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Now it has to be said that vintage veterinary ventilators are not our normal stock in trade but, having seen this fabulous gadget and admired both the ingenuity of design and quality of execution - not to mention the manufacturer being a man called "Palmer", operating from the fabulously named "Myographic Works" - we had to buy it.

We excused the rather self-indulgent purchase by declaring it fully within the scope of "Purveyors of interesting mechanical paraphernalia of all types", the slogan which older readers will remember appeared on our old website and print advertising for many years.

Basically it's a small piece of kit to keep animals breathing when they're knocked out - rather rare to find one in this condition nowadays, they've all gone electronic (the ventilators that is, not the animals. Except pandas, most of which are now animatronic, hand-made in Belgium - a little known fact).

The Science Museum claim to have two of the machines in their collection - one identical to this for "small animals", another - which we haven't seen but assume is the same, but bigger - for "large animals".

So far, so good (although I suspect that, in a round of "Just a Minute" we'd have been challenged for deviation a couple of sentences back). What caught our attention was the very neat way of controlling the stroke of a pump by a leadscrew and nut, effectively providing a continuously variable throw eccentric. Clever - and beautifully made - we're sure the principle must have applications in our field.

The rest of the gadget is nicely done too - we love the leadscrew with handle simply for tensioning up the drive belt. A machine from an era when things were made to last - where technical obsolescence finally required its replacement, rather than the failure of some cheap, irreplaceable plastic clip.

Powered by a 1/20th hp motor - we haven't tested it but are prepared to warranty as sound - it can't possibly have worn out given the size of motor and extraordinarily modest load! There was a flexible coupling between motor and gearbox, from which the "flexible" bit has gone missing. In days gone by you'd have no doubt telexed C.F.Palmer at Effra Road, SW2 and ordered one - nowadays you'd probably 3D print the part in a fraction of the time...