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Dave Walker's blog. Dave is a freelance cartoonist who draws a weekly 'Guide to the Church' for the Church Times. (more)Follow via:
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This tiny widget arrived in the post today and I was overjoyed. I bought it on eBay for £1.49. It is a bit smaller than the photograph.
A small and reasonably pointless competition: You just have to explain in the comments (1) what my small widget is and (2) why I was overjoyed. There are no prizes except to feel slightly pleased with yourself for a short amount of time.
Wrong but interesting answers will be winning answers too.
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posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 8:08 pm. Click here to read all of the latest posts.
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It’s the bit that you hold at the end of a pair of compasses. Now you will be able to draw a circle as good as Leonardo but with mechanical assistance
Does it have anything to do with flat-pack furniture?
I think your mystery widget is a socket wrench. I’m guessing you’re overjoyed because it’s in some obscure size that fits something you have that has needed fastening or loosening for a long time, and now you can do that.
I reckon it’s a sort of bike nut tightener, that enables you to dismantle critical bits of your bike and put them in your bag, or lock them away while you leave the bulky boring bits chained to a post somewhere. you’re overjoyed cos you’ll be able to cycle to church in an area where bike thieves have been operating.
it’s quite clearly a rare example of miniature industrial art that was being sold on ebay by someone who had no idea of its significance or value and thought it was a bunch of old nuts.
Great answers thus far. No one has it yet, although one person is a bit nearer than the others. I’m pleased that no-one has guessed correctly as it makes it more fun.
Note to people who know the answer: Feel free to put the wrong answer to keep the game going.
It’s one of the early blog spanners used by Google’s software engineers before they discovered the internet. They worked reasonably effectively when attached to the side of a dustbin but tended to snag on the garbage until they added the swivel head that allowed users more flexibility. Quite innovative in their day but now largely superseded by fibre-optics.
I guess you’re thinking of using it in an attempt to boost your technorati rankings but you’ll probably find that their technology has moved on a bit recently. They still work fairly well on twitter, though, so if you adjust it correctly you should get on reasonably there.
It’s the cable end for a Sturmley Archer 3 speed hub gear box. It attaches to the bit of chain that disappears into the depth of the hub.
These were the type of gears on a Raleigh Shopper type bike – 20 inch wheels etc. I cannibalised one to put on our trailer bike for our children – mainly because they weren’t pedalling fast enough!
You’re pleased because you’ll be able to change gear on your bike again.
Kennedy
I think fibrefairy is nearly right: it is a rare example of miniature industrial art. However, although the seller knew its true value, he wanted to inspire the young struggling artist, and hence sold it for a fraction of its real worth.
It’s actually the swivel for a thurible.
Is that all you got in your bag of workshop sweepings?
You wos robbed.
My first thought was it was the bit that connected brake cable to brake lever on the handlebar. But I think Kennedy Fraser may have something – tho’ never having graduated from trike to bike I’d hesitate to specify brand etc!
Dave is overjoyed because of the general wear and tear of simply leaping off a moving bike when he reaches his destination.
No, it’s definitely a blog spanner. I know because my grandfather had one. Don’t let anyone fool you with all this guff about bicycles. I’ve explained more here: Dave Walker’s Blog Spanner.
Ooh arh, that clearly be a Wigwam for a Gooses Bridle, oy say.
Some great answers – marvellous.
I will reveal the answers at some point tomorrow (Thursday) and award some prizes of feeling slightly pleased with oneself.
1) It’s clearly a spare part for your Lambeth indaba capturer.
2) Is it possible to be over joyful?
Actually, it’s a widget used to grobbit when your blurfuscating. That’s GOT to be it.
Hey, I had a Sturmley Archer 3-speed gear shift on my very first two-wheeler, which was a type of bike we called an “English Racer” even though mine was made in Holland. It never worked quite right after I left the bike out in the rain. (But all these years I thought it was “Sturmey”).
Three suggestions:
1 A screw-on thingummybob for your drawing board, that allows you quickly sharpen your pencil by rubbing it against the patterned end
2 A handy thing for place in a convenient corner at church for looping over all the discarded palm crosses we’ll be seeing in a few weeks’ time
3 A movable prong for Dave to hang his Magical Inspiration Hat on. For when he doesn’t need it.
Apologies for the garbled English in that previous post. Should be “allows you to quickly sharpen …” and “a handy thing for placing in …”
As you have all no doubt spotted.
I think Russ was on the right lines – it attaches to your drawing board but I think it attaches to the harness of the small church elf that does your cartoons – has he been using the pencil sharpener to try and escape again???
I think it is for adjusting skates, inline or the usual four wheel kind. I have a pair of old metal sidewalk skates. So I say it is a skate adjuster IF i made it on time to answer.
As the size of the photograph will depend on the size of the screen for thos webbooks it is for attaching very tiny parts to something not quite so small or ….for those looking at in church on large projected image ….it holds the shuttles main thruster on to the shuttle itself. Not bad for £1.49 although I fancy the postage would have been significant.
Nice floor
it’s a deep drawn dingle arm. as any fule kno..
It’s a hanging participle, clearly.
Using a little modification, it also enables you to quickly and easily split an infinitive
It attaches to a Pastors bike with the right hand set of lock nuts. Then by screwing down the cap nut it forces a drop of Holy Water out of the thin tube on the left. This allows a small amount of Holy Water to last through the many late night/early morning baptisms, etc., that a Pastor frequently is called on to do. Dave is happy because he won’t have to use spit any more.
