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A couple of years ago I was privileged to get a tour of the super secret Smithsonian storage facility in MD.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smithsonian_Museum_Support_Center

We saw such delights as a ton of samurai armour, a stuffed polar bear and easter island type head on a shelf, and Roosevelt's favourite dog.

Some of the tags had double digit serial numbers and we were told that a lot of this stuff will probably never be displayed in public due to the sheer size of the collection.

I'll see if I can find the pictures.
Why is the museum super secret or have private
 
Seeing as no one else in the intervening years has bothered to ask, I will.

Are you able to elaborate on the above quote?

It was - believe it or not - a brain slicing jig! ('Jig' as in a device designed to hold a workpiece in a way which allows repeated cutting with the mimimum amout of resetting between cuts.)

It was actually a very simple thing. I might have a photo somewhere.
 
Or maybe earthworms.

Rummy fact, the earthworms on the Isle of Rum grow up to 40 cms and weigh 12.5g (3 times the average for the rest of the UK). Alternative name for a new Folk group - The Giant Earthworms of Rum.
Australian Gippsland earthworms (endangered and protected) on the otherhand can get up to 3 metres and 200g.

jar of earthworms.jpg
 
It was - believe it or not - a brain slicing jig! ('Jig' as in a device designed to hold a workpiece in a way which allows repeated cutting with the mimimum amout of resetting between cuts.)

It was actually a very simple thing. I might have a photo somewhere.

Are you prepared to say what size brain it was for ? I ask because human brains are huge (so I'm told) and a colleague had great trouble transferring a thin slice of brain from the cutter to the slide when it was to be stained.
 
It was - believe it or not - a brain slicing jig! ('Jig' as in a device designed to hold a workpiece in a way which allows repeated cutting with the mimimum amout of resetting between cuts.)

It was actually a very simple thing. I might have a photo somewhere.

Here you go:

iu


maximus otter
 
Are you prepared to say what size brain it was for ? I ask because human brains are huge (so I'm told) and a colleague had great trouble transferring a thin slice of brain from the cutter to the slide when it was to be stained.

Couldn't tell you exactly, but I remember being quite surprised at how large the aperture was where the brain would be placed for slicing.

I've been looking for the photo I took at the time, but can't lay my hands on it. It was basically a very simple two piece jig: a square plywood base with an upright board across the middle, with said aperture cut in the latter. The knife - a thin, long and wide blade, I assume - would be held flat against the upright piece while slicing downwards. The brain would be moved through the aperture by the required amount after each cut.

It was a rush job - I think for some kind of exam or assessment. One of the simplest pieces I've ever had to bodge up, but a great one for the pub.
 
One thing I didn't mention.

During the chat I had with the guy who asked me to make up this thing, I pointed out that in the past this probably happened all the time - surgeons, anatomists and students popping round to the local cabinet maker to have a bespoke 'thingy' made to perform a very particular task (only back then, in walnut, with brass fittings). Yes - he said - they had cupboards full, and don't know what many of them were for.

Sometimes people who construct things can work out what apparently mysterious objects are for through a form of mental reverse construction - or at least say to a technician 'so this has been constructed in this way to do this action - why/where would that be necessary?'; I reckon a splintersmith and an anatomist might have made a good fist of working some of the puzzles out between them, and totally regret not following up on the offer of a private viewing.
 
Why is the museum super secret or have private

The storage isn't open to the public. The actual museum is. Simply, there isn't enough room to display everything, or they don't think there is sufficient public interest.

AFAIK I know researchers can get access though. Plus grad students etc...
 
Oh, Ive been in museum storage many a time.

But some are indifferent or hostile to researchers.
 
Oh, you are so lucky.

I emailed them some time back with an offer of my academic services but they did not reply.
 
The Smithsonian owns the Atomic Museum in Las Vegas which claims that they have a tiny piece of a crash Russian UFO on display.

That is what they advertise.
 
The Smithsonian owns the Atomic Museum in Las Vegas which claims that they have a tiny piece of a crash Russian UFO on display.
That is what they advertise.

That's the National Atomic Testing Museum, which as a 'national' museum is affiliated with the Smithsonian. See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Atomic_Testing_Museum

They have an exhibition are dedicated to Area 51:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/area-51-exhibit-re-opens_n_5341248

... which includes some of the material recovered from the Dalnegorsk / Height 611 incident:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/area-51-russian-roswell-ufo_n_1373352

For more on the incident see:

Dalnegorsk / Height 611 Incident (1986; Russia)
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/dalnegorsk-height-611-incident-1986-russia.67886/
 
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We expect things more believable from such a highup establishment.

(couldn't they find an american example, given the ridiculous amount of ufos alleged to have crashed on their soil????
 
The difference lies in the fact the Russians took the Dalnegorsk evidence seriously enough to collect it, collate it and share samples with other nations. The samples sent to the USA were examined by researchers within the US nuclear testing and monitoring community. This was the basis for including the incident and the samples in the museum exhibit.
 
Oh!

And thats the stuff hes getting rid of.

(Nothing within my budget, sadly.)
 
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