# Mystery tool



## Shopgeezer (Dec 19, 2021)

A friend bought this at an auction thinking it was a clamp but it doesn’t clamp. The arrow shaped head is free to rotate. The T handle turns the shaft and the travel nut with the wings screws up and down the shaft. The wings are beveled on the inside surfaces. It seems like the head goes through something and traps it and the travel nut screws down to tighten on it. But that would be difficult since the head swivels and you couldn’t turn it with the T handle to catch anything. Any ideas?


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## akitene (Dec 19, 2021)

Hi shopgeezer, that's the threaded part of an old shoe tree.


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## Shopgeezer (Dec 19, 2021)

We thought of that but couldn’t see how it would work in a shoe. The T handle wouldn’t be part of a shoe tree. It would have to be something to push on the heel of the shoe as in the photo below.


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## Richard Hed (Dec 20, 2021)

Shopgeezer said:


> A friend bought this at an auction thinking it was a clamp but it doesn’t clamp. The arrow shaped head is free to rotate. The T handle turns the shaft and the travel nut with the wings screws up and down the shaft. The wings are beveled on the inside surfaces. It seems like the head goes through something and traps it and the travel nut screws down to tighten on it. But that would be difficult since the head swivels and you couldn’t turn it with the T handle to catch anything. Any ideas?View attachment 131977


Yeah, I know what that is.  It's a specialized arrow for hunting white men.  My ancestors discovered that if you make those threads on it that it would turn the arrow, making it fly longer and straighter.  Once the arrow got some "prey" the shaft kept turning, thus tightening the arrowhead making it impossible for edit  to get it out.  The "Human Beings", of course, knew how to unscrew it.


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## jetstuff (Dec 20, 2021)

As Akitene said, it IS part of a shoe 'expander' for stretching the width of a shoe. I have a couple, one with the wooden spreader that fits inside a shoe.


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## Jonken44 (Dec 20, 2021)

Looks to me like the its from a tyring plate , for clamping down the wooden spoke wheel hub to the plate to drop the hot tyre on on.
Haven't seen one in many years but reminds me of it


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## davidyat (Dec 20, 2021)

*Send the picture to Tubal Cain for his mystery tool segment*


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## Shopgeezer (Dec 20, 2021)

jetstuff said:


> As Akitene said, it IS part of a shoe 'expander' for stretching the width of a shoe. I have a couple, one with the wooden spreader that fits inside a shoe.


So the head would move forward and push the two halves of the wooden expander apart? The shaft must angle up to avoid the heel of the shoe. Not sure how that would work with this tool. What role does the winged travel nut play?


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## jetstuff (Dec 20, 2021)

Shopgeezer said:


> So the head would move forward and push the two halves of the wooden expander apart? The shaft must angle up to avoid the heel of the shoe. Not sure how that would work with this tool. What role does the winged travel nut play?


It's the pivot point for the two halves..... I thought you were all 'engineers' on here!


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## Steamchick (Dec 21, 2021)

"It is a proprietary device for removing Boy Scouts from Girl Guides..". was the standard answer when I was a lad, and the world a simpler place... We could only put men on the moon, or satellites around distant planets,  with calculations done by people, not machines. Drawings were drawn, machining took skill, and understanding, after teaching, training and lots of practice... Fitness was being able to run for a bus. You had to be 21 before you were responsible enough to vote, yet only 16 to have children. Now people vote at 18, and wait until 30 before having kids! We walked everywhere, or caught a bus.... Pencils lived behind ears, in case we thought of something useful to write down - Yes, we wrote on paper! We carried small knives for sharpening pencils... Now kids carry large knives for carving each other - or guns. Our guns were 2 fingers pointed and we shouted Peow! Poew! - I have never held a real one. We collected glass bottles, to return to shops for the penny deposit - Now that was re-cycling! Aluminium and paper were re-cycled, veg matter went on the compost (including tea leaves and coffee grounds) to grow better vegetables later. We had outside loos.... Quick in winter! We bathed weekly, whether we needed to, or not. We scraped ice off the windows on winter mornings to see if it was frost or snow outside... We laughed and played outside - in all weathers. We saved a few years to buy bicycles (Luxury!), and my Dad had a treadle lathe - My Sister powered it while I machined small parts for models... (My legs didn't reach the treadle when sat on the stool to use the lathe...).
Nostalgia ain't what it used to be, if my memory serves me well?

K2


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## Peter Twissell (Dec 21, 2021)

Now drifting towards "we had it tough, when I were a lad..."


