powerrabbit

Wow!, that was a rather expensive carrier bag Bill! 'Salesman patter', I never accept their first price either, nor their second.

Here's the ones I have, the flat one has no backplate and is the earlier type from beween the 1920's and 30's. Hndbook pictured also.

Not sure which would be older Bill, I'm guessing the one on the right. They produced this style for many years up until the smaller square type that came out in the 1970's. I have a couple as well, one's on the front grille of my 1966 S11 Land Rover, two or three more in a cupboard drawer somewhere. I've also got an AA Members handbook from the 1960's, I picked up the book because it has all the UK district and County registration letters in it, very useful for researching where a vehicle was first registered.

In this instance, a hand is 4 inches. Some of these said sticks are callibrated or marked in either inches or hands and some are marked in both.

It should do, go-on Bill, I know you're just dying to try it out. I/6th of a Gill or one 'tot' is what it should hold by the look of its size.

One type of measuring stick I would like is one contained within a walking stick to measure horses, I've seen many at antique fairs but they've always been rather expensively priced.

Silver plated hunters collapsable toddy beaker Bill. Would be carried out in the hunters jacket pocket at the hunt meet for the traditional 'styrrup' cup drink before the off with the hounds. Nice item.

I find it surprising that when you buy a new pair of overalls (boilersuit) that they are still made with the thin long pocket down the outside of one leg for a wooden folding rule, at least some things never change.

I would not expect you to PM me on this subject Bill as I would not expect you to even assume I have any knowledge on these sort of things. but posting such things up opens descussion and replies can, hopefully, increase other interested persons knowledge and learning.

I to have several folding rules of this type Bill, mostly Rabone boxwood ones from 1 foot to a 10 foot folding ones, most of them are of the 'four-fold' type. I also have a couple of small brass measures as well but these would be more draughtsmans tools. Your first pictured one is interesting and if it is ivory would be most unusual, I have seen some like this made of bone but the majority are made from an early white plastic like material called 'ivorine'. Tell-tale signs are that true ivory has a 'grain' of very thin striated lines along it as ivory, when living and growing grows like a tree, putting on one extra layer every year. Bone on the other hand has vry small black flecks in it, these are the remains of the blood vessels that fed the bone when the animal was alive. Ivorine has no graining or flecking. To test if it is ivorine or ivory, heat up the point of a pin to red hot and hold it into the material in an unobtrusive area, if it leaves a little hole, it's not ivory. I have seen a lot of bits and bobs at car boot sales being sold as ivory but is in fact either plastic or resin, when you tell the seller that you're going to do the 'hot pin test' on it they soon come clean! It is against the Law now to buy, import or sell ivory items that has been carved post 1947 unless it is accompanied by a certificate stating that it is old ivory. Bill, have you passed the fold-out rule test? Hold the rule in its closed position in one hand lengthways away from you and in four moves with your free hand unfold it with every move folding it open away from you.

They are, if indeed silver, are continental in origin I would say. Having said that though, not all silver was hallmarked, especially very early 'provincial' silver as there were many very small silversmiths and siver of very light weight did not have to be submitted to one of the main Assay Offices for marking. The J.M. in the central 'losenge' would be the makers mark and the numbers 8725 is either a registration number or the silver purity percentage, i.e. 87.25%. It will more likeley be a registration number as a purity number would be much smaller, not stamped in so deep and would also be contained within a losenge. The number 3 on each could be the number of a series of pairs made of which may have been specially commissioned. UK silver is usually always marked with the Assay Office mark, anchor = Birmingham, leopards head = Sheffield, crown = London etc. etc. A date letter in a losenge, different fonts and losenge shapes, were also stamped in, these dates can accurateley be identified to the year if you look in the 'Collins Gem Antique Marks' little pocket book, available from all good stationers and book shops, a little bible if you're into gold, silver, platinum, pewter, English silver plate and ceramics. The marks on gold are the same as those on silver. Any 'silver' and 'gold' metal items marketed without hallmarks and being tested as gold or silver and without a written 'certificate' stating that they have tested as such can legally only be marketed as white or yellow metal in description. Edit. Continental silver imported to the uk normally is submitted to an Assay Office who will test its purity and mark it with such, 9.25 being the UK standard, small items are usually marked with the word 'Sterling', this verifies that it also is of the uk standard. French silver usually carries the word 'Argent', which is the French word for silver. Of course, silver and other precious metal objects are produced all the World over and each will or should carry their own Countries marking systems.

