Question of the day

allandwf

Member
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10,958
Do we know what is behind the dials, or are they just sitting on top of each other? No mechanism at rear?
I assume the two screws and wire are some sort of home made locking device, as the rest is well made, and they just seem screwed in haphazardly.
 
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MarkMas

Chief pedant
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8,796
I've been an Electronic engineer within aviation for the nearly 30 years and never knew how to use a slide rule...yet I know how a thermionic valve works. Never had the chance...

I was sent on a special 3-day course in the Easter school holidays to learn how to use a slide rule. The day the course ended, Sinclair announced the Sinclair Oxford calculator and slide-rules became obsolete.
 
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6,001
I still have my Slide Rule (and Abacus) and I can still use it properly - the Rule that is.
Remember when I showed my sons it, they could not believe it and thought I was playing a practical joke
 

midlifecrisis

Member
Messages
16,102
Getting back to the photo. It's clearly a circular slide rule of some sort, possibly to do with imperial measurement or pennies in a pound or shilling from the pre-decimal days (£ s d)
 

2b1ask1

Special case
Messages
20,223
Just my four ha'pennys worth; looks aviation based to me, being made of aluminium and of the sort of age of seat of the pants flying, my guess is it is for calculating the trajectory of bombs with gravitational decay, the Halifax link could be that this is the aircraft it came out of?
 
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6,001
As there is no answer to this Q may I move the thread on with one that does have an answer?
I heard it in our Q last night (we were rubbish) and it concerns the Royal Family.
Burmese was the allegedly the Queen's favorite mount - well apart from a Greek obviously.
The Q is who presented Burmese to HM. The Mare was used for almost 20 consecutive years in Trooping of the Colour events.
 

spkennyuk

Member
Messages
5,932
As there is no answer to this Q may I move the thread on with one that does have an answer?
I heard it in our Q last night (we were rubbish) and it concerns the Royal Family.
Burmese was the allegedly the Queen's favorite mount - well apart from a Greek obviously.
The Q is who presented Burmese to HM. The Mare was used for almost 20 consecutive years in Trooping of the Colour events.

Always beware of a Greek horse. Burmese probably got ridden more often though.
 

JonW

Member
Messages
3,259
Burmese was the allegedly the Queen's favorite mount - well apart from a Greek obviously.
The Q is who presented Burmese to HM. The Mare was used for almost 20 consecutive years in Trooping of the Colour events.

As is often the case in life, the clue is in the question.... I’m going to guess Mountbatten?
 
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6,001
Like your thinking but no.
The clue is, it is not an individual but a group and logical thinking may get you there eg who uses horses a lot?
 

zagatoes30

Member
Messages
20,764
Know bu99er all about horses, only international I know of is the Spanish riding school which bizarrely is in Austria or the Royal Canadian Mountain Police.

Oops just noticed MarkMas suggested RCMP
 
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6,001
RCMP is correct well done so fight it out among yourselves.........................

If the other Q has a copyright 1908 surely that can be traced via say a Patents Office dunno
 

MarkMas

Chief pedant
Messages
8,796
No need for fighting - I'll just rush right in...

What are the names of the following actors, and – for the win – what do they have in common?
  1. The actor who played pilot Chuck Yeager in the 1983 film The Right Stuff.
  2. A British actor who played a bigoted cockney in a BBC television sitcom from 1965 to 1975.
  3. A child actor who starred in Alan Parker's Bugsy Malone and had a role in Happy Days.
  4. A famous American film actor born in 1907 who was married three times, to Josephine Saenz, Esperanza Baur and Pilar Pallete
  5. An American 'action film' actor who married actress Calista Flockhart in 2010.