MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Marilyn]

Something to put the red hot tip of your poker in?

[Stanley]

Good thought but no Maz.

[chinatyke]

For measuring the charge of gunpowder in the old muzzle loading rifles? Made of lead so there wouldn't be a spark? Seems a bit big for a rifle charge, so maybe for small cannon, just hedging my bets...

[Stanley]

A logical approach China but nowhere near. I shall come clean tomorrow..... Clue, think farming and stock-keeping.....

[Gloria]

A wild guess.....is it for covering a sore teat on a goat or sheep to stop the young suckling?

[Stanley]

I can see the logic in that Gloria. Time to come clean. I was given two by a Scottish farmer and he told me that they were used as weights on the tips of cow's horns to adjust the shape for showing. He said that the constant drag of the weight on the tip bent it down. I've never seen them in use but trust what the bloke said, he was a good man.
Next?

[Gloria]

How interesting, you live and learn.

[Tizer]

Here's something for you to consider...what and where is this mystery object? (It's nothing to do with Barlick.)

[PanBiker]

My first thought was PLUTO (Pipeline Under the Ocean) for fuel supplies to Europe after D Day but the diameter is a bit big. It also looks like it could be some kind of outfall. Not sure if that isn't a rail on top? Or is it the start of a carrier for a transatlantic cable?

[PanBiker]

If you have half an hour to spare have a look at this. How they produced and distributed the pipeline for Operation PLUTO.

[BBvideo 425,350]https://youtu.be/_N1UHU3z44U[/BBvideo]

[Big Kev]

Is it the pipe for an old atmospheric railway?

[PanBiker]

Nice one Kev.

[Tizer]

Well that didn't take long! Two hours and you've cracked it between you. I thought I was going to tax your brains on this one, but not so. It must be something in the Barlick air.

Kev's dead right that it's a `pipe for an old atmospheric railway' and Panbiker's spot on by observing the `rail on top'. It's one of the pipes from Brunel's failed atmospheric railway'. On the basis of `throw nothing away', when the failed railway was dismantled the locals used some of the pipes to make an outfall on the beach at Goodrington Sands, Paignton, Devon. They had a slot in the top through which the connection was made between the railway carriage and the plunger that was drawn through the pipe by vacuum. To use the pipes as an outfall the gap had to be sealed so they used old rail from the railway track. The old photo shows one of the pipes on the beach. In 1993 the local authority in its wisdom decided to remove them from the beach - they were only carrying water from a stream and I think little kiddies were disappearing up them. Luckily, members of the South West Group of the Great Western Society happened to notice that the pipes had something odd about their design and identified them as being from Brunel's railway. They took the pipes to Didcot Railway Centre, cleaned them up and put them on display set upon a piece of authentic track. The full story is here: LINK

[Stanley]

Brunel was defeated by rats. The slit on the top of the pipe for the support of the driving piston was sealed with leather lubricated with tallow and the rats loved it! They ate the seal and destroyed the vacuum in the pipe. Brunel was not always right, look up him and his 'Gaz' engine, he spent many years trying to get it to work. Try this one....

[LizG]

A scalpel pushed into a cork; no accidental cutting here.

[Stanley]

Very close Liz, can you be more exact?

[Gloria]

A metal scriber??

[Tizer]

Would it be more accurate to say a scalpel (aka craft knife) protected by folding a split cork over it?

"Brunel was not always right"...well-known people, respected in their field of endeavour, sometimes do get it wrong - and especially when they stray into other fields. Albert Einstein made a fool of himself in his later years by strongly supporting a man who denounced the theory of continental drift which had been thoroughly researched since the 1920s.

[Stanley]

I was being picky, Tiz is right. I tried to trigger a clue.... it's an Exacto craft knife.....
Next one?

[Tizer]

Anyone willing to hazard a guess what this is?

[chinatyke]

Sparrow exterminator?

[Wendyf]

It makes me think of energizers for electric fences.....

[Stanley]

I'll go with Wendy. A dummy set up showing the earth wire and the tags on top are for multiple fences. In my youth they were battery powered and ticked like a clock.....

[Gloria]

I agree with Wendy and Stanley.
Stanley, they still do tick.

[Wendyf]

I didn't expect to get that right, as the contacts on the top meant nothing to me but now you mention it Stanley I can see that the numbers 1,2 & 3 would be for three strands of wire.
Mine ticks when it pulses, but so quietly you have to get down on hands & knees to hear it. Hubby rigged up a little solar panel on a spike that pushes into the ground beside the battery, and which it keeps charged up even through winter. Saves having to cart heavy batteries around on a regular basis.