Jim Stewart wrote:
Ted Frater wrote:

Whats the best find for you all in the past year?
Mine was a compete watchmakers lathe .
Best find ever was a steam whistle of an 1890's London to Brighton steam
locomotive. Solid bronze some 4 ft high weight 60 lbs. they thought it
was a staircase baluster in iron.

You've got me beat. Unfortunately, we have a local
individual who pretty much lives at the recycling
center. He must be on disability or something.
He's rarely gone and he's always the first to score
the good stuff.

My two best finds were a working Dynaco Stereo
70 tube amplifier (cleaned up and sold for $300)
and a broke but fixable gas powered pressure washer.

Hi Jim,
Good that you had some interesting finds as well.
More on that loco whistle, it was a cold and wet January day,
A truck had just tipped a pile of iron scrap on the yard concrete floor.
I just stood there with my mind blank and looked at it all.
in amongst the twisted pile of metal was what looked like the end part
of a staircase banister .
I pulled it out and my heart started to beat real hard when i realised
it was a steam whistle in bronze, which at that time i thought was off a
steam yacht. Were near Poole harbour where boats have been built and
scrapped for a hundred yrs.. .
I asked one the young lads how much for the old piece of iron, he said a
couple of pounds , say 5 dollars.
I paid him and put it in the boot of my car quickly, and drove out.
I have a friend in Holland whose into steam, sent him a picture and he
offered me $700.00 for it.
It eventually went to a steam whistle collector who knew exactly what it
was, for quite a lot more. If I had identified it correctly it would
have made much more that that!!!
The other find acouple of yrs later was an old gas powered refrigerator.
the brass plate on the front said By Royal appointment to his majesty
the king.
That had to be George the 6th. So it had to be 1937 to 1952
I struggled to get it onto the roof rack got it home and put some
propane to it. Lit it up and its still working today.
Electrolux have identified it from its serial no as 1939..
They want it for their museum in Sweden.
The other great place is car boot sales.
Latest find is a carpenters roof framing square by Nicholls MFG co
Ottumwa USA about 1905 to 1910. This was missed by a tool collector who
got to the pile of tools 1 min before I did. All from the same period.
Cant win them all.
Its the buzz of finding thats addictive.
Ted.