Unusual stuff inside computers

[Vlad Stamate]

Hi,

I recently got a very nice HP 9816 with a 9121 drive unit from Earl
Baugh (thanks Earl!). The computer worked fine but the primary drive
of the 9121 refused to read the disk and made a continuous beating
noise. After I cleaned it on the outside I opened it to see what is
wrong with it. And I found this piece inside the drive itself:
http://imgur.com/dlqOexX (floppy added for size comparison).

After carefully removing it, the drive actually worked like a charm
and I was able to boot from it. I was pleasantly impressed that the
drive head has not been damaged bumping in the leather piece all the
time. I am not sure how that got there, I assume a child pushed it in
by mistake? I am not sure what it is either, the leather triangles
sewn together by hand it seem.

What other strange pieces did you find when you opened up classic computers?

Vlad.