MYSTERY OBJECTS

[Cathy]

I wasn't going to enter this post, but after Tisers ...
It's for weighing a fairy''s groceries... 2grams cheese, 2grams loose tea.

[Tizer]

Nice one, Cathy!
I guess another possibility is that it's the scales upon which they measure the amount of truth in Donald Trump's statements.

[Stanley]

Technically P is wrong but he's too close to ignore. He's right in that it's for identifying the count of yarn but not hanks, that's a different matter. The two bronze plates in the box are samples for cutting a standard square of cloth out of a sample. The large one is for cotton and the small one for wool. Used by the Manchester man on the 'change for rapidly assessing a cloth sample using a method I do not know about. So weaving rather than spinning. Casartelli were instrument makers in Manchester and specialised in items like this.
Next one?

[Stanley]

Try this Oldie while you have a think.......

[Stanley]

There's a breathless hush in the close tonight...... ( David. I remembered !) Come on you lot!!

[Gloria]

No idea, it looks like it fits to something, and then a coil of something is fed through the hole, and is nipped in a scissor like action.???
Perhaps for cutting lengths of track for use in the treacle mine?!

[Tizer]

An old pipe cutter? Or does it have an unmentionable veterinary use?

Mrs Tiz has just suggested that it's for gripping and loosening difficult screw caps on bottles.

[Cathy]

A type of child-safety lock for a cupboard.

[Stanley]

Mrs Tiz has identified the major mechanical action and Cathy is incredibly warm! Give her suggestion some thought.....

[chinatyke]

Is it for locking a sliding bolt on a field gate?

Tiz, I thought about the veterinary use too, but decided it would be too hard to thread what ever needed cutting through the hole!

[Stanley]

Sorry China no. Follow Cathy and think domestic......

[Cathy]

A safety lock for a stair gate?

[Gloria]

Is it for a cattle or sheep crush???

[Tizer]

Is it for a cattle or sheep crush???

Is that a carnivore's equivalent of a vegetable/fruit smoothie?

[Big Kev]

Is it a concealed lock for a drawer?

[Cathy]

Or a kids playpen ?

[Stanley]

Cathy and Kev are close enough. The truth is that I am not absolutely sure what it was used for and either of them could be right. Here's the other side of it....



It's made of brass. There are two pips to retain a spring between the two legs so the tendency is for the two hinged jaws to grip anything that entered it. Imagine one of those tables where the top hinges over onto the base. If there was a pear shaped attachment on the underside of the top leaf and it entered the hole it would force it apart and then the jaws would close on the neck, gripping it and keeping it secure. If the knob was properly shaped it would release with a sharp upwards lift or reaching underneath and squeezing the two legs together. I favour the table application because of the size of the object and its broad base.
Next one?

[Stanley]

Work this one out!

[Tizer]

A glove for ambidextrous folk?

[Stanley]

Tiz. You have identified the salient point about these gloves. Now tell me what they are for.

[Big Kev]

Oven glove?

[Stanley]

Sorry Kev no. It's bit more esoteric than that..... Clue, don't think in the UK context, the use doesn't exist here.

[LizG]

We could have done with one of those the other day when we turned up to cut and move wood with 2 left handed gloves!!

[Gloria]

Haven't we seen this before??? Still, can't remember what it is!!!!

[Tizer]

Tiz. You have identified the salient point about these gloves. Now tell me what they are for.

For use by people with two, opposed thumbs on a hand?
Cheap glove for folk unwilling to buy a pair?
Special design for courting couple who like to share gloves?