MYSTERY OBJECTS

[plaques]

Barlick airport, Terminal one, Re-fuelling building.?

[David Whipp]

Plaques has the most inventive answer, but the other 2 'P's are correct, the birds like to have a flutter at William Hills, which was the former Midland Bank.

[Stanley]

Try this one....

[David Whipp]

For measuring the inside of hemispheres?

[Stanley]

Sorry, no. When I saw you had posted I thought hello! he's going to say it's for dealing with ear wax. Mind you, come to think.....

[Gloria]

Ickey balls for picking up datum points on a milling machine or jig borer.

[Tizer]

Send the lower one back, it's bent!

[Stanley]

So close Gloria! But I'm going to be hard on you. You are on the right lines but there is a more specific use.

[Stanley]

You've all gone quiet.... It's a wobbler set for accurately picking up centres on the lathe or milling machine. You set the pointer or ball up touching the centre, rotate the piece and when it stops wobbling you know you are accurate.
Next for shaving?

[Gloria]

That is what I understood to have said???

[Tizer]

It sounds to me like what you said Gloria, but then I'm not into all this rude mechanicals stuff!
Is it were the phrase `throw a wobbler' comes from?

[Stanley]

Gloria, I marked you down because you referred to 'datum points' and there is a different technique for accurately placing them. The key thing about the wobbler is that it is solely for centres.
It's called a wobbler because in use it wobbles until the centre is perfect. Try this one....where and what for?

[Pluggy]

Greaser for a bearing in a steam engine.

[Tizer]

It would be fun to try that out on the Antiques Roadshow!

[Stanley]

Very close Pluggy but not quite there. What was the lubricant? Not on a bearing.....

[chinatyke]

The lubricant was tallow, wasn't it? Seem to remember this from somewhere else but I can't remember what it was used for.

[Pluggy]

Tallow on a steam gland ?

[Stanley]

China is right, the lubricant was tallow or unsalted mutton fat. It is on the side of a steam cylinder. You closed the bottom cock and packed the fat in the top then screwed the plug in and the theory was that the fat slowly melted with the heat and ran in to lubricate the bore. Not very efficient and they were replaced by mechanical lubricators late in the 19th century. Roberts were being a bit old fashioned putting these on an engine made in the last days of WW1 as it had mechanical lubricators as well.
Worth noting that on marine engines no lubrication was used in the cylinders because the oil got in the closed circuit condenser and feed water system. They put up with the increased wear until Rowan in Glasgow brought out a piston ring that was a lot kinder to the bore. Newton used to put Rowan rings on engines after he had re-bored them.



Can anyone tell me what these are?

[Stanley]

No takers?

[David Whipp]

Foundry moulds?

[Pluggy]

Kerbstones ?

[Tizer]

Quoins?

And as an aside to the explanation of the previous object, can anyone tell me why John Wilkinson was so boring?

[Gloria]

Grave edgings?

[Tizer]

They might be a special shape of fire brick.

[Stanley]

Tiz is right they are firebrick, any idea what they were for?