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## Richard Hed (Dec 21, 2021)

Steamchick said:


> "It is a proprietary device for removing Boy Scouts from Girl Guides..". was the standard answer when I was a lad, and the world a simpler place... We could only put men on the moon, or satellites around distant planets,  with calculations done by people, not machines. Drawings were drawn, machining took skill, and understanding, after teaching, training and lots of practice... Fitness was being able to run for a bus. You had to be 21 before you were responsible enough to vote, yet only 16 to have children. Now people vote at 18, and wait until 30 before having kids! We walked everywhere, or caught a bus.... Pencils lived behind ears, in case we thought of something useful to write down - Yes, we wrote on paper! We carried small knives for sharpening pencils... Now kids carry large knives for carving each other - or guns. Our guns were 2 fingers pointed and we shouted Peow! Poew! - I have never held a real one. We collected glass bottles, to return to shops for the penny deposit - Now that was re-cycling! Aluminium and paper were re-cycled, veg matter went on the compost (including tea leaves and coffee grounds) to grow better vegetables later. We had outside loos.... Quick in winter! We bathed weekly, whether we needed to, or not. We scraped ice off the windows on winter mornings to see if it was frost or snow outside... We laughed and played outside - in all weathers. We saved a few years to buy bicycles (Luxury!), and my Dad had a treadle lathe - My Sister powered it while I machined small parts for models... (My legs didn't reach the treadle when sat on the stool to use the lathe...).
> Nostalgia ain't what it used to be, if my memory serves me well?
> 
> K2


Same here.  The snow was whiter then.  However, there is one thing different between our countries:  Here, we are required to own and carry guns.


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## Badhippie (Dec 21, 2021)

Steamchick 
You forgot one important fact. We had to walk 10 miles to school uphill both ways with snow up to butts and with no shoes. 
Oh yes the good old days.


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## clockworkcheval (Dec 21, 2021)

In our colonies I'm afraid to say as a kid we had many servants. Each kid had its own personal attendant. My wife says I got never over it. All in all its no wonder they took back their independance.


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## Steamchick (Dec 21, 2021)

Peter T: It wasn't tough - it was all we knew and toughened us! And it was FUN! - Loved it!
- I find modern Tablets, Windows 10, etc. Tough! - Not like the PCs I understood! - The language has changed to "Nerd-stuff" - so they can have a secret society that older folk can't understand.... -even "Nerd" is modern speak for someone who sits in their bedroom as a child and talks to no-one except a computer screen.... and can't handle real people...
I find life is not easier now...
K2


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## Peter Twissell (Dec 21, 2021)

I was referring to the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch.
When I was a teenager, we didn't have computers, but I would suit in my bedroom building model aeroplanes.
We were nerds before nerds were invented!


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## Henry K (Dec 21, 2021)

In the "old days", when I went to my University to get my BSME, I used a slide rule for calculations and had a "pocket protector". It had the University name on it. It keep my shirt pocket from getting stained from the leaking ball point pens/markers/highlighters used to note particularly important sections in our VERY expensive engineering textbooks.


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## SmithDoor (Dec 21, 2021)

I still have my book and my father's book. 
Also the slide rules and mechanical pencil with the drafting tools.

Now find the batteries for slide rule and the cord for the drafting tools.

Dave 



Henry K said:


> In the "old days", when I went to my University to get my BSME, I used a slide rule for calculations and had a "pocket protector". It had the University name on it. It keep my shirt pocket from getting stained from the leaking ball point pens/markers/highlighters used to note particularly important sections in our VERY expensive engineering textbooks.


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## Shopgeezer (Dec 21, 2021)

jetstuff said:


> It's the pivot point for the two halves..... I thought you were all 'engineers' on here!


Engineers yes, cobblers no. The head in your first picture showing the two halves of the spreader is just like my friend’s tool. Looks like we have a match.


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## Richard Hed (Dec 21, 2021)

SmithDoor said:


> I still have my book and my father's book.
> Also the slide rules and mechanical pencil with the drafting tools.
> 
> Now find the batteries for slide rule and the cord for the drafting tools.
> ...


You should update your slide rule to the sun powered type.  I've got one of each.


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## Richard Hed (Dec 21, 2021)

jetstuff said:


> It's the pivot point for the two halves..... I thought you were all 'engineers' on here!


I'm not an engineer, nor a gentleman--I'm a _SCHOLAR_


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## SmithDoor (Dec 21, 2021)

Richard Hed said:


> You should update your slide rule to the sun powered type.  I've got one of each.


