MYSTERY OBJECTS

[PanBiker]

Barlick Bug Week, Praying Mantis?

[Stanley]

I'll go with Ian......

[David Whipp]

Praying Mantis it is. From Barlick Bugs 2007.

[Stanley]

I had a dig back into the archive. See this LINK for the original appearance of the small chuck. It's a Brown and Sharpe model #53558 - A, Marked 00 which I think is the size. We didn't fathom it then but I'll keep digging!
Can't find anything so I've mailed Brown and Sharpe who are still in business.

[Stanley]

Got a holding reply from the firm that own B&S, Hexagon Metrology Ltd. I'll keep you posted.
Try this one but it's a curve ball. Strictly speaking it isn't a micrometer you'll have to do some digging. Brown and Sharpe again and in my possession.

[David Whipp]

For checking ball bearings?

[Gloria]

It looks like a very early micrometer to me, could be for measuring spherical objects.

[Stanley]

Glo is on the right track, very early. Not for spherical objects particularly, it was designed for measuring the thickness of sheet metal. Dig a bit deeper....

[Gloria]

Stan, I think you are being a bit picky. It is an early micrometer which could have been used for measuring virtually any relatively small product. Perhaps the thickness of a spade, but I don't know how we were meant to know that!!!

[PanBiker]

Riveted sheet metal.

[Stanley]

Glo, you're right I am being picky but knowing how curious and resourceful the congregation are I thought they might crack this one. Have a look at this LINK and notice the entry about the first commercial micrometer introduced by Brown and Sharpe. In 1867 they saw a micrometer made by Wilmot and one made by Palmer. They combined the best attributes of the two and produced what they described as the Pocket Sheet Metal Gauge. It was put on the market in 1868 and appears in the Brown and Sharpe catalogue of 1871. The term micrometer calliper was first applied to the one inch calliper which they introduced in the 1877 catalogue. So I am lucky enough to have an example of the first micrometer made by Brown and Sharpe. Incidentally, like a number of old tools I acquired when I bought a workshop, this is stamped 'J Nubley' who must have been a good man. He bought good tools and looked after them.
So, after all that, the correct answer was 'Pocket Sheet Metal Gauge' by Brown and Sharpe, 1868! Here's a picture from Joseph Wickham Roe's book 'English and American Tool Builders. Click to enlarge.



Anyone got the next one?

[Gloria]

Very interesting Stan, you're a lucky man to have that.
However, I believe it was pain of death to stamp a micrometer, the force of the stamping could have altered the calibration because they were so finite, so it was a definite "no no".

[PanBiker]

I would add another comment in that it is hoped that they gave credit to the individuals that made the two they based their design on!

[Bodger]

Gloria, they are stamped before being calibrated

[Gloria]

Oh, I understood the guy who had the workshop had done it.

[plaques]

What is it? and who made it?

[Gloria]

Top running gear of a gas engine??

[Stanley]

Glo, the one I have was stamped by Mr Nubley when he bought it. Doubtful if that would alter it and even if it did, the anvil is adjustable so it could be calibrated again easily.
Is it a ... (I decided to leave it to others for a day or two....)

[plaques]

Gloria is as near as we are going to get. "Insider information I think"?
An old Crossley gas / atmospheric engine.
http://www.mosi.org.uk/media/33871763/c ... engine.pdf

[Stanley]

Not at all, she's a good engineer! (I was wrong, glad I kept quiet.....) Try this one...

[David Whipp]

Similar to the one at MOSI, but not as well painted (likely because it's not a museum exhibit).

I'll guess that it's a pump...

[Pluggy]

I remember seeing something like it at MOSI as well, can't remember what it was. A generator of some description ?

[Cathy]

A fan belt ?

[Stanley]

Not there yet. Look at the pic very carefully, there's a clue behind it.

[David Whipp]

Just behind it is a toothed rack(?) just off the vertical? Otherwise darkness (both on the pic and in my brain).