MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Stanley]

That's what the manufacturers would have you believe.... Do you know of anyone poisoned by after use by date aspirin? Have a look at THIS.

[Marilyn]

There is a difference between 3 months out of date and 20 YEARS out of date.
It's the same with food.
Your body is a temple and you should worship it once in a while..
Just quietly, I am horrified that folk feed their toddlers food that was harvested before the child was conceived!.

[chinatyke]

.... Do you know of anyone poisoned by after use by date aspirin?

Use them to clear up your cat problem?

[Tizer]

...by firing them from a catapult?

Stanley, open your aspirin bottle and have a sniff at it. If there is any vinegar smell then they have degraded. Aspirin is acetylsalicylic acid and it hydrolyses with time to acetic acid (vinegar) and salicylic acid. Hydrolysis requires water which is why the bottle has silica gel to absorb moisture. Repeated opening and closing of the bottle will allow moisture to enter and the silica will eventually be saturated with water and can't absorb any more. (The tests reported in your link where done on sealed bottles.) Keeping your bottle in a fridge will slow down the hydrolysis - but each time you take it out and open it more water will condense on the tablets than if it were at room temperature and that will accelerate hydrolysis.

I don't believe there's much danger in swallowing aspirin tablets that are beyond their use by date but I agree with Maz that keeping them for such a long time is unnecessary. Someone who can talk about buying the latest computer can afford new aspirins!

[Stanley]

I just hate waste Tiz. They are still working ..... Try this oldie....



[Just out of interest, I looked up the price of the small top section..... £118 including VAT!]

[David Whipp]

Pressure relief valve?

[Gloria]

Grease nipple??

[Tizer]

Do all engineers have brass nipples?
That takes me back to that `Reunion' programme about HMS Valiant, the nuclear submarine. When Sue MacGregor asked the chief engineer about the problems of keeping oneself clean in a submarine his reply was: "I'm an engineer, all I need is a rub down with an oily rag".

[chinatyke]

Boiler plug. Fusible plug?

[Stanley]

China has got it right. Again! It's a 2" fusible plug for a Lancashire Boiler.

Next one?

[chinatyke]

Mainly guess work based on why just the tip would cost £118 and the likelihood of you having it in your possession.

[Stanley]

They are quite complicated little beasties China. They used to be a simple lead plug in the centre but now it is a very sophisticated alloy carefully calibrated to fail at exactly the right temperature. The bronze covering to the centre is very thin and is there to protect the core. I couldn't make one!

[Stanley]

Try this one....

[PostmanPete]

Is it a small vegetable peeler...?

[Tripps]

Parmesan cheese slicer?

[Marilyn]

For scraping a corn or callous (feet)

[Stanley]

Maz has it, the Ever-Ready corn trimmer! Try this one....

[Cathy]

Some sort of weight.

[Tizer]

Is it a small thermometer within a protective metal case, held in by a screw thread?

[Stanley]

Sorry, both wrong......

[chinatyke]

Is it tapered slightly? So you bash it into a hole and it leaves the hexagon end protruding so that you can turn the object. But what?

[Stanley]

No its square. Look at the left hand end for a clue......

[Tizer]

A tyre pressure gauge! Press the right-hand end on the valve and the air pressure in the tyre pushes a cylindrical stem part way out of the left-hand end. The extent to which the stem protrudes is proportional to the pressure in the tyre. The stem is graduated in pressure units and you read off the pressure from that.

[PanBiker]

Some kind of pressure gauge but for a tyre would it not have to have the valve end at an angle?

[Tizer]

Not on the old ones. Think about the old wheel rims, before we had all-enclosing wheel covers, there was nothing to stop you pressing the gauge down directly on the valve. Knowing Stanley's background, it could be for use on lorries or tractors where the wheels are bigger.