Any idea what this is please?

[Nick]

Sounds painful !

[Nick]

Demon idea Bob and perhaps best yet, you may get the fiver I'm thinking of Ordinary or pennyfarthing type bicycles but I can't see that it would work. The thread in the elephants trunk is way too large and the shape of the gadget would damage the rim without a former. However, apply this to a spoked car/lorry wheel and I think it might work. Pressure applied across the rim, rather than in the rotational direction, three pawl positions to allow similar and sequential tensioning to spokes. Yes, I think that might work. Many thanks indeed, I'll make further enquiries. Nick.

[Frank Erskine]

Not only manufactured things - I used to use them to prepare coax jumpers for group and supergroup distribution frames in a PO repeater station.

They were useful too when rewiring the braided 'flex' on domestic (clothes) irons - when people used to do that rather than do the consumerist thing and chuck the iron in the bin.

Or does nobody use an iron nowadays anyway? :-)

[Nick]

My very first thought was that it might be a rivetting set but it is not hefty enough and is too well made.. Nick.

[The Medway Handyman]

If its for spoked car wheels, they might know at Beamish.

have an authentic 1910 high street with a brilliant 'purveyor of fine motor vehicles' including a workshop - some very knowledgeable people.

[Nick]

Many thanks Dave, I visited Beamish 2 or 3 years ago. A very interesting and well run place. Too well run IIRC. I'll email them about this conundrum and see what they bring up. Nick.

[<me9]

A sloddering iron, yes. Anyting to do with clothes NO.

[geoff]

In message , [e-mail] writes

WTF are wives for ?

[Anne Welsh Jackson]

Cast iron would snap before it would bend.

[nightjar]

Are there any areas of wear, where it might have born against a surface? My thought on seeing it was that the socket screwed onto a stud on a fixed unit, such as a work bench, and opening the handles would clamp something down. However, that would require part of it to work like a cam and should leave wear marks.

Colin Bignell

[Pete Verdon]

I'm wondering if pulling the handles apart pulls something up the inside of the "elephant's trunk", a bit like a pop-rivetter.

Pete

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Nick writes

On the nautical lines....

Suppose the threaded socket is to receive a knob and the two arms attached to the frame and opening part of a porthole (or hatch) respectively? Provided portholes opened vertically, you would have an adjustable stay.

Maybe an early Velux window stay:-)

regards

[The Natural Philosopher]

I am more thinking this is abut right.

the screw part might have been an adjustable stop.

[T i m]

Hmm, I'm with TGH on this one.

Inside the nose would screw the split cone wire grabber part. The flat back of the other handle rests against the post and is held in place by pressure on the other handle (that's pulling the wire and holding the other handle in place via the pawl. leaving one hand free to hammer in the staple / whatever).

Look at the bend on the 'live' handle, typical of the tension (load and direction) that would be applied to that particular one?

So, now that's settled, what do we win? ;-)

T i m

[Andy Champ]

I'll do the ironing if she'll ... err... there may be children reading this :)

Andy

[The Natural Philosopher]

pawl is the wrong way round for that. wont hold it stretched.

Its obvious from the thread below, that this is a non crash toilet set support.

[T i m]

It doesn't work that way. Imagine the two handles at 180 degrees to each other as they might be when you started tensioning, then the 'working' handle is brought round towards the other, the pawl running freely over the hinge. As it nears 90 degrees the pawl would engage in the first slot and then hold the second handle in place (against the post). So now you would have the base handle resting flat against the post and the other handle at ~90 degrees to it but in-line with the fence wire. The bits speak for themselves, even to the bend on the 'tension handle' and the set on the back handle (slightly bent at the root).

I know I can't spell or punctuate but I'm ok with things mechanical. ;-)

So, I suggest, like many very good theories this one will remain 'the correct one' until disproven. ;-)

T i m

[BigWallop]

My guess is that has something to do with an old horse drawn carriage. Maybe something to hold up a hood or cover of some kind. It looks as though the brass bit screws on to the body of the cart and the hood is lifted up and stretched. You push the little pawl into place to hold the hood up. So I don't think it is a tool at all.

[John J Armstrong]

I was looking at some old photos earlier today, and found one of me in a (large Silver Cross) pram, c1951. Not a pretty sight, but anyway....

The device to hold the hood up :

very similar, but I'm not totally convinced.

John

[The Medway Handyman]

Others have suggested a horse draw carriage connection. Maidstone Carriage Museum have the largest collection in the country I believe

e-mail to them with a picky might shed some light.

HTH