MYSTERY OBJECTS

[plaques]

An air or steam venting plug. possibly when first filling up a Lancashire boiler.

[Stanley]

P is very close, I'll give it one more day....

[chinatyke]

2" BSP is big, so something to do with water? Only things I can think of are a fire hose nozzle or a boiler feed injector.

[Tizer]

Is it just a hole in the top or do I see a spherical object? In other words, is it a one way valve?

[Stanley]

You all got very close. It's the fusible plug out of the furnace crown on a Lancashire boiler. There were two, one in each furnace tube. They are screwed in from the water space and that little dip in the top is the relief hole which is filled with a special alloy that melts if the plug gets too hot because the water level is too low. Water and steam blows in on the fire extinguishing it and warning that something is badly wrong. Dead simple, very effective and the insurance companies endorsed them strongly as you would expect. Indeed, the major manufacturer eventually was the National Boiler Insurance Company who manufactured under the trade name 'NABIC', this plug was made by them.
See this LINK for an article on the site about the subject. I think you might find it interesting if you are interested in Labour History.....
Next for shaving?

[Gloria]

How interesting and how simple is that.

[Tizer]

I've read through the fusible plug article and have the following to add. The explosion of one of Richard Trevithick's large cast iron boilers, at Greenwich on 8th September 1803, killing four men, damaged his reputation for a time even though it was caused by negligence on the part of the boilerman rather than a boiler fault. Nevertheless, Trevithick introduced an additional safety valve, an early type of lead fusible plug, and a steam gauge on all new boilers. LINK He was being harassed at the time by Boulton & Watt who were doing their best to `do down' Trevithick's high pressure boilers.

[Stanley]

Trevithick was an interesting bloke....

Try these two, same general purpose but a crucial difference between them.

[Tizer]

Boiler room mousetraps!

[Stanley]

Sorry, no! Clue, they are outdated technology now.

[plaques]

How about a 'Radon gas exposure monitor' now there' a mouth full for you. It must be worth at least two points for trying.

[Stanley]

Interesting but way off P. The answer is so mundane you will kick yourselves....

[Gloria]

For holding papers or punching holes in paper.......just a guess??????

[Tripps]

Paper clip - for hanging on a wall?

[Tizer]

Alternatives to the usual bulldog clips?
Electronic tags for tracking peers of the realm?
Mrs Tiz thinks they are Stanley's trouser belt buckles.

[PostmanPete]

I had the one on the left when I used to develop my own rolls of film. It was used to hang the film up to dry after developing.

Not sure about the one on the right.......

[Stanley]

Pete has got it. They are both for hanging rolls of 35mm film up on a stretched piece of string to dry. The plastic one is the modern one with two spikes and minimal contact with the film, the metal one is an older one but has a lead weight in it so I used them on the bottom of the strip to stretch them straight.

Next for shaving?

[Stanley]

Does any of you know what this is? Where is it? And what is its significance?

[Tizer]

Is it a modern replacement for the old Chappaquiddick bridge where the Ted Kennedy accident occurred?

[Stanley]

Sorry, no. Right country but it, itself, is now redundant.

[Tizer]

Is it the first bridge of this design made with reinforced concrete?

[Stanley]

You need a clue.... look up Route 66 and 'Rainbow bridges'. If nobody gets it I will come clean tomorrow.

[Gloria]

From Wikipedia
Three and a half miles north of Baxter Springs, Kansas stands the elegant Brush Creek Bridge, the only remaining example of a fixed Marsh Rainbow Arch bridge left on Kansas Route 66. Two other examples, the Spring River and Willow Creek bridges, were dismantled in the early 1990s.

[Tizer]

Well I never! At least I recognised it was a bridge.

[Tripps]

That's a shame
I was hoping it was the Tallahatchie Bridge," where Billie Joe MacAllister jumped off, in the 'Ode to Billie Joe'.