in that way, you'd have been given a box of them all with the same number and sent out with your little hammer to follow the men laying the sleepers.

[Marilyn]

I did photograph a second item for mystery object, but now you know I have been to a train museum, it may be easy to solve...so I shall save it for another day and sneak it in sideways at a future date.

Sorry Stanley. ( not close enough...maybe I am tougher on you because of your knowledge)

[Stanley]

I accept your verdict Maz.... Next one anybody?

[Stanley]

Try this one....

[Marilyn]

Could it be a noise or vibration absorbing spacer to put between/under appliances such as washer or dryer?

Or could it be a pop up/push down door stop?