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Can You ID This Mechanical Item?

P

Philo_T

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Ok, this one's been driving me nuts, so I figured I'd give the board a go at this.

I came across this in "The Big Book of the Unexplained" by Doug Moench and various artists (Great series by the way. I particularly like seeing the juxtoposition of the work of the various sequential artists.)

BBE2.jpg

(full size)


The chapter bibliography lists :

Brookesmith, Peter, ed.
Mysteries of Mind, Space & Time Vol. 26 url?
Wesport, CN: H.S. Stutterman Inc. 1992

Michell, John and Robert J.M. Rickard Phenomena - A book of Wonders url?
New York: Pantheon Books, 1977

Reader's Digest, Mysteries of the Unexplained.
Pleasantville, NY: The Reader's Digest Association, Inc. 1992

Sisman, Adam, ed. The World's Most Incredible Stories : The Best of Fortean Times url?
New York: Avon Books, 1992


Can anyone pin down which was the original source for this item?

It appears as if it was based off a source photograph.

WTF is it?!!!



(Mods - please let me know if : 1) the image size is a problem or 2) use of the image isn't covered by fair use.)
 
Looks to me like the 'Long Screw' many apprentices are sent to find!
:D
 
There was an expedition which crossed the Bering Strait in a custom-built amphibious vehicle, in the last year or so.

On water or slushy snow, it was propelled by two of these screws, one on either side. But they weren't as big as the one shown, but perhaps someone had a similar idea earlier on. Does the book give a date for the finding?
 
It looks very much like an Archemedian screw. surounded by a tube its used to raise either water or more likey in a grain silo... the grain is wound up the spiral and emerges at the top for loading into a lorry/mill wheel.
 
As already suggested its an archemedian screw (sometimes called an auger) which is used to lift pretty much anything that flows - flour, grain, water , molasses etc. Fixed a few fitted to cement trucks. :)
 
There is a photo that appears on page 137 of The Best of the Fortean Times published in the UK in 1991, edited by Adam Sisman, which is the basis for the drawing. Even down to the three figures standing by the screw.

The accompanying caption

This giant 30-ton screw was washed up on a beach at Port Talbot, West Glamorgan. No owner was traced.
Click to expand...
 
Might I suggest part of the drilling/screw equipment from an offshore rig.
There are a few mobile and static drilling platforms in the Irish Sea. But with something that large, god knows why it would get "washed up" and not just sink straight to the bottom.

Mr p
 
Mr Poultice said:
Might I suggest part of the drilling/screw equipment from an offshore rig.
There are a few mobile and static drilling platforms in the Irish Sea. But with something that large, god knows why it would get "washed up" and not just sink straight to the bottom.

Mr p
Click to expand...

That's the intersting part of this mystery, why did it not just sink to the bottom of the sea and stay there. Surely it's too heavy to be washed up or all sunken ships would re-appear on a beach somewhere.

I don't have a clue as to what it is. Looks like an archimedan (?sp) screw. Perhaps it's the drive shaft of an alien spacecraft?

Coat.....door....gone :D
 
Mr Poultice said:
Might I suggest part of the drilling/screw equipment from an offshore rig.
There are a few mobile and static drilling platforms in the Irish Sea.
Click to expand...
I've worked on offshore rigs, and never heard of anything like that.

Presumably it floats because of the bouyancy of the central cylinder.
(The drive screws on the Ice Challenger were also part of its bouyancy.)
 
Any idea when the photo was taken?

I'd have to say the most obvious one was rigs.

But I don't know much about them, except that fooking red helicopter that flies over my house every morning taking people out there.

Or perhaps an experimental propulsion piece from a ship? A real screw driven ship?
 
Quixote said:
There is a photo that appears on page 137 of The Best of the Fortean Times published in the UK in 1991, edited by Adam Sisman, which is the basis for the drawing.
Click to expand...

I've triple-checked the book and unfortunately there isn't a date for the photograph and is there is no acknowledgement for the source of the photo either.

I would hazard a wild guess by the dress and haircuts of the men in the photo that it could have been taken anytime during the mid to late '70's into the '80's but that is like I say, a guess.
 
As for the source pic, since this is from a FT compilation book, we know at one point it appeared in FT magazine. Then it's just a simple matter of tracking down the issue and checking the attribution. :devil: (Figures, comes back to our own doorstep, and we're still none the wiser.)
 
How do you know it was washed up? It could have been dumped by a big truck driving along the beach.
 
