What is it? CXXII

Four of the six have been answered correctly:

708. Train wheel gage

709. Hint: Used outdoors on a farm or ranch.

710. Part of a sickle bar mower, thanks to all who helped solve this one.

711. The top of a globe frame, the number 6000 represents miles from the equator.

712. Hint: "_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ driver's tool", eight letters in the first word

713. Quick connect impact insertion tool, for telephone tech.

Several new photos and links have been posted on the answer page:

Rob

Part of this answer is close.

Rob

Backseat driver's tool ;-)

Carl G.

According to R.H. :

Well ... a quarter of the circumference of the world is about

6250 miles, and the scale stops short of the pole, so I would guess that that is the distance from the equator -- or if the globe is one of those designed to be free of an axis, it allows you to measure the great-circle distance between two points which are less than a quarter of the circumference apart -- or by adding the value to the South of the equator, you could cover a distance of nearly 12000 miles great circle distance.

Enjoy, DoN.

Using this and the hint that it's used outdoors at a farm or ranch, could this tool be used for installing a barbed wire fence? I'm not sure what the ends would be used for, but the notches on the inside could be used to hold the wire in place with the curve in the tool wrapping around the fencepost. While the tool holds the wire in place, you can secure the wire to the post.

-Eric

R.H. wrote:

Doesn't look like any fencing pliers or come-along that I used to install barbed wire fencing, but then that was more than 30 years ago, too.

scott

When I bought this tool I didn't know what it was for, then last week I saw another one just like it marked "barbed wire stretching tool". I haven't been able to verify this, but as you mention it seems that the slots in the side would work well at holding the barbs for stretching the wire.

Rob

I have no idea how old this tool is, there isn't a single letter or number on it that I can see. I'm planning to use the links below on the answer page, the first is a collage of about a hundred different types of barbed wire:

This next link gives a few details on some specific types:

I'm thinking that with so many different kinds of barbed wire there must also be quite a few different and unusual tools for working with them, so I'll probably go with the barbed wire answer for now until I find evidence that it's something else. I've sent a couple emails to some barbed wire museums, maybe one of them will recognize it.

Rob

The fencing pliers we used were like 2T-1900 at

We'd use a block-n-tackle come-along to tension the wire.

scott

It looks like something I'd want in my tool box in certain situations. The fingers along the sides would be good for picking up the loop at the end of a tension spring to stretch it for installing or removal.

The forked ends would fit around two general rod diameters to pry and compress a coil spring around the rod so that the key holding the spring could be removed or installed.

I looked again at what was marked on the other similar tool and it read "barbed wire wrapping tool", I'm guessing that it means wrapping it in coils or on spools.

The answer for number 712: carriage driver's tool, the part on the upper left is a hoof pick and the hex is probably for adjusting a carbide lamp, not sure about the other two parts.

Rob

God do you bring back memories.

The rope was 3 strand manila and rough as a cob.

Lew

Yep, and making sure that the clamp stayed attached to the wire was a trick. Always had to get the wire hauled a bit tighter than needed because you knew you'd lose some tension between the stretcher and the post onto which you were tying the wire.

Those were even more fun with woven wire fences like hog wire. I made a clamp out of a couple of 1 x 4's to get reasonably even tension among all of the strands.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

With woven wire I'd pull and fasten the top strand first, then work my way down, keeping the strands lined up vertically where I stapled them. That required me to lug a minimum of tools. Then I'd restore tension to all strands by walking along and using two pairs of pliers to tighten the ripples.

Tightening was a leisurely activity. It left a fence so straight that I could I could see from a distance if everything was okay. The ripples allowed stretching if a limb fell on the fence, and the ripples could easily be retightened.

Ah yes, hog wire, I still remember helping my dad string it.

We had a big old brood sow that could give a fence a good test.

The metal intermediate posts weren't to bad; but, the corners and those locust post.

Ever try to drive a staple into a locust post?

Might as well try driving them into steel.

Lew

FWIW, the Pratt & Whitney Company, which makes (or made--not sure if they're still in business) machine tools is a different company from Pratt & Whitney Aircraft that makes aircraft engines. The relationship is that the aircraft engine manufacturer was started in the Pratt & Whitney building using a loan from the company and the right to use the name for aircraft engines, but at no time were they they under the same ownership.