Found Objects - Aircraft Safety Wire

Volume 12 Number 2/3
October, 1996

Found Objects

Navigator’s Bookcase	Sheet of aluminum with red paint	Cut Strip of Aluminum	Aluminum Plate
Dado	Aircraft Skin	Aluminum Comb	Riveted Assembly
Channel Section	Cables	Plexiglas	Aircraft Safety Wire
Thermometer, broken	Threaded metal cap	Shoe parts	Artifact 2-2-G-8, Shoe heel

[?] Aircraft Safety Wire (TIGHAR Artifact 2-3-V-3)

Date Found:

February 1996 during TIGHAR’s NIKU III Preliminary expedition.

Materials analysis:

United Technologies, Hamilton Standard Propeller Division

Report date:

August 26, 1996

Description:

This is a length of 304 stainless steel wire 6.75 inches long comprised of two strands of .010 inch wire twisted together in a very even left-hand twist with an average pitch of .564 inches. There is a 90 degree bend located approximately .582 inch from one end.

Condition:

Both ends of the wire have been cut. There is no evidence of failure from fatigue or high tensile loading. The wire is in excellent condition.

Identification:

This is aircraft safety wire, also known as lock wire, of a type widely available from the 1930s onward.

Commentary:

Although as innocuous an artifact as could be imagined, this is yet another object found on Nikumaroro which was, at one time, part of an airplane. The only clues to its origin may be its somewhat unusually long tail and the fact that its twist may have been hand-done rather than twirled with special safety wire pliers. Early mechanics prided themselves on the precision of their lock wire work.

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