Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2011 June 18

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

June 18

hallmark 777 on jewellery, does anyone know what this indicates?

Have been given a gold coloured bracelet stamped "777", can anyone help me to understand this stamp? Many thanks — Preceding unsigned comment added by Freya123 (talk • contribs) 00:20, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

777 (number) is a good article to start with. Schyler (one language) 04:17, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

I don't see anything in that article that could possibly be helpful. Staecker (talk) 11:38, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Possibly it is the millesimal fineness of the metal (although that number is not explicitly listed in the article). Mitch Ames (talk) 06:27, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

If it is, that would indicate approx. 18-1/16 carat gold, which seems a strange figure - but certainly a possibility. -- PhantomSteve.alt/talk\^{[alternative account of Phantomsteve]} 18:24, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

There is a jewelry company that (apparently) operates under the name 777 Jewelry and (definitely) has a website at 777jewelry.com - so it might be their branding rather than a hallmark, which I would have expected to have additional symbols rather than a bare 3-figure number. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 90.201.110.145 (talk) 11:07, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

The first thought that came to my mind, and why I linked to the article, is the Biblical importance of 3 7's. Like 3 6's, which means complete imperfection, 3 7's symbolizes complete, heavenly perfection. Indeed, many believe the circle to be a reflection of the Most Perfect. Schyler (one language) 13:05, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

The 777 symbol is mentioned at various jewelry sites on the web, but if there is any valid information, it is mixed up with so much misinformation and bogosity that it would take an expert to parse -- it looks like jewelry draws a major share of web parasites. I don't think I would trust anybody except a professional jeweler for an answer. Looie496 (talk) 18:02, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

I can find no independent reliable sources for information - have you looked at WikiProject Gemology and Jewelry to see if there are any useful links there - or perhaps contact one of the named participants there. If you contact one of them, please refer to this discussion and explain that no one who responded here could give a definitive answer. Regards, -- PhantomSteve.alt/talk\^{[alternative account of Phantomsteve]} 18:19, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

brown bayley steels apprenticeship records

I served my apprenticeship at brown bayleys between 1970 &1974 i have lost my papers and am trying to find any way to get a copy of them178.105.111.108 (talk) 08:40, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

No one here has copies of your papers. You will need to contact brown bayleys.--Shantavira|^{feed me} 10:49, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

We have a (poorly referenced and incomplete) article about this company under the title Brown Bayley Steels which is mostly written in the past tense, suggesting that the company is defunct but giving no explicit information. Other websites found by googling 'Brown Bayleys' (aka Brown, Bayleys) give a similar impression that it no longer exists.

The existing company Sheffield Forgemasters International is the culmination of many mergers/takovers between British steel companies, but the company history presented on their website here suggests that Brown Bayleys was not one of them (the 'John Brown & Co' component of 'Firth Brown Steels' aka Brown Firth, which was absorbed into SFI's 'industrial ancestry' seems to be a different firm, connected only by the prominent engineer Harry Brearley who apparently left Brown Firth to join Brown Bayleys at one point.)

However, if you were to contact Sheffield Forgemasters via their website, someone there might be able to give you more information about Brown, Bayleys' eventual fate, and whether any existing company might have inherited their records. {The poster formerly known as 97.91.230.195} 90.201.110.145 (talk) 11:55, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

They appear to have deposited their papers in Sheffield Archives when they went out of business in 1981. I would suggest contacting them, but they are closed for refurbishment at the moment - there should be a way of getting in touch via the Library in Sheffield. The other place you can try is Cutlers Hall, but that's a bit of a long shot. Here is a link to the National Archives record for their deposit. It also contains a link to Sheffield Archives records. --TammyMoet (talk) 12:34, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

According to this somewhat incidental mention (see p. 5), by the mid-1970s they were a subsidiary of Dunford & Elliott, which was then bought by Lonrho. The papers here are presumably deposited when the original owners sold out in 1973, and I'd guess that any employee files would have been carried over to the new owners (especially since the OP says he worked there until 1974, so it'd have been an active file.) However, Lonrho (now Lonmin) sold off everything but the mining parts of the business in the past decade. You could try contacting them to ask for advice - they may be able to tell you who ended up with the remaining Brown Bayleys papers. Shimgray | talk | 21:51, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

SUMMONSES IN IRELAND

Can anyone tell me if an independant public body has authority to issue criminal proceedings in ireland ? i have always thought that is was only the DPP/ gardai who could so, but civil summons is open to all ? private criminal summons-independant bodie's would this be correct because if so the any independant body can issue criminal proceedings--making the role of DPP/ gardai dyseunctional ? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Britvic55 (talk • contribs) 09:45, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