I have a pocket watch that uses sunlight 
Works great hard to adjust for daylight savings time.

Dave


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## SmithDoor (Dec 21, 2021)

Here photos of my slide rules and a few drafting tool.
My watch that has not need a battery since 1960's 

Dave 



Richard Hed said:


> You should update your slide rule to the sun powered type.  I've got one of each.



I did a update to a new HP Laptop w/bluetooth mouse.
Now I have Autocad and Excel installed.

Works great 
Still use my phone for posting


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## Steamchick (Dec 22, 2021)

Aye, many of us have lots of accumulated junk... e.g 5 slide rules, umpteen compasses (not magnetic, but used for drawing circles), 4 drawing boards and t-squares, trammels, parallels, squares, scales, etc. (mine, Father's and 2 Grandfather's  stuff) of which I use less than half. - Just how many squares can you use when drawing? Also I have a brass scale, for tracing drawings to a different size.. made in 1920s by my Grandfather, because he needed it. You CAD users will laugh because you just print on different sized paper.....! The only thing powered by electrickery is the 1970s calculator - Solar recharging, on its second battery in 50 years... All the computing power of the computer used by Apollo astronauts who went to the moon and back...!
Likewise I have inherited tools going back to the 1920s! And still use some! Modern files just don't seem as sharp and durable as some old ones I have, but modern drills are better....! Surely they are all "steel"?
Good tools often outlive the user, for hobby by use, but what are they worth when old and out-dated? Nothing, except a bit of nostalgia.
Ho hum,
K2


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## Steamchick (Dec 22, 2021)

Peter Twissell said:


> I was referring to the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch.
> When I was a teenager, we didn't have computers, but I would suit in my bedroom building model aeroplanes.
> We were nerds before nerds were invented!


Hi Peter, I don't remember a "4 Yorkshiremen sketch"?
Was it anything to do with "see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil, but tell everyone their failings and what they should be doing properly"? But I was raised as a "mealy - mouthed  Southerner with nobbut 'tween th'ears!" Or so a Yorkshireman took great delight explaining to me...
Ecky-thump! 
K2


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## MAG (Dec 22, 2021)

jetstuff said:


> It's the pivot point for the two halves..... I thought you were all 'engineers' on here!


Amen to that some are Racist obviously


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## grahamgollar (Dec 22, 2021)

"Nostalgia is a thing of the past"


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## William May (Dec 22, 2021)

You guys are all pansies (even Steamchick! She's a LADY pansie!)
Not only did WE walk to school in the snow, WE did it when the humane society was bringing wolves inside so they wouldn't die in the blizzard! AND, it was STEEPER each way than it was for you guys, when WE walked to school. The gravity was MORE then, instead of how weak it is today! And we had to fight off the wolves who HADN'T been taken in by the humane society because it was cold. We had to fight them off with snow shovels.
We used to DREAM of having an outside loo! Our school days were 14 hours long, but sometimes we actually had a crust of bread to gnaw on for lunch!
POCKET PROTECTORS!!!! We used to DREAM of having a pocket protector! We carried all our pens, slide-rules, and our favorite micrometer in whichever hand we WEREN'T fighting the wolves with!
But I agree, those were good days, and we learned a lot!  We were a lot tougher than the kids today.  Today's kids don't even know which end of a shivering wolf to grab to toss it over your shoulder. And they want to plug everything in. All my electronic calculators when I was in school in the 70's were COAL POWERED. None of this silly BATTERY nonsense, either!
Times have certainly changed!


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## Courierdog (Dec 22, 2021)

I still have my Slide Rule and yes it still works. I had a friend who carried a 6 inch slide rule in the field even in the late 70's No batteries required. In the field where a quick answer of 3 digits was superior to waiting for a calculator to come up with a 5 decimal place answer. and the snow was only 2 feet deep and it was only 2 miles strange how it was up hill in both directions though.
When it is the wet snow variety it feels colder than the dry snow here at half the depth. I do not need Omicron to tell me to stay home. I like being inside where it is warm and yes the dogs get up on the sofa, to keep me warm.


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## SmithDoor (Dec 22, 2021)

I am still here.
The only item shelf I purchased used was the Leroy set and I used too. Ever thing on bottom shelf I used til 1995. The watch  is a hand me down from 1920's. Still keeps good time.

