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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted -
21/12/2004
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15:37
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Here's a mystery for you. There isn't an answer yet because I don't know what it is. Here are two pics:
It's some sort of a gauge, made by A G Parker of 69 Icknield Street, Birmingham and on the front is engraved what I believe is the owner's name; Captain J H Square of Kingsbridge. I've put one or two enquiries out and am waiting to hear from them. I think it might be something to do with Guns because I have an idea that A G Parker was one of the founders of Parker-Hale, a company that specialised in gun sights and accessories. Has anyone ever seen anything like it?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 02/12/2011 : 05:49
You've all got very close. It's Newton Pickles' old economiser thermometer. 'Connies' as we called them worked under pressure and were used for heating boiler feed water by passing it through a nest of pipes in the flue gas flow from a coal fired boiler. 600F is water at about 1500psi. Most connies in Barlick ran at about 400F. It was important to get them to as high a temerature as possible and so the temperature was taken at the outlet by having a thermometer like this in a steel pocket immersed in the water flow. These were often broken or inaccurate so Newton took his own with him. In case you're wondering, the boiling point of mercury is about 670F so this is about the highest calibration you can have on a normal mercury thermometer. Impressive?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 02/12/2011 : 11:01
Laboratories always used to have drying ovens with mercury thermometers and the danger from breakage and release of mercury. Even if the oven was below the mercury boiling point it would result in sufficient mercury vapour to poison you if you inhaled it. It was always wise to check the thermometer before you opned the oven. One of my PhD colleagues failed to do this and was unlucky. He opened the oven and got a faceful of mercury vapour, followed by inhalation. He was rushed to hospital and `flushed out' with an obnoxious sulphur compound that binds the mercury. He survived it OK and went on to become principal of a well-known college and got an OBE in 2007!
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 03/12/2011 : 05:08
The connie thermometers in situ in the mill were always in a brass protective housing with a sliding shutter to protect the thermometer. If they burst they were enclosed so relatively safe.
Want more?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 04:50
I have three of them.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Tizer
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 10:01
A fancy box for carrying ammunition or detonators. Or perhaps not, as they would have the handle on the top surface.
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catgate
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 13:09
It could be a box containing something.
Every silver lining has a cloud.
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Bodger
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 13:12
A gaffers lunch box
"You can only make as well as you can measure" Joseph Whitworth |
Tizer
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 15:35
quote: catgate wrote: It could be a box containing something.A box containing a cat? Or perhaps not a cat?
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catgate
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 17:06
quote: Tizer wrote: quote: catgate wrote: It could be a box containing something.A box containing a cat? Or perhaps not a cat?
Something like a Schrodinger lunch box???
Every silver lining has a cloud.
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belle
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 18:24
Canteen of cutlery..not likely if you have three..too big for a tea caddy.
Life is what you make it |
wendyf
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 18:32
I'm cheating a bit here, but does it look like this inside?
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marilyn
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 20:59
photographer's 'kit'?
get your people to phone my people and we will do lunch...MAZ |
Bodger
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 21:52
Is it the box that Roy Castle kept the elephant in ?
"You can only make as well as you can measure" Joseph Whitworth |
Bodger
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 21:59
http://www.google.ie/search?q=%22Roy%20Castle%22%20in%20the%20box&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&source=hp&channel=np
"You can only make as well as you can measure" Joseph Whitworth |
Bradders
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Posted - 05/12/2011 : 22:44
S'pose it couldn't be a Dobbie McInnes Steam Indicator then.....? ..by any chance .... Wendy and I have been cheating ...Oooooph!
(the brass plate was a bit of a give -away ) ..and a bit of "Sherlock" came up with this....!
http://www.stationary-engine.co.uk/Indicator/Indicator3.htm
What fun !
Edited by - Bradders on 06/12/2011 01:06:04 AM
BRADDERS BLUESINGER |