What is it? CXLII

Thanks for your comments, I really enjoy working on the site each week, the best thing about this hobby is that I never know what I'm going to find next. I'm off to another tool show this weekend, I'm having much better luck at these shows than the flea markets and antique malls.

Rob

I think that it's supposed to work like a metal detector, for locating buried or hidden electrical boxes with the magnetized needle. I've done some searching but can't find anything about it, seems like you would have to be very close to the target to get it to work.

Rob

According to R.H. :

Aha! The link to a site selling old magnetos shows every one illustrated with the crank at the gear end as I thought -- not at the end where the square is for a slip-on crank as shown in your puzzle one.

O.K. I doubt electrical boxes specifically -- but anything made of iron or steel which is large enough to pick up a field from the Earth's field. And it would particularly point to discontinuities. (Hmm ... it might be for finding the cast-iron cylindrical housings put around buried water meters or water (or gas) valves at the entrance to a property.

O.K. The function was right -- just not the field of application.

Enjoy, DoN.

I wonder what the crown is for and what the three-leg piece is for. I wonder why it is marked all the way to horizontal.

George A Caldwell Company Maintenance and repair of all types of hydrants

At the same address is International Metal, a scrap dealer founded in

George A Caldwell Company owns a waste-disposal site in Waldoboro ME, which suggests that it and International Metal are the same company.

If you want to be a water utility one-call coordinator in Madison, you have to know how to use a magnetic curb box finder.

They gave away watch fobs showing their boxfinder:

Here's another tool for the purpose:

Early in the 20th Century, the Ludlow Valve Company was perhaps the world's largest manufacturer of fire hydrants. They were in Troy NY. James H Caldwell became VP in 1892 and pres in 1909, retiring in the

Thinking some more about the Caldwell Boxfinder reminded me of something I used to use. I had at one point a 1950's era "stud finder" which used a magnet to find the nails in the studs. It said to hold at baseboard level, to find the nails used to hold the baseboard to the studs. It had a small magnetic pointer which would swing from side to side attracted to the nails. Almost like a compass, but the magnet was attracted to the nails. Believe it or not, it worked as well as my trusty Zircon. ww88

Ah, that, or similar function now make sense. Thanks.

You can still buy those. Karl

woodworker88 wrote:

Another name for the boxfinder is "dip needle" since it gives an indication of the angle at which the earth's magnetic field "lines of force" intersect the horizontal surface, thus the instruction to align the instrument in the N-S plane. The dip angle is affected by the presence of magnetic materials used in valve boxes and/or survey marker bars. This instrument often comes as a rectangular 3x3x2 inch box suspended from a shoulder strap and having an angled mirror to allow the needle and scale to be viewed from above and may be found as part of the equipment carried by most land surveyors.

From RCM Gerry :-)} London, Canada

The needle on the Boxfindr was locked in place and pulling up on the crown released it, if I remember correctly it was held in place with a magnet. Thanks for the links that you posted a few days ago.

Rob

Thanks for the info, I added your exact description to the answer page since I don't have time to paraphrase or rewrite it, let me know if you want your name posted along with it.

Rob

Thanks but no thanks, happy with the way things are. Gerry :-)} London, Canada