Dave



Steamchick said:


> Aye, many of us have lots of accumulated junk... e.g 5 slide rules, umpteen compasses (not magnetic, but used for drawing circles), 4 drawing boards and t-squares, trammels, parallels, squares, scales, etc. (mine, Father's and 2 Grandfather's  stuff) of which I use less than half. - Just how many squares can you use when drawing? Also I have a brass scale, for tracing drawings to a different size.. made in 1920s by my Grandfather, because he needed it. You CAD users will laugh because you just print on different sized paper.....! The only thing powered by electrickery is the 1970s calculator - Solar recharging, on its second battery in 50 years... All the computing power of the computer used by Apollo astronauts who went to the moon and back...!
> Likewise I have inherited tools going back to the 1920s! And still use some! Modern files just don't seem as sharp and durable as some old ones I have, but modern drills are better....! Surely they are all "steel"?
> Good tools often outlive the user, for hobby by use, but what are they worth when old and out-dated? Nothing, except a bit of nostalgia.
> Ho hum,
> K2


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## Courierdog (Dec 22, 2021)

Some of you have mastered CAD, I am still trying to get past the opening screen. CAD requires a slight re-wiring of the brain I am afraid.


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## SmithDoor (Dec 22, 2021)

My father had 6"
The bottom slide rule is for drafting boards and was one sided.

I did see a photograph of a very large slide rule to 5 digits made for the Navy.

Dave 



Courierdog said:


> I still have my Slide Rule and yes it still works. I had a friend who carried a 6 inch slide rule in the field even in the late 70's No batteries required. In the field where a quick answer of 3 digits was superior to waiting for a calculator to come up with a 5 decimal place answer. and the snow was only 2 feet deep and it was only 2 miles strange how it was up hill in both directions though.
> When it is the wet snow variety it feels colder than the dry snow here at half the depth. I do not need Omicron to tell me to stay home. I like being inside where it is warm and yes the dogs get up on the sofa, to keep me warm.


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## SmithDoor (Dec 22, 2021)

Some of low cost CAD programs are not user happy.
Try DouldCad I think the right name but is user friendly.  It is close to Autocad .

Dave 



Courierdog said:


> Some of you have mastered CAD, I am still trying to get past the opening screen. CAD requires a slight re-wiring of the brain I am afraid.


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## SmithDoor (Dec 22, 2021)

My slide rule still works after the lost of power and all battery's have die. May need a candle for night use.

Dave 



grahamgollar said:


> "Nostalgia is a thing of the past"


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## SmithDoor (Dec 22, 2021)

Richard Hed said:


> You should update your slide rule to the sun powered type.  I've got one of each.


I have have a RadioShack sun power but does not work on stormy days or candles.


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## Larry G. (Dec 22, 2021)

Peter Twissell said:


> I was referring to the "Four Yorkshiremen" sketch.
> When I was a teenager, we didn't have computers, but I would suit in my bedroom building model aeroplanes.
> We were nerds before nerds were invented!



Speaking of Yorkshiremen, this young fellow is no slacker, and tackles quite a variety of projects.
Imagine if he had a machine shop at his disposal.



Regards,
Larry


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## William May (Dec 22, 2021)

Courierdog said:


> I still have my Slide Rule and yes it still works. I had a friend who carried a 6 inch slide rule in the field even in the late 70's No batteries required. In the field where a quick answer of 3 digits was superior to waiting for a calculator to come up with a 5 decimal place answer. and the snow was only 2 feet deep and it was only 2 miles strange how it was up hill in both directions though.
> When it is the wet snow variety it feels colder than the dry snow here at half the depth. I do not need Omicron to tell me to stay home. I like being inside where it is warm and yes the dogs get up on the sofa, to keep me warm.


I worked for Learjet for 32 years, and we had an engineer there who I referenced as an "Apollo Engineer". He used to come over to the hangar to look at a problem, and then draw up a solution on a piece of paper, right there on the wing of the airplane, and our structures guys would then start work on the repair, based on what he told them to do. Then he would go back to his office and draw up the "Official" company drawing and put it in the drawing file.  I thought of him as an "Apollo Engineer" because he was like the engineers that worked on the Apollo space program. They did all their calculations with slide-rules and engineering data that they kept in their head. There were no computers for them to use. He always ran the typical computer stress and fatigue analyses when he got back to his office, but I don't recall him EVER having to change a repair plan once he handed over the paper to the floor guys.  He is now deceased, but everyone agreed that when he retired, we lost a REAL engineer. (He probably had NO problem with gravity, uphill walks, or wolves when he was growing up.  He knew how to handle all those things!)