The Petty Sessions (Ireland) Act 1851, according to the Irish Citizens Information Board, is "usually used in private prosecutions where, for example, individuals are having difficulties with neighbours. It is rarely used by the Gardaí. The complainant goes before a District Court judge and makes the complaint either orally or in writing, with or without an oath, as the judge decides. The information the complainant provides should contain brief particulars of: Name and address of the alleged offender; Name and address of the complaintant; The basic facts of the alleged offence, including when it is alleged to have been committed; if possible the piece of legislation which applies to the offence. When the information has been put before the judge, he/she must decide whether it justifies a summons. If the judge issues a summons it will require the alleged offender to appear at a sitting of the court." So private individuals combined with a District Court judge may issue summons.

The separate procedure commonly used by government authorities to initiate criminal cases is the Courts (No. 3) Act 1986. Under this law, "the Attorney General, the Director of Public Prosecutions, a member of the Garda Siochana or any other person statutorily authorised to prosecute offences" may commence judicial proceedings.

There is a separate procedure for civil summons used to commence proceedings in the District Court. For these, typically a plaintiff's solicitor will draw up a summons and pay a stamp duty on it, the District Court Office will write on it a date, time and place for the court hearing, and the civil summons is served on the Defendant. Neutrality^talk 09:36, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

lizard lunch

Supposing hypothetically someone found a baby lizard, one that had become separated from the nest and its mother and had hatched out there instead, rather than abandoning it to fend for itself, they might try looking after it by themselves. However, not knowing what it is, what sorts of different things might they try feeding it, to see which it likes? How might they try to identify it as well, seeing as it isn't anything found wild in that area, it would presumably be some sort of escaped pet.

85.210.123.180 (talk) 15:11, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

I note that your IP geolocates to England. There are only three species of lizard native to England, and two of them are rare, so it is most likely that you have found a common lizard. Our article tells you what they eat: bugs, mostly. (If that doesn't match, you are probably right that it is an escaped pet, and it will be hard to identify without a photo.) Looie496 (talk) 17:57, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

A pet shop might be able to identify it or, if it's more exotic, a zoo. Wikipedia Refdeskers will give it a go if provided with a photo, though. Only once it is identified can we know what it eats (although insects is a pretty good guess for most of the lizards it's likely to be). --Tango (talk) 00:35, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Also note that a lot of reptile species do not get much in the way of parental care like we mammals do, so it being separated from its mother might not have been an abnormal or bad thing. Googlemeister (talk) 16:01, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Danger on your website

I used your site on June 16 via Google. I was looking for information about the president of Argentina. When I clicked on a picture of her featured in your site I was imediatly attacked by a company called who claim to be able to clean my system for a fee. They contine to forward filth pop up sites in a random fashion. The only way to get rid of it appears to be to pay the fee. Please look into this, You should be responsible for keeping your pages free from this kind of blackmail. Please reply!!! Dave D. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.231.245.45 (talk) 17:03, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

File:Mensaje de fin de año de la Presidenta (cropped).jpg is fine. -- SGBailey (talk) 17:41, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

There is no way Wikipedia can cause that problem. Your system is infected, and you should remove the villain as quickly as possible. If you search Google for "Mac Shield", you will find a bunch of sites telling you how to remove it -- I won't direct you to one in particular, because I am not familiar with this problem. To repeat: the danger is not on this website, it is inside your computer, and it did not get there from here. Looie496 (talk) 17:50, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Unfortunately, "Mac Shield" is only relevant if the OP has an Apple Macintosh. In the more likely event that the OP has a computer running Windows, there is a whole group of malware that issues fake virus warnings in an effort to get you to buy a product; this is called scareware and is probably one (or more) of the malware programs mentioned in the list of rogue security software. Do not, under any circumstances, buy the product; it will almost certainly open your computer to more infections and your name will be added to a "list of suckers". The result will be a deluge of spam, more malware on your computer, and numerous fraudulant transactions against your credit-card and bank account. Astronaut (talk) 10:02, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Perhaps you made a false assumption about where the picture was. If I do a Google search on "Cristina Fernández de Kirchner" then the first hit is the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristina_Fern%C3%A1ndez_de_Kirchner. Below that is a heading saying Images for "Cristina Fernández de Kirchner" with images from various websites. Only one of them is from Wikipedia. I don't want to click the others if they can cause infections. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:59, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Also be aware that there are numerous rip off websites that are basically copies of Wikipedia with added spam or malware content. Make sure the Wikipedia you are visiting adheres to the "[language].wikipedia.org"-name. --Saddhiyama (talk) 08:32, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Details of a well known Business man in Srilanka is not avalable in WIKI

Hi,

Im writing this to bring to your notice that a well known businessman, former Chairman of the BOARD OF INVESTMENT OF SRILANKA & the present Secretary to the TRANSPORT MINISTRY Mr. K.D.Dammika Perera's details are not there in Wiki base. If you can find and keep these updated that will be great.

