"Your readers may get a laugh out of my recent discovery," Toronto's John Carr tells Topics.
John lives in a weatherboard house built at the turn of the 20th century.
"In 1982, I extended the house to cope with our expanding family," John said.
He chose a particular brick for the extension from a Maitland company's range of handmade bricks.
"Over the years I noticed one brick in a fence began to crack and eventually a piece of dark iron was exposed, which I took to be a piece of ironstone in the clay mix."
More recently, a horizontal crack appeared in what John described as the "mortar bed course joint".
That's getting a bit technical for us, but John clearly knows his stuff.
Anyhow, he said this problem indicated the item in the brick must be "ferrous [containing or consisting of iron] in nature and rusting, causing the brick to swell".
Again, John is showing his nous. We're still oblivious.
"I chiseled out around the item only to find a bolt. I can only assume it fell into the clay mix before the brick was formed and burnt," he said.
"My question is, if it came out of one of the machines at the brickworks [where he bought the bricks] would they like it back as a memento?"
Good question indeed, John. We reckon you should put it in the post.
Tax Text Message
A reader received a text message from the Australian Tax Office this week.
"We have processed your income tax return. We will deposit your refund within three business days into the bank account you have nominated," the message said.
"We have included any low and middle income tax offset you are entitled to. For more information, visit MyGov or contact your tax agent. Australian Tax Office."
Firstly, we noticed they didn't sign off with "sincerely".
Secondly, how cheeky is the Morrison government to sneak an advertisement about its tax breaks into an ATO text message. The nerve!
Dance of the Planets
On November 11, the tiny planet Mercury will transit the sun.
Kurri Kurri astronomy buff Col Maybury tells us this means it will "pass across the face of the sun".
Col says it won't be visible from Kurri Kurri but "most of the world" will see it.
To watch the transit, a telescope is needed with a solar filter that dulls the sunlight by 99.9 per cent. This will save the observer from "frying an eyeball".
Col says watching a transit is "akin to watching grass grow".
He watched the 2003 transit of Mercury with a group at his Kurri property.
"At one stage, there were three members snoring on the grass in the soft autumn sunlight," he said.
The previous Mercury transit was on May 9, 2016. The next one will be November 13, 2032.
"While humans briefly tread the pages of history and are gone in an instant, the sun has been blazing for four and a half billion years and has five billion to go," Col said.
Meanwhile, the inner planets will keep circling the sun with clockwork precision and the "beautiful and regular transits will continue".
"It's just a part of the dance of the planets and the immortal splendour of our unique solar system," he said.
- topics@newcastleherald.com.au
