What is it? CXCV

1178 here it would be an eel trap, in the US a snake trap?

Tom

-- Ed Huntress

I wondered about that, but what would it be for? Smudge pots for protecting fruit crops were introduced in the US in 1913. What would they have been used for previously?

-- Ed Huntress

1078 Eel trap.

I kept thinking some sort of male chastity device ;)

Wes

Other than the crop protection purpose, and before the concept of clean air was grasped, small smudge pots were used as highway hazard lights. Once upon a time, it was common to see a number of smoking, flickering smudge pots set in the road around construction sites and road repair sites. The point was that they would burn all night. Nowadays, the equivalent is the flashing strobes that get put on temporary highway barriers. Police also sometimes used them instead of flares around accidents. They were also too cheap and dirty to steal.

Aha. I wonder why they were called "smudge" pots, then.

Oh, well. Sometimes a question isn't worth asking.

Thanks, though, for the info.

-- Ed Huntresss

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Well, sure. Maybe I should have wondered how the onces used for protecting fruit trees were called smudge pots. Maybe the name was already in circulation.

I think you have to be up at 4:00 in the morning. I was loading up for an hour of snapper fishing, and turned on my computer so I could see the highlights of last night's Yankees - Red Sox game.

Thanks for the story, Rich.

-- Ed Huntress

I'm 55 and I had the same imagery when I was a kid. I had forgotten about those round ones until the discussion about the two-armed weirdo,

to it. )-;

Those round black bombs were "Toledo Torch" brand. I had a set of six for a while, but they escaped, and are on the loose somewhere in central Florida now.

LLoyd

Out of curiousity, where did you find the information on 1913 for orchard/vineyard/etc. use? A particular style/brand/type maybe, would seem late for the concept anyway???

(I haven't looked at the posted pic's, w/ dialup the load time is so long as to rarely try...)

--

After seeing the smudge pot answer, and vaguely remembering that smudge pots for protecting trees was something that started in California in the early part of the last century, I Googled it. I found two or three articles that described it as something that started with a big freeze out there, in 1913.

As for how I "vaguely remembered" it, that was from a paper I wrote in 9th grade, when I lived in Florida. Some things stick in one's memory. 'Too bad the important things don't.

-- Ed Huntress

Modern highway warning markers. :~)

I have a ball shaped brass covered Smudge pot like the ones on the high ways many years ago. It's relatively new as I purchased it new at a Fireplace store. I burn that Citronella oil in it to keep mosquitoes away.

It is a Safety Derrick Lamp. Patent number 126,688 issued May 14, 1872. See:

Yes, it was made to be used by oil workers. Anyone know what this lamp was commonly called? It has a somewhat colorful nickname.

Rob