What is it? CLXVI

963. Guessing. Sword hanger (frog). Karl

On Apr 18, 10:35 pm, "R.H." wrote

961- curd cutter?

Dave

960.Code wheel of some kind? Wheels for something like an old daisy-wheel printer (line the letter to be printed with the paper and ribbon and press onto the paper to make an impression)

The rocks are stone hammer heads. My guess is that they were found in Pennsylvania.

--riverman

As an old telephone man, I agree.

You guys had tools? We just used a piece of flexible tubing to slide over the lamp. Kept various sizes laying around the control room.

960 Part of a safe's combination lock?

963 Spur (for encouraging horses to "make tracks out of here".

Jeff

Why use something simple like tubing when you can buy a tool that must have cost 100.00 or more? /mark

As another former Bell System person, I agree. The turned down end was for seating the lamps when they were below the surface of the panel.

John

Darn---you sure? My guess is that the stones are weights for fishing nets.

Bill

I am fascinated with these devices, but where do I find out what they are. I know you have posted the link to the answers but can't seem to find it. Thanks

I don't post the answer page until Friday, usually in the afternoon around

5:00 eastern, I'll post a link here in the newsgroups and also on my site.

Rob

This answer is about 95% correct.

Rob

Yes, according to the owner they are net weights.

Rob

Guess for 959: Light box used to view gemstones. The gems are placed on the horizontal glass plate. Light reflects off of the 45 degree mirror and passes up through the gems. The gems are viewed with the magnifier that is held over the glass plate.

Carl G.

In a post office box?

According to R.H. :

No problems accessing it. I even went in though my bookmark to see it, and that had no problems.

None so far.

As usual, I am posting from rec.crafts.metalworking.

959) Hmm ... the shape and the clear window suggest a card deck shuffling machine. However, it is not clear whether there is a disc with four radial partitions inside there, or whether it is an artifact of reflections of something overhead.

960) Hmm ... looks like a heavy-duty dial for a form of combination lock. If so, it is sixteen possible positions per dial (A-P), or 16^3 possible combinations -- 4096.

961) Hmm ... perhaps something for placing around the neck of livestock for leading them around?

962) At least *this* one I am sure about.

It is a tool for extracting the slide-base lamps from various things -- originally the indicator lamps for old manual switchboards, but later things (mostly in the phone company) used the same lamps, and thus the same tool for extracting the lamps.

For the switchboard lamps, there was a companion tool which looked like a pair of needle-nose pliers, except that they had a pair of ground off sections near the tips, which would look something like this (assuming the handles are down and the tips up):

/( )\ / | | \

The angles would be sharper than shown, because I have only one angle available in the ASCII characterset. :-) I've left off the hinge and the handles, as well as some of the length of the noses.

The function of this was to grip the metal bezel around the jewel which covered the lamp and gave it color. This had to be pulled before you could access the lamp, and while it was possible to pull these bare-handed, the tool made it a lot easier. :-

I have examples of both of these, FWIW.

963) This looks like a part of an officer's ceremonial sword scabbard.

964) Totally just a guess -- but the groove bisecting most of them suggests a human brain, which might suggest that these were used as part of a burial ceremony.

Now off to see what others have said.

Enjoy, DoN.

My guess for 959 is a sun dial Lou