What is it? CLXXVI

How about grounding? One may need a good temporary ground to weld, make electrical checks, be safe, or transfer fuel. I often use alligator clips for welding and electrical troubleshooting. They aren't reliable.

If I worked on a type of equipment with threaded or unthreaded studs with diameters suitable for those brass tubes, I'd want a set. I'd remove the ends from the smallest tube that would fit over the stud. If the fit wasn't snug, I'd include a strip of foil, then twist the tube down over the stud. Then I'd choose the cap best suited to clamp the gage of ground wire I was using.

Brian Lawson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

You need a reason? Maybe I'm just being "US-centric", but I can't imagine NOT wanting to have a miniature cannon that the sun sets off at noon.

George

I'd certainly like one that fires real cannonballs directed squarely at the little sod next door and set to go off every time he starts playing his bloody drums. This is rarely at noon however and more often than not in the early evening when there isn't much sun. How you'd arrange this to work with a magnifying glass I'm not sure.

The fire axe does look similar but the one on my site was marked "Bell System", though I can't say exactly how it was used.

Rob

I'm not familiar with that term, are try-pieces the same as go/no go gauges?

Rob

Rob

Something a machinist makes to show his skill. May have no practical purpose.

scott

According to R.H. :

Hmm ... "Bell System" ... I think that my guess for this is that the square hole allows it to serve as a wrench for controlling really high-current switches to the battery banks which keep the exchange running through power outages and such.

And the dull blade strikes me as usable for emergency severing the high-current cables in case of a short circuit.

Hmm ... perhaps the square hole fits a water valve for extinguishing a fire after the wires have been severed.

Enjoy, DoN.

They look like they might be renewable fuses or line protectors.

I think that you're talking about the cylinders at the top of the list, while I was just talking about the "hatchet".

And since the barrel of the devices is also brass or bronze, just like the ends, I don't think that these could serve as replaceable-link fuses, since there is already a short circuit (the cylindrical portion) between the endcaps. Replaceable-link fuses have an *insulating* body between the end-caps, so the replaced link becomes the only path for current between the ends.

Enjoy, DoN.

I was thinking more along the lines of a linesman tool. The blade can be used to flatten a section of telegraph pole where a climbing spike is to be inserted, and the square hold can be used to screw in the climbing spike.

Dunno about the other end of the handle tho.

scott

Nope... that's not US-centric, pretty well everyone wants a miniature cannon. I know I do.

That makes sense -- but I would think that sharper would help when doing the flattening.

That might simply have been modified after it got out of Ma Bell's hands.

Enjoy, DoN.

Connect the magnifying glass up to a tympanum. Set up a ring of photodetectors connected to an electric ignitor, and set up the glass so its focus is in the center of the ring. Drums make noise, glass shakes, moves focus to photodetectors, ignitor fires, canon goes off :-)

I'd think a multi-purpose tool like that would be a field or lineman's tool rather than a central-office tool.

This site indicates it's a lineman's hatchet:

But they don't know what the hatchet blade is for either.

One person on this forum claims the blade was used for blazing the poles (to mark them for replacement)

This is on Ebay at the moment. May be related to yours.

If they didn't have paint I think they would have used a big-headed nail rather than further weaken the pole.

The owner said the blunt edge was 3/8" wide. That sounds like a giant screwdriver, not a hatchet. I think it was for prying things loose. You would use a hammer to drive it in like a wedge, then use the handle to twist.

I wonder how many thousandths of an inch are the bores of the three tubes. I wonder what gages of stranded copper wire could be clamped in the four sizes of notches.

They look appealing for welding. An arc welder usually has a big grounding cable and a clamp. Three problems may be movement of the clamp, a small contact area, deterioration of the clamp, and deterioration where the wire is attached to the clamp. If I clamp onto steel I may not even be able to strike an arc. Once I get an arc, the current can cause a hot spot where the clamp contacts the steel, and this can cause resistance to fluctuate. Trying to weld can be frustrating

I wonder if the tubes are sized to slide snugly over the threads of three common sizes of machine screws. In that case, I'd keep some brass screws about 1-1/2" long in these three sizes, along with brass washers and nuts. I'd find a hole in the steel, clean away paint and corrosion around the hole, apply electrically conductive grease, and attach a brass screw, nut, and washers. I'd apply the grease to the threads and tube and slide the tube on. Then I'd put the cap in place and clamp in a wire.

At 100 amps and a 50% duty cycle, 8-gage wire would have to dissipate 2 watts per foot, so many welding jobs wouldn't need a fat ground cable. I'd have a solid connection with low resistance from the steel to the washers to the screw to the tube to the cap to the wire. Maintenance would be easy because the brass screws and washers could be replaced and the wire could be renewed by snipping off the end.

I wish I knew where to buy some of those brass things for my toolbox.