Thanks & regards,

A WIKI FAN & READER

Y Suganthan from Srilanka — Preceding unsigned comment added by 175.157.6.235 (talk) 17:07, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

If this person is notable, then you can probably find biographical details from a reliable source. Feel free to be bold and create an article yourself :) SemanticMantis (talk) 17:37, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

He's mentioned in the article List of Sri Lankan non-career Permanent Secretaries#Businessmen. Is he related to the cricketer: Liyanage Dammika Indrajith Perera? Dbfirs 07:19, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

That's a fair question, but I must advise you that there are over 50 pages of Pereras and Pereiras in the Colombo phone book. Pere(i)ra is one of the most common names in Sri Lanka, even more common than Smith is in Anglo countries. Picking two Pereras at random is unlikely to find any common genealogy. -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 12:53, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes, that possibility occurred to me after I had asked the question. Is Dammika also a common forename? Dbfirs 16:19, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Yes, it seems to be. I've been doing some googling, and am getting some anomalous results:

* Dammika gets 190,000 ghits. But Dammika Sri Lanka gets 251,000. Work that one out, if you can.

* Dhammika gets 374,000 ghits, and Dhammika Sri Lanka 247,000. -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 08:53, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Thanks for the stats. I tried some arithmetic: If Perera is more common in Sri Lanka than Smith in the UK (1 in 120) then perhaps 1 in every 100 people there have that surname. Assuming also that 1 in every 100 Sri Lankans have Dammika as one of their forenames, and that these names are independent, then about 1 in 10,000 Sri Lankans will match what I thought was an interesting coincidence. With a population of 20 million, that means that about two thousand people in Sri Lanka are called Dammika Perera, so I agree, not a high probability that they are related. K.D.Dammika Perera sometimes has Dhammika spelt with the "h", and he gets quite a few mentions. I'm not sure whether there is enough detail available on the web to justify an article. Dbfirs 12:26, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

I still don't get how Dammika Sri Lanka gets about 40% more hits than just Dammika. Mathematics tells me it cannot possibly get any more hits, and logic and sense tell me it will almost certainly get fewer. Can anyone explain this to me? -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 13:07, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

There's been some discussion on this before on the RD and it also matters when people try to use the number of hits to determine something like notability or common usage. (See Wikipedia:Search engine test#Google unique page count issues.) Basically the number of hits is an estimate [1] and often not a very good one at that. It can vary depending on many factors. Also Google cannot even show results past 1000. In your particular case, one thing to be aware of is Google by default doesn't require the exact word appear on the exact page, particularly important when you have multiple search terms. +Dammika +Sri +Lanka gets 67,500 results. Nil Einne (talk) 15:24, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Dogs And psoriasis

I have a small dog and he has lost all his hair and has sores that scab up and flake off just like when a human that has psoriasis.

Can dogs get psoriasis like humans and what can one do to treat it.

I have tried many types of remedies and it seams to start to go away but then comes back.

Each time it comes back it seams to get worse what can i do to get rid of this skin irritation.

Thank You

Tim D. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.200.247.17 (talk) 19:13, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

I suggest you take your dog to the vet. --Tango (talk) 20:02, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

We cannot offer medical advice. Please see the medical disclaimer. Contact a Veterinarian.

Yes, take you dog to a vet, so it can be checked for mange. StuRat (talk) 23:48, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

West Highland Terriers are particularly prone to this sort of condition. Vets are well used to treating it, so our advice is to get your dog to a vet. --TammyMoet (talk) 07:21, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

antique cast iron foot pedal

I need to know exactly what this is.It is a cast iron foot pedal that has a cylinder attched to it that has air holes and what looks like a wick. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.31.55.86 (talk) 21:42, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

A photo might help. Based on the description alone, it might be a Foot pump (on which we don't have an article? Huh?), or some sort of Fire extinguisher. Tevildo (talk) 22:07, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Googling around, I saw that the OP has asked at another site, and included a picture. On the basis of that picture I was able to locate an item of the same type being sold on EBay, at this page, where it is described as a "sewing machine rheostat". Looie496 (talk) 22:35, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

