More Goodies and Mysteries

Even though the weather has turned a little and my car did its handbrake I borrowed another vehicle and made my way across town for a little bit today.  Heres the results :

Not your everyday fuse !  Especially when its 200Amps.   Im thinking this is from the railways....

More phone gear - this time its a Model 4012 and Model 4013 Repeating Coil. The 4013 was still in a box but the box fell apart when I picked it up !

A relay that was made for aircraft in the 1940's/ WWII - has the British Military insignia with the part number. Apparently the letter stood for plane type in the UK (Whether this was the case here I dont know) but if so then this would possibly be Cargo plane and the Flame Switch from the previous post would be Fighter..

These are interesting things -sadly their condition is not good, but someone may be able to salvage them. I believe these are called annunciator movements - from a phone switchboard - and Im guessing that this tells the operator what lines are in use.....

Well I was a bit stumped by this one at first but then looking at it figured it must be from the Vic Railways days - as its an expulsion type primary cutout Im guessing its a surge guard or lightning protector type thing for the electrified overhead lines...and of course I could be totally wrong !

Nearly at the end of the day !  But this is one of two big mysteries. I can see what this says of course, but what would it have come from??  Given its size Im thinking its train related, but could it be plane?

????????????  They are quite light, about 2cm across and I have found about 700 - grandpa has written what looks like the words Prot Blocks on the side but I cant really tell  :-(  Is this graphite maybe?  Whats the significance of the circle in the middle???    Hmmmmmm

******Update 25/2/10 - thanks to the anonymous poster for this info

The Prot Blocks are for lightning/high voltage protection on telephone lines. They went in holders mounted on a frame where the telephone cable came into the building. This protected the equipment from being zapped by a high voltage line or lightning. When a high volatage entered the building, it would arc over to this carbon which was connected to a ground and this diverted the HV away from the equipment.

I think I may have found one of those frames - looks like a big metal flyswat (much bigger gaps in bewteen though) and square shaped. Will go and pick it up asap and put a pic up

Anyway, week one is done, and its been very productive indeed!