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## SmithDoor (Dec 22, 2021)

There was handy crank and some with motors use for calculators 

Dave



William May said:


> I worked for Learjet for 32 years, and we had an engineer there who I referenced as an "Apollo Engineer". He used to come over to the hangar to look at a problem, and then draw up a solution on a piece of paper, right there on the wing of the airplane, and our structures guys would then start work on the repair, based on what he told them to do. Then he would go back to his office and draw up the "Official" company drawing and put it in the drawing file.  I thought of him as an "Apollo Engineer" because he was like the engineers that worked on the Apollo space program. They did all their calculations with slide-rules and engineering data that they kept in their head. There were no computers for them to use. He always ran the typical computer stress and fatigue analyses when he got back to his office, but I don't recall him EVER having to change a repair plan once he handed over the paper to the floor guys.  He is now deceased, but everyone agreed that when he retired, we lost a REAL engineer. (He probably had NO problem with gravity, uphill walks, or wolves when he was growing up.  He knew how to handle all those things!)


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## William May (Dec 22, 2021)

Steamchick said:


> Aye, many of us have lots of accumulated junk... e.g 5 slide rules, umpteen compasses (not magnetic, but used for drawing circles), 4 drawing boards and t-squares, trammels, parallels, squares, scales, etc. (mine, Father's and 2 Grandfather's  stuff) of which I use less than half. - Just how many squares can you use when drawing? Also I have a brass scale, for tracing drawings to a different size.. made in 1920s by my Grandfather, because he needed it. You CAD users will laugh because you just print on different sized paper.....! The only thing powered by electrickery is the 1970s calculator - Solar recharging, on its second battery in 50 years... All the computing power of the computer used by Apollo astronauts who went to the moon and back...!
> Likewise I have inherited tools going back to the 1920s! And still use some! Modern files just don't seem as sharp and durable as some old ones I have, but modern drills are better....! Surely they are all "steel"?
> Good tools often outlive the user, for hobby by use, but what are they worth when old and out-dated? Nothing, except a bit of nostalgia.
> Ho hum,
> K2


One of the nicest tools I wish I had, but let slip away from me, was a Clarkson boiler barrel layout tool. It was a brass sheet, and you manipulated it by using a set of screws to adjust it so you could draw the actual boiler plate radius, right to the correct dimension.  So in 15 seconds you could draw a section of boiler, and then mount a valve, fitting, etc on it, and it would be dead on.   Tony Clarkson, the last member of the Clarkson family, was a member of our local model engineering group, and let me borrow it to play with it. Being the good soul that I am, I promptly returned it when I was done with it, but certainly lusted after it.  He later died, and the family came to the club and asked if there was anything any individual members wanted out of his huge collection of stuff, and I asked about the Clarkson Boiler Drawing Tool, but they never could find it, and I assume some visitor nicked it.  I was very sad, to say the least. He was quite a brilliant guy, and before he died, was working on some vertical windmills that would generate power at wind speeds as low as 5 mph. These were for use in Africa and other underdeveloped areas that had no other sources of electricity
I have no clue how he managed to achieve this. There was another member of our club, also an Englishman, who was doing all his machining on the prototype, and he developed stomach cancer and died soon after Tony did. I spoke to him after Tony died, about completing these wind turbines, but he said Tony worked out of his head, and just told him what to make next, and there were no real drawings, just some sketches, and this machinist said he saw no way to ever complete them without knowing what was in Tony's brain.


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## Circlip (Dec 23, 2021)

Four Yorkshiremen sketch,  The Python mob did that one, probably on U-tube. Better one was Yorkshire airlines again on the tube. We had two airlines at different times both based at Yeadon aerodrome, (Leeds Bradford airport). First was BKS flying Dakotas and it was rumoured that when they flew south, all the air corridors were cleared for them, also on reaching the London airports, they were given priority landing clearance. Not sure if that was lack of fuel or so they didn't fall out of the sky.
 Second one was Capital Airlines. Had the pleasure (???????????) of being on the last flight from Jersey (CI) to LBA . I luv the smell of burning Castrol 'R'

  Regards   Ian   (Yorkshire born and bred and proud of it)


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## Steamchick (Dec 23, 2021)

