MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

Dead right on the pee sample.... Sorry about that.
Don't know where the stocks are but something nags in my mind they are outside Colne parish church.....

[Gloria]

Is it what was St Pauls Halifax Rd Nelson?? The houses in the background look familiar.

[plaques]

Gloria is right. The Stocks are Grade 11 listed. (not many people know that). I was beginning to suspect that some of the regular users were keeping quiet. Next object please.

[Wendyf]

The Colne stocks used to be outside the Parish Church but are now in the Heritage Centre, upstairs in the library. They are mobile stocks on wheels and could be moved around the town.

[Gloria]

Pity there isn't still a use for them Wendy. Actually I think there is still a use but health and safety would have something to say about it.

[Stanley]

[David Whipp]

I'm boxing clever on this one and filing it for future attention.

[Stanley]

There speaks a bureaucrat.... I think they might get it David!

[David Whipp]

No bureaucrat me!

Alison does her best to organise me, though, and there are ones of many colours within reach.

[Bodger]

Finger hole in lever arch file ?

[LizG]

I'm with them.

[Stanley]

Of course it is.

[David Whipp]

Measuring tool for internal dimension of pipes/valves?

[Stanley]

Or even holes.... Question is, how was it used? And I'm afraid I'm not talking about simply adjusting it to the bore and measuring with a micrometer or vernier, that isn't accurate enough.

[plaques]

Most commercial telescopic transfer gauges should give an overall accuracy over 6 inch of about 0.001" (one thousands of an inch). That's if it was used by someone with a bit of experience. How accurate do you want to be?

[Stanley]

Less than a thou and this is all we have got..... (and same accuracy up to about 6ft diameter)

[Stanley]

Looks as though this one has gone dead. The way it was used was to set it for slightly less than the bore to be measured and make as accurate a measurement as you could of the length between the points. Then it was set in the bore and the length of the arc it covered before it touched at the top was measured. Using a formula you could calculate by how much it was short of the bore, add that to the length between points and you had an extremely accurate measurement of the bore. This was the standard method for measuring bores before boring and after and the dimensions of the new piston needed. Sorry about that.... Here's another oldie which Tiz will get I think.

[plaques]

Stanley, for all the perambulations of measuring the clearance arc instead of the "feel" when it made contact it is still a transfer gauge. As such it requires the initial setting to be accurate. Tolerances of 0.002" on pieces above 2 ft diameter required numerous to-ing and fro-ing of the gauge to the standards room to make sure the workshop temperature was balanced against the standards room temperature. If necessary this could mean the gauge being soaked in the cutting fluid.
On the new object.. a glass cutter?

[Stanley]

Yes, but what for specifically?

[Bodger]

Plaques, it is not a transfer guage, the actual length of the rod does not need to be accurate to the bore size, it is the geometry of its use that provides the accuracy.
If a 15" point guage rocked 1/4" in the 15" bore, ie 1/8" either side of the vertical, by using Stanleys referred to formula, the caculation gives a bore dia of 15.0005", ie half a "thou" on a 15 " bore. this was near enough for most engineering jobs, especially in the early days before standards rooms and temperatures, you could be sat on top of a hot mill engine doing a rebore in situ and still use this type of guage to give you an answer.

[Tizer]

As Plaques said, a glass cutter...but specifically for glass tubing as used in laboratory work. Clamp the glass tubing between the two ends, in the V shape, then rotate the tubing.

[plaques]

it is not a transfer guage

Sorry Bodger but it is a transfer gauge. The measuring rod that Stanley showed was adjustable on length. At the start it must be set to some reference length albeit a builders brick or anything. The bore size would then be 1 builders brick plus 0.0005". Now if the rod had been a single length bar with pointed ends I would certainly agree with you. Although even in this case the "bar" becomes the reference standard for all future jobs. Not a good position to be in.

[Stanley]

Tiz iz quite right..... He's cut a lot of tubing in his time.....
Bodge is right about temperature, this was practical work on site and not in the controlled conditions of the tool room. With a big cylinder you didn't have any adjustment, they simply cut a piece of rod somewhere near the size of the bore. Newton once told me that the real advantage of using the arc was that fewer mistakes were made because thought and calculation were used. Try this one....

[David Whipp]

Hank of cotton waste?

[Big Kev]

Wadding for packing a joint or beari g?