Mystery brass container

I recently saved the brass container in the photos from going for scrap. It is 1 1/2 inches in diameter, and 4 1/4 inches to the thread. I am unable to get a readable picture of it, but it has " Moore and Wright, Sheffield, England. " engraved on its side. I assume that the larger cap is to allow ease of filling, and the smaller one to dispense the contents; but what? There are no seals or places for seals on the caps, so presumably not for a liquid. I would be very interested to find out what is was for.

It,s part of a Moore and Wright spirit blowlamp there should be brass tube attached with a brass band.

David

I's suggest it's incomplete; there probably should be a clip round the outside holding a curved metal pipe with a fine nozzle on one end and a flexible rubber pipe on the other.

Fill the cylinder with wadding and meths, take off the smaller cap, light the meths and blow down the tube.

This gives a very fine precise blowlamp for small heating jobs.

I'll root out mine and take a photo when I get chance,

Bill

+1 for Moore & Wright blowlamp, I've got a complete lamp in my workshop, yours is missing a brass tube which bends over the top of the small cap (removes to expose the wick) and is held by a large clip around the body, which should be filled with a cord wick, also should have a rubber tube and a mouthpiece to blow down, looks like a fake ivory job on mine, 

Unable to add photo's unfortunately, it's in another country to me at the mo'

John.

Edited By RJW on 04/10/2017 20:17:21

Thanks for that gents. Now you have told me what it is, I recognise it from my apprentice days with the G.P.O. (telephones). One of the construction engineers demonstrated one to us, but I can't think what work he did that would have needed one. That's probably why that was the last one I saw! Thanks again.

Maurice

Here you go,mine's missing the original cap, so sports one made from a brass nut with a plate soldered on to cover the hole.
The brass blow tube's a bit battered and now soldered on as well, but none of that is my handiwork.

Well worth buying if you ever spot one at a sensible price.

Bill

Edited By peak4 on 04/10/2017 20:50:25

For our friends overseas the term 'meths' is short for 'methylated spirit' - ethyl alcohol, burning alcohol, with added methyl alcohol and pyridine to make it smell and taste foul.

French DiY shops sell their version which is much nicer to use, not purple, and smells of brandy - which is what it is made from, I guess.

Cheers, Tim

Must find out where mine is.

Martin P

I seem to remember a similar method of producing a fine, intense flame for chemical analysis in the school lab, but with glass hardware.

Experts were supposed to keep up the blowing indefinitely by beathing in through the nose while blowing through the mouth.

I couldn't!

Hi, these three scans maybe of interest.

Regards Nick.

l seem to remember a similar method of producing a fine, intense flame for chemical analysis in the school lab, but with glass hardware.

Was it blowing across a bunsen flame with either a metal, or hard glass, blow jet to heat up substances placed in a recess in a block of carbon?

Simple experiments for the effect of heat on a substance in a reducing atmosphere. Not allowed as soon as health and safety took over. I suppose sanitation of the blow jets, pupils sucking in hot gases, and idiots blowing hot powders around the lab, etc, etc put a stop to those interesting experiments.

Behaviour in schools has nosedived since the 1960s, to the point where this type of experiment can on

ly be undertaken under very close supervision or by alternative, less personally involved methods.

But I don't expect the secondary modern pupils of the time got the chance to investigate with chemicals like those in the grammar system, so the system of mixing all abilities together, in the comprehensive system has had a lot to answer for. There are always downsides to every system, I suppose. Comprehensive compromises is what I called it.

Great scans Nick, you've just saved me a lot of googling for info, many thanks for posting them up, handy material to print off and keep with my burner

John.

Yes with a Charcoal Block and also the Borax Bead Test.

I know some of you chaps like to blame H&S for all the ills of the modern world but in this case they stopped teaching blowpipe technique because it has long been - more or less - obsolete. In the sixties some of the old fashioned analytical methods were still being taught (Chlorides detected with Silver Nitrate etc.) but much less than you would find in a Victorian Chemistry Textbook.

Early on the process of identifying an unknown chemical involved many tests, each one designed to eliminate or prove the presence of an element, Anion or Cation. By very careful measurement of weights with a Chemical Balance it also was possible to extract further information about the unknown compound. As testing by these methods was skilled work as well as slow and tedious, much effort was put into finding better ways of doing it. Once they were available, there was very little point in teaching schoolchildren the older ways which is why blowpipes have all but disappeared and chemical balances sit in the corner.

A word of advice: if you're inclined to automatically blame H&S for 'bad things', please don't. You are probably wrong. Check and double check the facts. For example, most UK towns used to have a foundry or two happily casting iron. Most of them have gone, not because of H&S, but because demand for cast-iron products has been falling for over a century. It is true that H&S and Environmental requirements were often the last straw, but most of those businesses were bankrupt already. It's also easier for employers to claim unreasonable H&S for their failures rather than poor management and bad investment decisions.

H&S is a glorious opportunity to shift the blame. Engineers don't fall for such propaganda because it breaks the first rule of Engineering: 'thou shalt not solve the wrong problem'.

Dave

I agree with the gloriously mis-named S-O-D. But I have another reason for children to try old fashioned methods in science classes. One thing that the school process is intended to do is to help work out which pupils have particular aptitudes. In this case, an aptitude for science, including the practical application of theory, and the careful working out of answers from results. The carbon block, or borax bead, test, was easy to do as long as you did it right, it brought pupils face to face with risk and mess, and it did not require particularly complex or expensive or fragile equipment. So, for the purpose of weeding-out, it was a good exercise, even though it was no longer relevant in 'real' workplaces.

Exactly the same things happened to engineering apprentices - filing exact cubes entirely by hand is not a regular task in 'real' engineering.

Regards, Tim

Edited By Tim Stevens on 05/10/2017 13:53:54

The Australians call it 'metho'

Neil

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'The Purple Nectar'

MichaelG.

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But seriously : http://www.wuchopperen.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Doc0264_SMPMethoBrochure_v2.pdf

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 05/10/2017 21:11:02

Maurice ... if you are ex-GPO, then do you remember 2 places called Otley and Stone ? that was a long time ago for me !