Douglas Wong recently posted about a re-discovery and memory of using a slide rule, a distinctly old skool device. Anyone of an age will have a fond memory of one - they were around in my school days but were really overtaken by calculators. Both could be bought in stationers stores and I can't image they sold many except to people like me who just liked the look of them.
Here's another tool - anyone have any guesses (I know what it is!):
It was re-discovered by my father's neighbour, a great chap who spent his life in engineering, still maintains a 'shed of wonders' and who can turn his hand to fixing anything. He picked it up at a car boot sale because it looked interesting but ironically enough, for an engineer such as he, he didn't know what it was, but thought I may have an idea - he was right, and I did. It was in a sorry state, but an ultrasonic bath later and it's back to working order and the best part is, I can put it back into service! The paint work was deliberately left alone as there's something rather pleasing about using a tool that has seen life. The only real shame is that one of the arms is missing, there should be two of them.
Getting hold of these tools is a Godsend and finding this was truly serendipitous.
