MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Gloria]

A hole alignment tool?? Used predominantly in the aircraft industry.

[chinatyke]

A hole alignment tool?? Used predominantly in the aircraft industry.

Or a hole depth gauge? Gauge isn't really the word I'm looking for. I mean a thing you can set and then test that the holes are that depth, a sort of test probe. I know what I mean!

[Stanley]

Gloria got it right first time. Used for aligning pre-drilled holes in the edge of a sheet of metal to hold them in place while the rivets were being put in. Riveting can stretch the metal and misalign the holes. In heavier work like boiler repairs or making, nuts and bolts are used for the same reason. This little gadget was easier and quicker. I shall have to think of a new one....

[plaques]

While Stanley's thinking. where can you find this coat of arms. It may not be truly genuine but it fits the family that lived there.

[PanBiker]

The motto is the latter part of this:

"When you see her, you see the sky, and those on earth must lift their faces toward the stars."

I recognise the white hart but can't think for the life in me where I have seen it or whose family crest it is.

[Stanley]

White Hart was Richard II. Duchess of Cambridge has a coat of arms like this but three acorns instead of stars. Beyond that, haven't a clue!

[Wendyf]

The Towneley family have the three stars, but I don't know about the white hart....is it Towneley?

[plaques]

Thanks PanBiker for the full quote. The nearest I got was "look to the stars".
Wendyf, Towneley was my first thought then being a god fearing person I remembered this in St Bartholomew's Church.
So next clue ..

[Wendyf]

Ah, big clue. Is it Langroyd Hall?

[plaques]

Of course Wendy you're right. The Langroyd Hall or House as it was known. The date stone in the archway over the door is 1603.
Next Object please,

[Stanley]

[David Whipp]

Section track for a wood train set... or segment of pulley wheel...

[Big Kev]

Is it a "former" from a pipe bending machine?

[Stanley]

I can see where you got that Kev, sorry, no cigar. It's precision made in bronze and some had white metal inserts.....

[Pluggy]

Its part of a bearing, Crankshaft bearing for a small steam engine ?

[plaques]

I tend to agree with Pluggy. A bearing made of four sections that can be assembled and replaced with the shaft in place. Not so small a steam engine with a drive shaft of nearly three inches.

[Pluggy]

Small in this case means smaller than mill engine, which is Stanley's usual stomping ground.

[Stanley]

You're all thinking on the right lines and in one respect you're right, it is a type of bearing but not for a rotating shaft. I'll give it another day. Think steam, non-rotating and precise.

[chinatyke]

Part of a seal for a piston? The grooves held the packing?

[plaques]

Stanley, when I was talking about drive shafts I meant something like this.

[Stanley]

That's it P. You've got it exactly, one of the bronze sealing blocks from a US Metallic Packing. China, the grooves held the coil springs which kept the floating packing in contact with the piston road.
Now for the good bit where I can show off! I know that nobody likes a smart arse but you've got to let me have this one. Look at the pic again and you'll see a number stamped on the block, 21239. This is the job number and if a bloke had taken the trouble to get hold of the US Metallic Packing order books and copied them he would have instant access to all the details. Many years ago my good friend Geoff Shackleton helped me to do just that after I came across the records when I got US to come in and refurbish a packing on the Ellenroad engine. It was a big, long job but we did it. So. years later when I found this anonymous block of metal in some junk which was part of a workshop I bought all I had to do was go to the records and look the number up. This is part of the front high pressure US Metallic Packing made in March 1922 for the Trawden Mill Company, Black Carr Mill. Job number 21239. The piston rod was 3 3/4” diameter.
Impressive? I don't know what happened to the original records but Geoff and I have the copies. Incidentally they are fascinating because they record changes of company names, scrapping dates and in the case of marine engines the fate of the ships. There are a lot of entries for boats sunk in the war so the records can tell you far more than the bare technical details.

[plaques]

Probably one of the easiest "Mystery where is its". Consequently only those who don't know where it is need answer.
Hands up all those who thought it read "Free beer tomorrow for Nothing".
Now here comes the hard bit. Who is the plaque attributed to?

[chinatyke]

Is it the lock-keeper's cottage on L & L Canal between Foulridge and Salterforth? I'm thinking back over 50 years when one of my classmates, Barbara Cook, lived there with her family. In my mind the stone read Free Ale Tomorrow, so this might be a different place. Must get a new memory box!

[PanBiker]

Its the Cross Gates pub near Blacko, not sure who the inscription is attributed to but I bet Stanley has it in his index.

[Stanley]

Should be Cross Gaits of course, 'gaits' is an archaic word for roads and it was a cross roads. I don't know who first put the sign up but one little known fact that John Clayton and I teased out was that there used to be a water mill just behind the pub. All part of the digging we did into the Whitemoor Map of 1580. Nothing in the index as it was Blacko and I had to draw a line somewhere!