OK, based on that info I suspect that it was used to control the speed of an early electrical sewing machine. Why a foot pedal for that ? Presumably so both hands would be free to feed the fabric into the machine. StuRat (talk) 23:45, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Non-electric sewing machines also had foot pedals. This thing is definitely a foot pedal of something, but I don't get what the cylinder is for. I'll look up rheostat and see if I can grasp it... OK, so the point would be to regulate the speed, as you say. In the mechanical sewing machines, the speed was regulated by how fast or slow you pumped the pedal. In an electric machine, it's more like a car, i.e. the farther you push the pedal down, the faster it goes. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:02, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

So presumably it's an older version of the modern foot control for a sewing machine, the more you press it down the faster the machine goes. The foot pedal leaves both hands free as StuRat suggests, older sewing machines had a hand crank but feeding and manipulating material with one hand was difficult and slower. Richard Avery (talk) 07:17, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

You would still manipulate the initial positioning by hand. Once you get it to where you want, you would use the pedal to pull the pieces of cloth through and stitch them together. The speed you would use would depend on your comfort level and skill with sewing machines. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:42, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

The Sewing machine article suggests the foot pedal (i.e. the treadle) was invented not long after the sewing machine came along ca. 1850. Electric sewing machines were invented by the 1890s, and the article says something about the motors initially being external, so that cylindrical thing in the picture might actually be the motor. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 07:48, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Treadle. My grandmother left me a Singer treadle sewing machine, where a cast-iron panel was pushed up and down by the feet, which had a leather belt attached, which drove the needle. The hands were used to feed the cloth through. You might find this site of use. --TammyMoet (talk) 10:10, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

If you look at the EBay page I linked, you will see wires coming out of the cylindrical thing. The OP's pictures don't clearly show wires, but the OP mentioned a "wick" at the top, which surely is a wire that has been cut. So I don't think this is a treadle. Looie496 (talk) 17:41, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Tammy, my mother has always had a Singer treadle machine as long as I've been alive, but I don't think she uses it much anymore (if only because she doesn't do much sewing anymore). -- Jack of Oz ^{[your turn]} 19:39, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

"Foot pedal"? Is there any other kind? "Pedal... A lever operated by one's foot that is used to control a machine or mechanism, such as a bicycle or piano" [2] (see also [3]). AndyTheGrump (talk) 01:11, 20 June 2011 (UTC) ... or an aircraft rudder or a little boat. Cuddlyable3 (talk) 12:28, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

The Pedal article even has an editorial comment lecturing the reader not to say "foot pedal". That seems a bit heavy-handed. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:53, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

Here's a hand-pedaled bicycle (which has three wheels to boot). -- BenRG (talk) 05:07, 21 June 2011 (UTC)

Which district of Berlin is this?

I last visited Berlin in early autumn 2007. I remember visiting a wealthy commercial district in the west, where there were many corporate buildings and some remnants of the Berlin wall. There was also a metro station nearby, but that hardly helps, because there's metro stations everywhere in Berlin. What district could this be? JIP | Talk 21:44, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Have you tried Google Maps? They have a lot of international information nowadays, and you might be able to locate it that way. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 06:59, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Potsdamer Platz? Gabbe (talk) 13:24, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

I think it could be Potsdamer Platz. I remember there were sections of the Berlin wall put on display like those on the photograph here. JIP | Talk 21:11, 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Definitely Potsdammer Platz. Here is google maps at the same spot. Fribbler (talk) 15:34, 20 June 2011 (UTC)

GPS maps

Hello all. I have a Garmin 1350 GPS and I will be in Europe for a few weeks and I would like to be able to use it in EUrope. Unfortunately it is not equipped with the maps for Europe, and to buy them would cost $79 which I'd rather use an old-fashioned map than pay. However, is there anywhere where I can get free maps that I can download to my GPS (with full functionality)? I was thinking an open-source project, but I am willing to download *cough* incoherent mumbling *cough* maps if necessary, as long as it's free. THank you. 72.128.95.0 (talk) 22:53, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

OpenSteetMapThat's a redlink? How sad. (which is CC-BY-SA) has a Garmin specific section that might cover you here. ^Avic_ennasis @ 23:27, 16 Sivan 5771 / 18 June 2011 (UTC)

It wouldn't be a redlink if you could spell "street"! ;) OpenStreetMap --Tango (talk) 23:33, 18 June 2011 (UTC)

Spell-checker? What's that? ^Avic_ennasis @ 07:03, 17 Sivan 5771 / 19 June 2011 (UTC)

Witch spell-checker do you mean? Cuddlyable3 (talk) 11:39, 21 June 2011 (UTC)