A sad tale, William. My Father did the same - built directly from what was in his head, with calculations in chalk on a black-board. (Actually, a slate, and scratch, from his school days... but he used chalk instead of a scratch.). So being of the same stuff, so do I quite a lot, but try and draw some stuff "for the record" on paper. I type the calcs into the PC. Quicker for repeatability.. But I often wonder who will be interested after I shuffle off this mortal coil. Someone once told me - decades ago - that if all the useful memories of mankind could have been preserved after the individuals died, then it would take more paper than on the planet to write it all down... I reckon there is now a computer file full of selfies somewhere containing more data than that! And I don't give a thought as to "why?"....
Maybe we should accumulate our knowledge and file it in free-books on Amazon, or whatever? Or will this site be an adequate storage of our accumulated knowledge? - It certainly teaches me new stuff frequently!
As to 4 Yorkshiremen, I have met dozens as dour as those 4! With "Nobbut smile abaht!" Liverpool and Lancashire are where all the comedians come from, 'cos they laugh at dour Yorkshiremen!
But I'm a Southerner, so what do I know?
K2


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## ShopShoe (Dec 23, 2021)

"When we're gone .........."

Having gone through losing family members, settling estates, making decisions about what to keep, etc.....

I hope I have the luxury of being able to complete what I am about to say, but I am planning to label the things of my forebears and my things I value with the explanation of why they are worth keeping and what they are, if necessary. As I think about this as I sort, I am finding it easier to say goodbye to things that WERE important, but are not now in the larger view of things. 

--ShopShoe


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## ShopShoe (Dec 23, 2021)

Not to be too serious.....

On this forum were are machinists, (work)shop-workers, builders, and inventors. If we were archeologists or academic scholars, we would have moved the discussion about the mystery tool onward by concluding that it had religious significance and inventorying it as such.

--ShopShoe


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## SmithDoor (Dec 23, 2021)

You find look back how did work  long before can help today.

There is so must that is not print in books today you need the old books.

Try today with solar power witch dates back to the 1800's. 
They made solar electricity and solar steam . But then cheap oil came out. 
The other is before power was everywhere in America we used small gasoline generator producer 32  volt that charge a large battery. After the generator was turn off you still had power.  This what we are doing with solar today too.

We had computers in the 1800's the biggest change in graphics starting in 1950's . 

Dave



ShopShoe said:


> Not to be too serious.....
> 
> On this forum were are machinists, (work)shop-workers, builders, and inventors. If we were archeologists or academic scholars, we would have moved the discussion about the mystery tool onward by concluding that it had religious significance and inventorying it as such.
> 
> --ShopShoe


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## canfly (Dec 24, 2021)

William May said:


> You guys are all pansies (even Steamchick! She's a LADY pansie!)
> Not only did WE walk to school in the snow, WE did it when the humane society was bringing wolves inside so they wouldn't die in the blizzard! AND, it was STEEPER each way than it was for you guys, when WE walked to school. The gravity was MORE then, instead of how weak it is today! And we had to fight off the wolves who HADN'T been taken in by the humane society because it was cold. We had to fight them off with snow shovels.
> We used to DREAM of having an outside loo! Our school days were 14 hours long, but sometimes we actually had a crust of bread to gnaw on for lunch!
> POCKET PROTECTORS!!!! We used to DREAM of having a pocket protector! We carried all our pens, slide-rules, and our favorite micrometer in whichever hand we WEREN'T fighting the wolves with!
> ...


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## canfly (Dec 24, 2021)

So, William, some can huff and puff but you pansies from the 70's can't post a pic to prove your claims like this: my brother and I circa 1954


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## Shopgeezer (Dec 25, 2021)

My original thought when seeing this tool was that it must be a jack screw from the lower right gravity deflector of an alien spacecraft but now I realize that despite the resemblance to a shoe tree it is obviously a runner adjuster from Santa’s sleigh.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays.


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## William May (Dec 26, 2021)

canfly said:


> So, William, some can huff and puff but you pansies from the 70's can't post a pic to prove your claims like this: my brother and I circa 1954View attachment 132163
> View attachment 132163


We tried to take pictures several times, but the ravening wolves tore the cameras right out of our hands.  So I cannot provide any pics of our walks to school.    But I can say that the fact you even have pictures shows it wasn't that cold back then, and the wolves weren't the problem they were later with us.  It was so cold in Wisconsin that some lonely people would collect conversations that had frozen and fallen to the ground, take them home in baskets, and defrost them just to hear people talk. The railroads put huge defrosters on their locomotives, because the sound of the train whistles would freeze and lay in piles along the railroad tracks, thus creating a safety hazard from people not being able to hear approaching trains. (Not to mention the cacophony of noise in the spring when all the whistle sounds finally thawed out on a warm day.)


