MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

That description may not be quite accurate Maz. I've never used one but as soon as I saw the construction and the fact that the plating had been worn off the inside by repeated washings it screamed milking machine cluster to me. From the hook to hang it on a rail I think it's designed to accept the end of the cups of the cluster after they have been taken off the udder and it will catch any drips while it's idle waiting for the next customer.



What is different about this level?

[Gloria]

It has magnets so it can be attached to scaffolding?????

[plaques]

Magnets? That can't be right, its not pointing North, and what's more the bubble isn't in the middle.

[Tizer]

I suspect that if we turned it around we'd find that the circular bit had geometrical degrees marked out on the frame so that the inner part can be rotated to any given angle. I've never seen such a thing but I'll hazard that guess.

As for the "Dairy Milk Cup Washer", it sounds more like something made by Cadbury's and given away with their chocolate milk!

[PanBiker]

Spoiler alert, don't look in Shed Matters.

[Stanley]

Gloria has hit the target again. It's a Stabila magnetic level that I have been using for years but only woke up this week to how useful it could be in machine setting. Some people are slower than others.....
What do you make of these two....

[Gloria]

I have an obscure idea which I will leave for a bit to see if anyone else has a better idea.

[Tizer]

Heavy cast iron stand holding a tube or cylinder horizontally. Bubble level at the end, but checking the sideways level rather than longways level. It looks like the tube/cylinder doesn't rotate but it can be detached. Is it anything to do with shining a light beam off the cylinder to line up something?

[PanBiker]

They look like high current fuses, don't know what the level is for though.

[chinatyke]

My guess is some sort of mercury tilt switches that have to be set up level during installation.

[Bodger]

I could be wrong, but i think used the same units when installing machine tools

[Stanley]

I think Bodge has this one. If I had rotated the chrome tubular shields 180 degrees you'd all have got it straight away. They are high precision levels and were intended for making sure machine beds were as near perfectly level as possible.

Next one?

[Bodger]

Ours were kept in their wooden boxes and were handled with reverence, my mentor, senior fitter Sammy Kirk was a strict master on looking after tools i e, Hand files had to be kept separate and not allowed to damage each other, Sammy "look after thi tools and they'll look after thee"

[Tizer]

That was a good one Stanley, turning the cylinders so we didn't see the level!
Now would you all like to make some guesses as to what's going on in this old photo? Who, what, why, when, where? I know it's difficult, there isn't much obvious to help you in the pic but give it a try!

[Stanley]

I look after mine Bodge, I keep them in a box in a drawer in the kitchen and always handle them carefully. They are both incredibly sensitive and I check them against each other when I use them. Surprising how few things are dead level when you have tackle like this!
It's a very old airplane and the architecture looks continental. The name that springs to mind is Bleriot. However, the design looks earlier than his flight in 1909, more like the Wright Brothers design. I think I am going to go for one of the Wright Brothers doing a demonstration flight so probably in North Carolina.....
But then again. the design looks slightly later than the Wright biplane.... Someone following in their footsteps?

[plaques]

I thought it looked like an early Vickers machine with a machine gun poking out at the front. No idea where but could be a pre-war demonstration.

[Tizer]

Not a Bleriot or a Vickers but you are both on the right track and correct in saying a demonstration before WW1. Stanley is right with the USA for location but it's not the Wright brothers and, yes it is later than them. And yes, it is a continental (European) design. Clue: the pilot, the aircraft and the location are all of different countries. The pilot wasn't just showing off, he had serious concerns that he wanted to publicise and he chose the most important place to do it. Those buildings in the photo are important but it's the one opposite, out of view on the right that you would recognise!

[Stanley]

That clue leads me to think it's Washington DC and the building you mention is the White House. That being the case is this Madison Street or Jackson Street?

[Tizer]

Excellent thinking Stanley, the location is only a hundred metres or so south of Jackson St on West Executive Avenue in Washington DC, between the West Wing of the White House and the US War Department (now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building). The photo shows the famous British aviator Claude Grahame-White landing his Farman biplane by the White House to call on President Taft on October 14th, 1910. A report says: "Claude Grahame-White was landing near the White House to visit officers in the State, War and Navy building. The plan had been hatched only a couple of hours earlier when General Robert S. Oliver had been notified by telephone that the pilot intended to depart from the airfield three miles away in Benning for a quick visit. Upon arrival, several high-ranking officers applauded his feat, took him to lunch up the street at the Metropolitan Club and sent him back on his way an hour later." He was concerned that Britain and the US were not paying sufficient attention to Germany's preparations for war and we were not carrying out enough development and building of military aircraft. Without this incident we might well have been even less prepared when war broke out in 1914.

It's worth reading the Wikipedia page on Claude Grahame-White: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Grahame-White

If near the RAF Museum in Hendon, London, don't miss the Grahame-White Factory & Watch-Office:
LINK

[Stanley]

Claude Graham White.... I knew about him because I once had a wonderful book called 'The Story of Flight' full of very rare pictures from early glider experiments to the Schneider Trophy, I think it must have been published immediately pre WW2. It vanished while I was in the army.... Otto Lilienthal is a name that still sticks in my mind... Just shows how retentive your memory is when you are young.
Try this one.....

[Gloria]

Guessing......is it a weight off a pendulum clock???

[Stanley]

Exactly right Gloria.... Just for that you get the honour of putting the next one up!

[Gloria]

image.jpeg

Not good at this, I hope it's come on right.

[plaques]

Gloria, it looks like you have got us stumped. My first thoughts were a wooden leg complete with lockable kneecap. But I'll go for a folding walking stick.

[chinatyke]

A leg of a cane chair?