There is a very good wax polish that Vapormatic does, this is a white thick cream type that comes in a white pot, quantity in the pot is 1/2 lite. This polish removes traffic grime, fly dirt and light tar spots, it buffs up to a brilliant shine and creates a barrier and everything that comes into contact with the polished surface just slides off, I use it on my tractors and other vehicles and it's brilliant, apply on one cloth and remove/buff with another, best results using soft cotton cloth or toweling for buffing. You'll find it on their website, type in the part number VLB4134 in the seasrch box under 'VAP code number' and it will come up. RRP is £5.66 a pot plus VAT. It's supplied to the dealers in a box of 6.

Seems like he went on a bender!

I had a reproduced A4 combe bound book for the B that I bought at a rally, it contained the operator instructions plus workshop repair manual, it had a celophane outer cover sheet and the book cover was orange card with a black lined Allis B on it, I let it go with the tractor when I sold it. John, if you're going to Honiton Hill rally over the August Bank holiday Sunday/Monday, if you look around the stalls you'll probably find a copy. There's a few listed on eBay, here's the best and cheapest one. http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Allis-Chalmers-Model-B-English-Tractor-Instructions-/220995326078?pt=UK_Collectables_OtherTransportation_RL&hash=item337459107e

Being fitted with the straight front axle it's an English built Allis, you'll find the tractors serial number stamped in a flat on top of the casting behind the gear lever, or is it in front, I forget now. It will start with a capital letter E which denotes English built followed by a series of numbers. I think Alan T. Condie did a book in his tractor series on the Allis B which lists the serial numbers with build dates, you'll find that it will date from about 1949. The Allis B was made for many years and there were a great number imported to the UK from America during the Second World War under the 'Lend Lease' scheme, there are more of these tractors at the bottom of the Atlantic than there are on farms due to the U Boats sinking ships in the convoys. I would bet that yours was supplied by Flew from Broadclyst John as it's very close to you, that's of course if the tractor is pretty local.

Beef and cerials are the other 2 I think from memory.

Do you know any history of the tractor John? John L.C. Flew was the main Allis dealer in Devon at the time in Clyst Honiton. I have a pack of Waddington's playing cards with his advertising on them. Click on the picture and it will open up in another window and a lot larger.

The rear tyres are I believe 10x24 John? I think you can get 11x24, some older 4WD tractors had this size. Ring around a few tyre places like Totnes Tyres or Mid Devon Tyres (Okehampton) those two companies seem pretty good at sourcing odd size tyres. I had an Allis B a few years ago, 1948 English built with the straight front axle but could not find any 5.00x15 front tyres for it. Sold it a while later.

This series of programmes are being released on DVD on 20th August, all programmes in the series are on 2 discs.

Now that the sun is going down the moon is showing a little more definition. You're all probably getting bored by now but I'm still experimenting with the new camera and hopefully taking better shots as I'm getting to grips with it. This one taken at 8.24pm I think is the best shot so far.

This evening the skies are clear again and the moon is now about 1/2 and has turned slightly revealing some deep shaddowy craters. I managed to get a bit more zoom out of the camera this time, an improvement on my first attempt, used a different setting and instead of the 20x zoom that's stated in the manual this was 42x zoom. Will wait until it's about 3/4 before I take another picture of it.

The camera is pretty impressive Rick, it's the new Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ30 digital camera that has a lot of features that a DSLR has. The optical zoom on it is 20x, it will even take 3D pictures. Take a look at the specs for it on the Panasonic site, not that I wish to advertise but in my opinion one of the best digital cameras produced to date.

I'll keep an eye on the moon and as it becomes more full and up to full moon I'll take some more pictures of it and post up.

Just had to change the hue and heighten the contrast a little to get a better definition of the moon, had to choose my moment as the sun at this time, around 3.30pm was still a little high and the moon looked a little pale but another hour and the moon would have dissapeared under the horizon.

Very clear skies here today and looking to the South the moon was well up so I thought I'd attemt to take a picture of it. Think it came out quite well with the new Lumix camera on full zoom.