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## Chris Murphy (Dec 27, 2021)

Steamchick said:


> Hi Peter, I don't remember a "4 Yorkshiremen sketch"?
> Was it anything to do with "see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil, but tell everyone their failings and what they should be doing properly"? But I was raised as a "mealy - mouthed  Southerner with nobbut 'tween th'ears!" Or so a Yorkshireman took great delight explaining to me...
> Ecky-thump!
> K2


Specially for steamchick:


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## Steamchick (Dec 27, 2021)

Seen it... When it was first on TV... but I missed the original sketch on't wireless in 1948.... (I wasn't born.) But I do read a bit of history. 
K2


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## William May (Dec 27, 2021)

Chris Murphy said:


> Specially for steamchick:



Yes, it wasn't until I saw this that I realized how harsh my early life had been.  That's when it finally dawned on me! 
"We used to DREAM of living in a corridor!". HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!


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## abby (Dec 27, 2021)

When we walked to school in the 1950's , we we're too poor to have snow or be attacked by wolves , sometimes we would be accosted by Jehovas witnesses and we would fend them off by waving our log table books . 
Dan.


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## William May (Dec 27, 2021)

abby said:


> When we walked to school in the 1950's , we we're too poor to have snow or be attacked by wolves , sometimes we would be accosted by Jehovas witnesses and we would fend them off by waving our log table books .
> Dan.


I'm surprised that logarithmic tables kept them away. You know what they say about Jehovah's Witnesses and Yugo automobiles?
The difference between them is you can actually close the door on a Yugo!


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## Richard Hed (Dec 27, 2021)

William May said:


> I'm surprised that logarithmic tables kept them away. You know what they say about Jehovah's Witnesses and Yugo automobiles?
> The difference between them is you can actually close the door on a Yugo!


Now now, no need to be so naughty.  I have a JW friend who started out that way--trying to preach constantly, bringing out his electronic bibble--but I told him at the get go that I "did not believe in that f***ing sh**" infront of his wife and everything.  Told him I have my own religion (which, by the way, I made up myself--thank Thor and Wotan--like every other religion) and after about 2-3 weeks of training him, he stopped brining out his electronic bibble and started to talk about Uruguay where he is from and his adventures in Brazil when he was 17-19 yrs old.  It was very interesting.  Occassionally he has a relapse and says, "But the bibble says . . . ".  Unfortunately since corvid, I have lost track of him.


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## William May (Dec 27, 2021)

Richard Hed said:


> Now now, no need to be so naughty.  I have a JW friend who started out that way--trying to preach constantly, bringing out his electronic bibble--but I told him at the get go that I "did not believe in that f***ing sh**" infront of his wife and everything.  Told him I have my own religion (which, by the way, I made up myself--thank Thor and Wotan--like every other religion) and after about 2-3 weeks of training him, he stopped brining out his electronic bibble and started to talk about Uruguay where he is from and his adventures in Brazil when he was 17-19 yrs old.  It was very interesting.  Occassionally he has a relapse and says, "But the bibble says . . . ".  Unfortunately since corvid, I have lost track of him.


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## William May (Dec 27, 2021)

At Learjet, I worked with a bunch of Mormons, and they were pretty interesting. Every Mormon male had to go on a "mission" right after High School, and one I knew well, went to South America. The government of whatever country they were in was quite restrictive about religious propaganda, but he said the result of this was that they were viewed somewhat akin to rock stars, and people eagerly sought their literature, because the government (I think it was Bolivia or Peru) had agents go around and try to collect much of the literature he and his partner handed out, which resulted in people trying to keep and hide it as much as they could, apparently on the basis of "If it was forbidden, it must be good!"  So the government actually helped them out quite a bit in their efforts.  (It was all quite tame, very religious pro-Mormon tracts and literature, so if the government was looking for revolutionary literature, that WASN'T it!) He had a LOT of hilarious stories about his trip to South America


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## Richard Hed (Dec 27, 2021)

William May said:


> At Learjet, I worked with a bunch of Mormons, and they were pretty interesting. Every Mormon male had to go on a "mission" right after High School, and one I knew well, went to South America. The government of whatever country they were in was quite restrictive about religious propaganda, but he said the result of this was that they were viewed somewhat akin to rock stars, and people eagerly sought their literature, because the government (I think it was Bolivia or Peru) had agents go around and try to collect much of the literature he and his partner handed out, which resulted in people trying to keep and hide it as much as they could, apparently on the basis of "If it was forbidden, it must be good!"  So the government actually helped them out quite a bit in their efforts.  (It was all quite tame, very religious pro-Mormon tracts and literature, so if the government was looking for revolutionary literature, that WASN'T it!) He had a LOT of hilarious stories about his trip to South America