Or dropped out of something that was flying along the beach.Maybe a sea king helicopter carrying a component for a military vehicle.The giant screw proved too heavy and it broke free and dropped to the beach.Because it was to do with a secret ops it could'nt be publically claimed!

Just a wild guess!!! :lol:
 
The image and link(s) in post #1 are dead.

Here is what I believe to be the photo cited by TheQuixote in post #6.

MysteryScrew-W-Glamorgan.jpg

​
 
Last edited:
Thanks for reposting the pic.

Earlier in the thread there was some debate as to how it could have floated. It seems to me that it is most likely hollow metal so would have floated exactly as a metal ship or boat does.

As for what it is/what it is for, I can't imagine. I'd love to be able to see the top and bottom attachments more closely. I think it likely that it is a pump of some sort, but perhaps that self-evident anyway.
 
markrkingston1 said:
... Earlier in the thread there was some debate as to how it could have floated. It seems to me that it is most likely hollow metal so would have floated exactly as a metal ship or boat does.
Click to expand...

Agreed ... I suspect the central 'tube' is thin-walled, hollow, and deliberately designed to be lightweight for its size. I suspect this made the assembly buoyant enough to drift, even if it wasn't floating on the surface.

These, I believe, are clues to its intended purpose.


markrkingston1 said:
As for what it is/what it is for, I can't imagine. ...
Click to expand...

The attachment at one end (to the left in the photo) is a flange for bolting it securely to something. This is probably the attachment point for whatever drove / turned the screw.

The attachment at the other end appears to be flexible, so as to pivot or turn.

I suspect it's an Archimedean screw used for moving a continuous stream or mass of some sort of material - a material that's not terribly heavy or prone to damage the apparatus.

Given the fact it was obviously at sea, I'd guess:

- A materials handling conveyance device used to load / unload granular material (e.g., grain or powdery stuff) on a cargo ship, or perhaps ...

- A device used for moving (e.g.) sand pulled up by a dredger.
 
EnolaGaia said:
Given the fact it was obviously at sea, I'd guess:

- A materials handling conveyance device used to load / unload granular material (e.g., grain or powdery stuff) on a cargo ship, or perhaps ...

- A device used for moving (e.g.) sand pulled up by a dredger.
Click to expand...

Ah, very good thoughts. The dredger explanation is particularly compelling, I think.

The location it was washed ashore, Port Talbot[1], is on the Bristol Channel. This area has all sorts of dredging operations at various time, as I understand.

I used to live in the charming little town of Maesteg, not far away.



Footnote:-
1: https://www.google.com/maps/@51.5929062,-3.8388477,14z
 
..god knows why it would get "washed up" and not just sink straight to the bottom...

A few years ago I was on the Greek island of Santorini, having a coffee by the sea and watching the locals with a large wheeled bulldozer removing very big rocks from the edge of the sea and taking them away to be re-positioned as breakwaters else where.
On of the Greeks told me they have to do it every year. The sea rolls the big boulders across the sea bed and dumps them on the beach. They were all shapes, not just round.

So maybe the screw made it's way via this method.

INT21.
 
That is a screw-lift auger from a waste water(sewerage) plant. It's part of the screening system that separates solid material such as wood etc from the dirty water before it can damage the pumping machinery further down the line. They also run in an inclined channel, hence the angled, swivel-type mounting at the end. However it ended up on the beach is a mystery. Unless it fell off the back of this lorry......

Large White Auger.jpg
 
heisenbear said:
That is a screw-lift auger from a waste water(sewerage) plant. It's part of the screening system that separates solid material such as wood etc from the dirty water before it can damage the pumping machinery further down the line. They also run in an inclined channel, hence the angled, swivel-type mounting at the end. However it ended up on the beach is a mystery. Unless it fell off the back of this lorry......
Click to expand...

Most intriguing. Thank you for this information.
 
INT21 said:
..god knows why it would get "washed up" and not just sink straight to the bottom...

A few years ago I was on the Greek island of Santorini, having a coffee by the sea and watching the locals with a large wheeled bulldozer removing very big rocks from the edge of the sea and taking them away to be re-positioned as breakwaters else where.
On of the Greeks told me they have to do it every year. The sea rolls the big boulders across the sea bed and dumps them on the beach. They were all shapes, not just round.

So maybe the screw made it's way via this method.

INT21.
Click to expand...
If the tide can wash up some giant pieces of driftwood the washed up auger doesn't surprise me.
1564700828077.png
 
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