What is it? LXXXIV

Just added another set of photos:

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Rob

Reply to
R.H.
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484 Looks like an old organ pipe to me. 485 Caliper of some type. 486 Reminds me of a fish or frog spear minus the handle. 487 ? 488 ? 489 Very early washing machine.
Reply to
Norman D. Crow
485 looks like its for measuring something. Is it a body fat measuring tool? is 489 for churning or mixing something up?
Reply to
Jonathan Wilson

Most of them look like medieval torchure devices to me. MJ

Reply to
mj

I believe 485 is some kind of adjustable scaling device that allows someone to draw something to scale with actual measurements.

Reply to
astutesolutions

487 I'll make a WAG this devicce has something to do with rolling up newspapers and maybe binding them with wire so they can be burned like "logs" in a fireplace? 489 Butter churn?

Jeff

Reply to
Jeff Wisnia

No one has picked up on the Abacus (#488)?

--humunculus

Reply to
humunculus

#487: Why, that would be a gen-u-ine 1870's model cast iron Grey Brother's Patented Hand Held Corn Sheller, without the leather handstraps, maw.

--humunculus

Reply to
humunculus

From Rec.woodworking.

#485 is for measuring the thickness of material on brake pads or shoes. You can even measure rivet thickness then the depth of material over the rivet.

Reply to
Mark and Kim Smith

#488 looks like the beads on a nice abacus. Or something else...

Reply to
Barbara Bailey

484 Doorbell

(yes, I know what it used to be too. I have two of these as part of my aeolian-hydraulic doorbell project. A bucketful of water flushes down into a sealed air chamber and plays notes on each in turn. When I have it finished and tidy I'll post pictures)

486 Eel spear

Worth serious cash these days - watch out for modern forgeries (yes, really - there's a market in faked fish-hooks)

487 Dr Foster's Patent Anti-Wanker

488 Abacus beads ?

489 Ice cream maker

There should be a wooden inner bucket too, traditionally applewood. Cream goes in the middle and is churned. Ice and salt mixture goes outside the wooden bucket and inside the metal bucket.

Reply to
Andy Dingley
484 Organ pipe 485 Thickness caliper of some sort. However, what I don't get is why there are notches on the ends of the handles, as though it's meant to closed by as rubber band. 486 Gaffing hook (?) 488 A miniature or novelty abaccus. Sometimes these are used as belt buckles or paper weights. 489 Washing machine conversion of a metal pail.
Reply to
Leo Lichtman

484: Some sort of sampling instrument

485: Wire gauge caliper

486: Gardening tool

487: Torture device

488: Foosball arms

489: Churn

Reply to
Matthew Russotto

According to R.H. :

O.K. Posting from rec.crafts.metalworking again:

484) A wood "pipe" from an organ. Obviously this one produces the note of "A", though I'm not certain in which octave. I think that is is a fairly high one, given the size of the stem.

The "handle" at the top moves a felt-covered square wooden plug to fine tune the pitch.

I used to have a few of them, from when the organ at the chapel at school was replaced.

I don't remember the metal bit at the bottom of the stem, however.

485) A thickness gauge. Probably for some specific trade, but I'm not sure which trade. I can't easily make out the markings on the scale, or the word in the box under the pointer, but I suspect that it indicates a "good" range. 486) Nasty looking thing. It is obviously designed to go on the end of a long pole.

At a guess, it may be for pulling the strip of blubber off a whale as knives on other long poles cut it free.

487) It looks as though it is intended to splice two objects together. The fingers on the inside grip the two objects, and the two notches perhaps serve for a winding to pull the two sides together, prior to winding around the whole length. 488) Some of the counting beads on either an Abacus or a Soroban. I can't tell which, because you only show four of them. A soroban would have only four in the lower section (worth one each) and one in the upper section (worth five each). An abacus would have five in the lower section, and two in the upper one, allowing acumulation before carry. Both were simple adding/subtracting machines. 489) I *think* that this was meant to attach to a wooden bucket, not the galvanized steel one shown.

It could either be a butter churn of an interesting design, or an ice cream maker (with a secondary bucket full of ice. If a butter churn, I would expect a leadscrew turned by the central gear to run a plunger up and down. If an ice-cream maker, I would expect it to turn paddles instead.

Enjoy, DoN.

Reply to
DoN. Nichols

originally i assumed this was a guessing game, where anyone who wanted to participate could send in their guesses as to what the objects were, and it was fun, a brain teaser, then i started to wonder if this was actually something where the only acceptable responses were if you ACTUALLY KNEW what the objects were, now i'm back to thinking it's just a fun guessing game, but of course it's better if you KNOW what they are. it is fun to see these weird objects and try, from a photo, to guess what it may have been used for, also fun to make an ass of yourself with an incorrect guess, and fun to see others that make an incorrect guess too. there have been a few weeks where i'd puzzle over the picture for tens of minutes and wonder about it during the course of my daily life.

484. originally i also thought it was a pipe from a pipe organ, but when someone guessed something for sampling i started to wonder if perhaps that may be what it is, because a few weeks ago there was a long thin grain sampler. huh. curious that it has a metallic tip, seems like it may have been built that way to prevent abrasion of the tip, used for plunging into something to sample it? with that german sounding name makes me wonder if it has something to do with BEER. 485. huh. hinged in such a way that it opens (instead of closes) when pressure is applied to the handles. and spring loaded so it opens back up on it's own. i have no clue. and why does it have those little grippies on the handles? 486. it does look like some sort of fishing harpoon. weird though that center tang huh? looks like it would perforate the poor little fishy so badly he'd be cut in half. 487. my first thought was a hand held corn cob kernel remover, but... that seems like a awful lot of work to make such a thing out of cast iron. 488. THAT looks like an abacus.

489. first thought was an ice cream maker but second thought, i'd agree with another poster, old fashioned washing machine. that's funny huh? an oscillating motion instead of a rotary motion on the handle.

last weeks' was fun. the falconry hood was a brain tickler. i got the bowling pin but the shaving cream dispenser was driving me nuts. i thought it was an OLD car horn (for some reason the sound came out both ends). the ice pike didn't surprise me (there used to be a thriving ice harvesting industry near me here in kingston ny, supplied ice to nyc in the old days)

Reply to
William Wixon

Some WAGS (Wild-something guesses)

#484: Wooden calliope pipe #485: Appears to be some type of snap-ring pliers #486: Dunno, looks dangerous though #487: No clue #488: No clue #489: Old laundry handwash agitator

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Reply to
Mark & Juanita
488. An Abacus?
Reply to
woodworker88

#485, the modern version:

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Reply to
Mark and Kim Smith

No, really. Its an antique corn sheller.

--riverman

Reply to
humunculus
486. backscratcher
Reply to
erik litchy

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