Mystery Object No. 36

[Tony B]

Looks very much like the layout for a charcoal oven. So my next line is what sort of stuff would you dry -bake by the railwagon load?

[fv1609]

So my next line is what sort of stuff would you dry -bake by the railwagon load?

 

 

Wait a minute, I ask the questions round here ;-)

[Richard Farrant]

Wait a minute, I ask the questions round here ;-)

 

 

So lets get this straight, there is a hooper like structure under the floor of the clay lined shed. Access to hopper is from a lower level than the shed, there are air ducts to this, so assume it could be a fire under the floor, to create heat, which rises into the shed, to dry out what is in / on the railway truck, going by the previous mystery objects, I would say it is for drying a wagon load of human sh1t..............then once dry, is used as fuel (ie under the floor) to be used to dry subsequent wagon loads.

[fv1609]

So lets get this straight, there is a hooper like structure under the floor of the clay lined shed. Access to hopper is from a lower level than the shed, there are air ducts to this, so assume it could be a fire under the floor, to create heat, which rises into the shed, to dry out what is in / on the railway truck, going by the previous mystery objects, I would say it is for drying a wagon load of human sh1t..............then once dry, is used as fuel (ie under the floor) to be used to dry subsequent wagon loads.

 

 

There is no hooper, the round things are something else.

 

Yes but it is not just for drying as such.

 

In the final bit, wrong commodity. Although it would be an ingenious cycle of events, rather like perpetual motions ;-)

[Richard Farrant]

There is no hooper, the round things are something else.

 

 

Clive,

 

You have lost me now, because on reading the drawing it has a structure within the building with four sides indicated as "slope". The iron beams that support the floor appear to go over this, as the dotted lines on the drawing show. I did Technical Drawing a long time ago, ..... but it might be that the illustration is misleading me :dunno:

[fv1609]

Clive,

 

You have lost me now, because on reading the drawing it has a structure within the building with four sides indicated as "slope". The iron beams that support the floor appear to go over this, as the dotted lines on the drawing show. I did Technical Drawing a long time ago, ..... but it might be that the illustration is misleading me :dunno:

 

 

Does this help?

 

Edited November 21, 2009 by Marmite!!
Photo links repaired

[Richard Farrant]

So the question now is, does the material that is to be heated, cured or cooked, stay on the railway wagon or is it off loaded diectly in to the building, I think the latter, which would mean this material, is either heavy, bulky or difficult to handle. The rail track is I am sure, narrow guage going by other measurements on the drawings. The period, I would say is 1914 to 1930 approx.

 

I will have a stab and say that it is for curing meat.

[Richard Farrant]

Could also be a drying room for clothes, uniforms, blankets and / or fumigating them, if so this could date back to WW1 when narrow guage railways were used in France.

[David Ives]

if for fumeigating could it be for a delousing shed for uniforms drove in on a narrow gauge truck and then pulled out clean to be returned to the squaddies still alive

[Tony B]

I think the key is round as in fencing posts or tree trunks. so it either seasons treetrunks or makes charcoal or is used to produce Stockholm tar, pine tar or all of the above.

[fv1609]

Could also be a drying room for clothes, uniforms, blankets and / or fumigating them, if so this could date back to WW1 when narrow guage railways were used in France.

 

 

Yes well done Richard you are there really.

 

It is a Hot Air Disinfestor & the round things are braziers fed with air from the pipes. There is a railway truck with racks onto which clothing is placed & it is wheeled into the hot house disenfestor.

 

The full diagram shows a set of points leading to "undressing room of the bath house". The other track leads to the "dressing room of the bath house". This begs the question how do the men with no clothes in the undressing room then reach the dressing room & they surely must get rather cold waiting for their clothes to be treated?

 

As for era, the diagram appears in a 1934 manual. However it is taken from a "Orr's Hot Air Disinfestor " diagram in another manual dated 1921.