Yes, to this day, I love the forbidden.  Also, remember what happened to Salman Rushdi's book when it was forbidden by religious fascists?  Anything forbidden has the same effect.  That's why I love porn.  Actually most porn gets boring but because it is forbidden, I push it a lot like my friend bringing out his bibble.  I would like to hear some of those stories about S. America


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## William May (Dec 27, 2021)

All I can say is all the religion today is how I became a "Pastafarian",  the sect of religion who dress up like pirates to give sermons, and serve some form of pasta at every religious meal. Instead of "Amen", they say "Ramen", and they mean it! Their holy book tells me that they are the original religion, and all other religions came later and are splinters of the mother religion.  A quick study of their holy book will probably convert you, as well. 
But they don't do "missions" like the Mormons, unless they can sail in a pirate ship.  Also, lady pirates, or "Pirate Chicks" as they refer to them, are just as welcome to lead religious observances. I think that "SteamChick" could be one of those, but just doesn't want to admit it.


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## Richard Hed (Dec 27, 2021)

William May said:


> All I can say is all the religion today is how I became a "Pastafarian",  the sect of religion who dress up like pirates to give sermons, and serve some form of pasta at every religious meal. Instead of "Amen", they say "Ramen", and they mean it! Their holy book tells me that they are the original religion, and all other religions came later and are splinters of the mother religion.  A quick study of their holy book will probably convert you, as well.
> But they don't do "missions" like the Mormons, unless they can sail in a pirate ship.  Also, lady pirates, or "Pirate Chicks" as they refer to them, are just as welcome to lead religious observances. I think that "SteamChick" could be one of those, but just doesn't want to admit it.


Ra-min, bro', Ra-min!  Just so hyou know, this word came from the original two religions from the east and west.  Ra came from ancient Egyptian and Min can from the Chinese.

I would like them to come on a mission to my house--the true Pirate Ship might convert some of my many mormano neighbors too.


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## RM-MN (Dec 28, 2021)

Richard Hed said:


> Ra-min, bro', Ra-min!  Just so hyou know, this word came from the original two religions from the east and west.  Ra came from ancient Egyptian and Min can from the Chinese.
> 
> I would like them to come on a mission to my house--the true Pirate Ship might convert some of my many mormano neighbors too.



I think the Pirate Ship arriving at my place might convert some of my neighbors being as I live nearly as far from an ocean as possible in the United States and 150 miles from the nearest seaport.


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## Steamchick (Dec 28, 2021)

Sorry, I'm not one of your pirates... But I do enjoy Pasta - with a tasty sauce!
But as this has digressed from the "mystery tool" maybe the thread has shredded?
I don't do religion, I do Physics. "HOW" the universe works, not "WHO" made it!
K2


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## William May (Dec 28, 2021)

Richard Hed said:


> Ra-min, bro', Ra-min!  Just so hyou know, this word came from the original two religions from the east and west.  Ra came from ancient Egyptian and Min can from the Chinese.
> 
> I would like them to come on a mission to my house--the true Pirate Ship might convert some of my many mormano neighbors too.


No, it's Ramen. Like the noodle. Because they worship the Great Spaghetti  Monster, who is their chief deity, and who has what they call "Noodly Appendages".


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## Shopgeezer (Dec 29, 2021)

Our Pastifarian sect has solved that problem by putting our pirate ship on wheels. We have also passed an edict that steam power is allowed. You forgot to mention that appropriate head gear, a colander, is required for all services. A local lad took his for a driver’s license photo and when they wouldn’t do it he kicked up a fuss about religious rights and eventually they agreed. So he has a driver’s license photo with a colander on his head.


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## William May (Dec 29, 2021)

Shopgeezer said:


> Our Pastifarian sect has solved that problem by putting our pirate ship on wheels. We have also passed an edict that steam power is allowed. You forgot to mention that appropriate head gear, a colander, is required for all services. A local lad took his for a driver’s license photo and when they wouldn’t do it he kicked up a fuss about religious rights and eventually they agreed. So he has a driver’s license photo with a colander on his head.


Yes, I remember that from the news! Perhaps I will have my next driver's license picture taken like that.  I have to renew next year, as I am turning 65.


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