Found Objects - Aluminum Comb

Volume 12 Number 2/3
October, 1996

Found Objects

Navigator’s Bookcase	Sheet of aluminum with red paint	Cut Strip of Aluminum	Aluminum Plate	Heat Shield	Aircraft Skin
Aluminum Comb	Riveted Assembly	Channel Section	Cables	Plexiglas	Aircraft Safety Wire

[?] Aluminum Comb (TIGHAR Artifact 2-2-V-5)

Date Found:
Materials analysis:
Report date:

October 1991 during TIGHAR’s NIKU II expedition.
NTSB
March 5, 1990

Description:

The comb is crudely formed with parallel saw cuts separating the teeth. It is 3 and 7/8 inches long by 1 and 3/8 inches wide and is made from 0.032 Alclad sheet. Three 3/32 inch diameter holes are nominally spaced 1 and 7/8 inches apart.

Condition:

Although broken, the comb exhibits little or no damage from corrosion.

Commentary:

The fashioning of such combs from aircraft aluminum was not uncommon in post-war Polynesia. Combs are specifically mentioned in the one account we have of the local use made of the crash at Sydney Island. When shown a photograph of this artifact, a former resident of Nikumaroro attributed it to the Sydney crash. Nowhere on a Lockheed 10 are #3 rivets found spaced 1 7/8 inches apart in 0.032 skin.

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