MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

Curses! Dead right Peter. Described as a 'Prototype Kilogram'.
Now give us a new one!

[Tizer]

Who is this man? In a roundabout way he has a link with the previous object.

[Stanley]

This is one of those subjects you either know immediately or you are lost. I admit to being lost.

[Tizer]

I'm not surprised, no-one's likely to recognise him immediately and I knew clues would be needed and we would have to proceed in steps. Don't bother trying to think who he looks like and instead work back from the opposite direction - think about the last mystery object, the standard kilogram. He's not connected with the kilogram but....?

[Tripps]

I've just learned how to cheat - via a program recommended for love sick ladies to discover Nigerian scammers. It works and I thnk it's the only way for me to make progress here.

[plaques]

Found him but only by cheating, then worked my way back to the platinum clue which I didn't know about. Success by failure? And by tomorrow I'll have forgotten again.

[Stanley]

I refuse to cheat.

[plaques]

It was a challenge more than anything. I had it in my mind it was one of the Nobel family. Wrong of course. Then it was like a dog with a bone. Call it research rather than cheating.

[Tizer]

OK, Tripps and Plaques, as a penalty for cheating you can come up with some clues to point Stanley in the right direction!

[plaques]

Stanley you know his name from school days but to shine some light on the link to his other inventions you may need this.

[Stanley]

I think you mean Bunsen but I can't make the connection.

[Tizer]

That's good enough, Stanley! Robert Bunsen, together with Gustav Kirchhof, discovered caesium and rubidium, the two elements used in our atomic clocks. LINK

[Tripps]

Well - you live and learn - even when you cheat. . . .

To me Kirchoff's laws was to solve network systems

A Bunsen - was a gas burner in the school labs,

and the Rubidium Standard was that mysterious box in the Ops Room that cotrolled the accuracy of the equipment.

[Stanley]

I should have known that, after all I am reading the history of the Periodic Table!

[Stanley]

Where was it and what was its purpose? You've all seen it before....

[Stanley]

No takers? And it is so easy.......

[Gloria]

Is it on a signal box?

[Stanley]

I can see why you thought that Gloria but no, nothing to do with railways.
Connected with industry......

[Big Kev]

Is it a mirror to see around a blind corner?

[PanBiker]

It's an aid for reversing wagons I reckon.

[Stanley]

Sorry but no to all those. Look at the angle it's set at, that should give you a clue.

[PanBiker]

I think I have remembered. Is it for checking the smoke from the chimney from the boiler house?

[Tizer]

Perhaps they used smoke signals like the Red Indians in the old Wild West films!

[Stanley]

You've got it Ian. If you stood in the firing bed at Bancroft and looked at the mirror you could see the chimney top and the smoke.
Next One?

[Stanley]

One for the locals I'm afraid.... Can anyone remember where this distinctive chimney stack was?