Phone dropped down chimney :-(

[Mary Fisher]

... I wonder if that might be the answer to mruncalledfor's device - something to distract from something more sinister?

Mary

[The Natural Philosopher]

Forget it. Get a new one on the insurance.

[Sparks]

Sorry, but I had to laugh when I read this!

I expect a strong Neodymium magnet on a string would do the trick, I know a magnet sticks to my phone (the battery)

eBay has loads of them! For example

Neodymium magnets are bloody strong...

Sparks...

[daddyfreddy]

Even if it's not insured, how expensive can it be? Try a cable routing kit with a magnet on the end. If that don't work, forget it.

[Bob Eager]

Read what he said...

[Richard Conway]

How do sim cards respond to very strong magnets!?

[elyob]

I'm just trying to imagine the hilarity when that package goes through the post office machines ....

[Clive George]

They're not magnetic stores, unlike disks, so should be fine.

cheers, clive

[Toby Sleigh]

If you've got an old knackered HDD use the magnets out of that. Toby

[Andrew Gabriel]

I can just imagine getting it nearly to the top each time, only to hear it crashing back down the chimney.

It will probably be quite an interesting find in 100 years time when someone unbricks the fireplace.

[Andy Hall]

Talking of chimnies and the season...

I was sitting in my home office this morning ( a rare event), when the phone rang on the business number. The caller ID on the Mac showed a local number that I didn't recognise.

I answered and the woman on the other end wanted to know whether I was a chimney sweeping service.

I asked her if she wanted to have a detailed inspection of her chimney including from the roof. She was interested in that, but I told her that it couldn't be done until Sunday.

At that point I couldn't contain myself any more and started laughing.

However, I did give her the number of a good chimney sweep I know.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Won't stick to Lithium batteries at all.

[Chris Hodges]

Got a dead hard drive? The voice coil magnets out of them are the strongest you're likely to find. Combine with ringing the phone and perhaps a bell of some sort on the magnetic fishing line and you might get somewhere.

C

[nightjar]

...

If any of the original ironwork is left in the fireplace, I would expect it to stick to everything except the phone.

Colin Bignell

[dennis]

"nightjar .uk.com>"

It looks like the solution left is to tunnel up from below. At least you wont be able to see the hole as long as you are careful. ;-)

[tiscali]

Neodymium-iron-born magnets are very dangerous and should only be brought into the house by people who are aware of the risks. Walk into the lounge with one and see what happens to the picture on your tv. Go near a computer with one and don't expect to use it any time soon.

[Aidan Karley]

To amplify - the flat "c"-shaped magnets from either side of the head-moving apparatus. 2 notes - a *really* old hard drive (15years +) might have a stepper-motor head positioning apparatus ; the magnets will have soft-iron on the outer faces to reduce the chance of the drives sticking together in the factory. I found that the magnet form a H.D.D. that died last week was strong enough to pick up the battery through the casing, AND to pick it up by the loudspeaker too. But, if there are any old nails in the wall of the chimney.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Bollocks.

Sure they gauss up CRT's but a couple of power cycles soon fixes that.

(having held up several neodymium equipped motors to a monitor with a

1:1 scale drawing of a model plane in it to see how to fit them..)

[The 1st Philosophical Handyman]

Having worked in a sorting office, if the package looks any larger than a fat envelope when it comes out of a sack from a pillar box colelction, it will be put aside before it gets the chance to go through the 35,000+ items per hour "tumble drier" sorting machine. If it arrived at the depot in a sack of larger parcels, it would never go near the conveyer belts. Might wipe employees' bank cards in pockets, stop watches, etc.

Don't ask me how they would get it out of the van though ;-)

[The Medway Handyman]

Didn't they try this on Mythbusters recently? Deliberately tried to damage credit cards with magnets & failed completely?