What is it? CLV

Posting from rec.crafts.metalworking again.

891) This looks like a sounding lead. The hole in the back of the pivoting piece gets stuffed with grease or tallow, and the thing is oriented so it is down.

When it hits bottom, it picks up samples of the bottom sand, allowing the pilot to get a better idea just where he is. (As well as the length of line telling him just how shallow it is.)

When the line starts to be reeled back in, I suspect that this releases a simple catch and the rounded end turns downward, moving the sample in the tallow into a protected area.

893) This one sort of looks like part of the tooling which the power company uses to pull and replace fuses in the moderately high voltage lines feeding the transformers on power poles in residential neighborhoods. There is a lot more pole past the pivoting part shown which is missing -- and is probably why it was not recovered.

894b) Is this one for drilling holes in stone to place dynamite charges for breaking up the stone? It certainly is driven with significant force.

895b) If the above is right, I really don't know how this one is used.

Now to see what others have said.

Enjoy, DoN.

Five of the six have been answered correctly this week, though the solution to number 894 was posted only to rec.crafts.metalworking and rec.woodworking.

Thanks to those who helped solve the unidentified high voltage fuse.

Please see the answer page for more info:

Rob

Regarding the proposed answer for number 891 - I remember a different railroad communication device. It was called a torpedo, and was strapped to the rail a mile or two up toward where the train would come from. When a train ran over the torpedo, it would fire, making a bang that could be heard by the workers, or by kids (me) watching the workers. The proposed answer for number 891 may be a combination of the description of a railroad torpedo and whatever the real application of number 891 is. Kerry

I hadn't heard of the torpedo before, I wonder how loud it was compared with a .22 caliber blank. I had a couple of questions concerning number 891 that I didn't find answers for, first, how far will the sound of a .22 blank carry through the air? Seems if there was a moderate wind, it would affect the distance it would travel. I read somewhere that sound travels through metal 15 times faster than through air, so I was also wondering if you could hear it from standing next to the rails, if you were a mile or two away I'm guessing you would have to actually put your ear on them to hear it. I'll do some searching and see what I can find on the torpedo.

Rob

The link below has some info on torpedos, they were made from a small dynamite charge so it sounds like they might be louder than a .22 blank.

Rob

huh, i'm surprised you've never heard of a torpedo before, but i guess that's the way things are, some people are exposed to stuff and would assume everyone has heard/seen the same stuff. when i was a kid i lived in a railroad town (maybrook ny) and had heard of "torpedoes" over and over again, i can't remember now how but somehow or other we got ahold of a torpedo and we all were fascinated with it. the way i remember it, it was a yellow (i'd imagine it was yellow when i saw it because it was so OLD the red pigment faded) pod/pouch of wrapped paper, about 2 inches square by maybe 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick with two straps of lead coming out of it on either side to secure it to the track. it had a strip of like sandpaper along the bottom too i assume to hold it to the rail too. i don't remember whatever ended up happening to it, only just that i'd finally seen a torpedo after all the years of hearing about them. funny the article mentioned the danger and fear of the railroad guys carrying dynamite, at the time us kids, although we were awed, didn't feel any fear or danger about handling it. yeah, like the article said, though i never heard one go off, it sure looked like it would be a hell of a lot louder than a .22.

b.w.

... snip ...

When I was about 10 my group was not in favor with the Canadian Pacific Railway. We mixed up some inferior gunpowder from saltpeter, sulfur, and soot from the chimney clean-out. After packaging and taping it could be persuaded to go off by placement on the railway lines and awaiting the next train. This was obviously caused by the inferior recipes available to us, which necessitated the extreme detonation measures. One of us claimed the packet caused about a 1 inch jump in a steam engine. Experiments showed that shunting at under 5 or 10 mph was insufficient for detonation. We were amused.

| "R.H." wrote: |>>

| I hadn't heard of the torpedo before, I wonder how loud it was compared with | a .22 caliber blank. I had a couple of questions concerning number 891 that | I didn't find answers for, first, how far will the sound of a .22 blank | carry through the air? Seems if there was a moderate wind, it would affect | the distance it would travel. I read somewhere that sound travels through | metal 15 times faster than through air, so I was also wondering if you could | hear it from standing next to the rails, if you were a mile or two away I'm | guessing you would have to actually put your ear on them to hear it. I'll | do some searching and see what I can find on the torpedo.

The torpedo had to be heard inside a steam locomotive, and if you ever rode INSIDE a steam locomotive operating at full power, it is LOUD !! When the torpedo went off, it was definitely heard inside the cab. Hells bells, you could fire off a .22 blank inside a locomotive cab and you may not hear it. __________________________________________________Gerard S.

As a child, I lived in close proximity to the main train tracks through town. I wasn't as adventuresome (or brave) as my friend so I stood guard while he went rambling through cabooses parked on sidings. We had several torpedos and "fuzees" (similar to road flares). The torpedos were red waxed packages about six inches long and two inches across. They were tapered, thinner towards the ends, and had soft iron wires or lead straps at each end to secure them to the tracks. They *definitly* did NOT have dynamite in them, however they did have a powerful contact sensitive explosive. We never set off an entire torpedo, but would break them up into small chunks and hit them with hammers or throw bricks at the larger pieces. Even these small pieces have a significant report! This was only about 40 or so years ago, using the same diesel-electric engines in use today, and they would certainly have been loud enough to hear. If I remember correctly, they were laid down in patterns so that a specific emergency could be signaled. No more cabooses *sigh*.

"R.H." wrote in news:45c49525$0$18878$ snipped-for-privacy@roadrunner.com:

sorry to continue to contribute to hijacking R.H.'s thread, but i'm laughing out loud you guy's stories. that's funny "...hit them (small chunks) with hammers..." LOL. how often do we hear about dangerous stuff done years ago by kids that would just TOTALLY freak out authority figures of today. lol. yeah, jeez, i forgot about that, i think i heard that too, they'd put down three in a row or whatever to signal a certain hazard. my reminiscence was about 35 years ago.

b.w.

In my early teens we lived near a rail switching yard in Winnipeg, Manitoba. One night my friends and I climbed into a caboose in the yard and found several torpedos. They were about 4-5 inches square, orange, with wires so they could be clipped to a track. Of course, we clipped them to a track.

I threw a large rock as one from about 8 feet away. My ears were ringing for more than 24 hours. If anyone chased us as we ran away, we wouldn't have heard them yelling at us.

Loud. Very, very loud.

Forty years ago, I showed our three year old that I could set off caps with a stone instead of a cap pistol, then, that I could make a bigger noise if I used two caps. Mother is doing laundry when Junior puts the roll on the floor and hits it. Thankfully it was laundry day, because there were two more sets of clothing to wash. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

We would have a contest to see if we could set off every cap on the roll with one blow of a hammer. Maybe thats why I have always had bad hearing.

John

You can (could) set off a roll of caps simply by squeezing it in a vice.

When I worked for the CNR we used them regularly to signal (alert) trains. Working in remote stations as a train order operator (sort of an on-the-ground dispatcher) I would sometimes get my shift messed up by some ahole crew that fed me bad information to gain some advantage over other trains. This would, in turn, get me in trouble with the chief dispatcher. Nothing like a few (dozen) torpedos in the path of an offending crew at 0300 in the middle of nowhere to serve notice that I was not amused! A brief 'evil cackle' on the radio was my 'gotcha' statement..

Spammer. You even advertise it.

Hell awaits you.

What in hell are you talking about? The link takes you to a VOLUNTEER effort to further cancer research., Go there and learn something then come back here and say you are sorry!

Yeahbut that's no fun for a three year old. Gerry :-)} London, Canada