MYSTERY OBJECTS

[PanBiker]

I knew there were fish in there Ian but didn't know they got to that size.

It was 50 years ago Stanley, all our local natural watercourses had plenty of fauna then. All feeding the Ribble of course. Last year was the first time for years that I have seen any fish at all in the becks and then only down by the bridge in Victory Park, some rather small stickleback fry. The becks are clean enough but seem to be devoid of the fish they used to sustain in quantity.

Your mystery object looks like a 7" lump of brass bar, but I know there will be more of a story than that.

[chinatyke]

A shell casing?

[Stanley]

Sorry, both wrong. You've see them in houses......

[Wendyf]

Is it a clock weight?

[Gloria]

I'm with Wendy.

[Stanley]

So you should be Gloria, Wendy is dead right! The give-away is the lead visible in the bottom.
Next one anyone?

[chinatyke]

Do you know, I was scratching my head thinking where you would find that in a house and it's so obvious when you know it!

[plaques]

Clock weights, I've got six of them just like this to wide up every week.

[Tizer]

Going back to fish for a moment...when I was a young child we often walked from home in Blackburn through the fields at Salesbury to the Ribble at Dinckley, just upstream from the De Tabley Arms. There we'd paddle and catch minnows in a net. When Dad had a car we'd drive to Edisford Bridge and do the same. My parents used to take along a little girl that they minded for neighbours and she paddled in the river too. The first time there, she sat on a rock with her bare feet in the water and giggled when fish touched her feet - she'd never even seen live fish before. Everybody else ended up laughing; her giggling was infectious! My dad also took me to Seven Acre Brook at Ramsgreave, Blackburn. That's where he caught fish as a boy, like his ancestors had in the 1800s when they lived there.

[Stanley]

I was once persuaded to go poaching salmon in the Ribble at Newsholme.... The least said about that the better! We all finished up soaking wet, got no fish and were chased off by the keepers. All part of the University of Life! I never did it again......

[Stanley]

What is it?

[Gloria]

The back of a type of chair??

[PanBiker]

I know but only because I read the other threads.

[Tripps]

They look a lot like the smoked Silesian sausages I got from Home Bargains, one of which I had for breakfast this morning. However I'm guessing they're not. . .

[Stanley]

Good lad Ian..... Sorry Gloria and David, nowhere near....

[chinatyke]

Looks like a section of a coil of wire. Funny, it seems so familiar but I can't place it.

[plaques]

A 100 yard long cow cut into strips.

[Tizer]

Caterpillars lined up for a beauty contest?

[Cathy]

Coiled copper pipe

[chinatyke]

I know but only because I read the other threads.

You're right. Just found it!

[Stanley]

I like P's answer and of course he's exactly right. It's a close up of a coil of 3/8" round leather belting.....
Next one?

[Stanley]

All right it's a thermometer but it's very specialised. Does anyone know what it was designed for?

[plaques]

Too many sharp edges for what I had in mind.

[chinatyke]

68f=20C which is a temperature often quoted in test results, for example, specific gravity @ 20C. Could it be for a water bath?

[Cathy]

To be used when making toffee, it fits over the side of the saucepan ??