What is it? CL

[R.H.]

This week's set has just been posted:

[Lee Michaels]

it lays flat. You shove this hayhook deep into the load and pull the two short handles up inside of the frame. This locks a certain amount of hay in. The hay is then hoisted with rope and pulleys to its desired position. This was usually done with truck, tractor or even horses. A rope which is connected to the two short levers is then yanked. The hay falls straight down. The hay is then distributed to various locations to make the hay as evenly distributed as possible in the loft. This helps prevent "hot spots".

The hayhook that we used in my youth was shaped a little differently. But all parts are identical in terms of function and purpose. I wiped a little sweat off my brow remembering those days.

[Dave Baker]

860. From the inscription something to with height or altitude. Obviously it converts a reading from something into something else. Maybe barometric pressure into height above sea level. 861. For hoisting hay bales into barns. 862. Can't quite see whether the things the arms move are paddles or chopping blades. However I think they just push the wooden cover in the tub down alternately onto whatever is filling it underneath. Maybe an early clothes washing machine. 863. Looks like they might collect water running down the lines. Can't imagine why though. 864. Looks like it times how long it takes something to move along the upper scale. What though seeing as that's maybe not present. The scale reads down to up so it seems the timer should rise. Does that mean something in the base lifts up? 865. Laser distance meter.

-- Dave Baker Puma Race Engines

Camp USA engineer minces about for high performance specialist (4,4,7)

[Those Minds]

861 Hay hook

863 Weights to keep the power lines steady in the wind.

865 Thermometer. Usually reads up to 600° f. has a laser light to aim where you are reading the temp.

[Dave Baker]

It would be a curious thermometer that had "distance = spot x 12:1" printed on the side of it.

-- Dave Baker Puma Race Engines

Camp USA engineer minces about for high performance specialist (4,4,7)

[Barry]

But that is indeed what it is. Search for Mastercool.

[Those Minds]

I use one all the time in checking temperature while curing the ink while screen printing.

[Richard]

[Erik]

Hmmm... looks to me like the left side of the 'front' table might be in °C (0 to 40°C = 32 to 104°F). The 'rear' table left side looks more like zoomed in comfort zone close up... ( equaling 42.8 to 81°F)

The analog scale at the end seems to have something to do millimeters, as do the tops of both tables.

I keep thinking something to do with adjusting control cable tension... but not sure.

Can anyone translate what the analog end text says?

Erik

[Bill Marrs]

861 "hay fork" used to put loose hay into the barn. Works with a rail at the roof peak that has a trolley running on it.

863 Stabilizer weight to keep the lines from whipping in the wind. Spoils the natural resonance of the span.

865 Non contact thermometer.

[Christian Stü]

oops, already one day late late this week, so only one silly guess...

865 at first sight i would have said ...pistol for mounting cable ties... but laser distance meter from Dave Baker seems to be a good guess too. as always, the text is hard to read.

greetings from germany chris

[humunculus]

863 Actually, I believe those are to prevent ice freezing on the power lines by causing them to twist a little in the wind. In regions with less wind, they use larger, flat vanes. However, in windy regions, a cylinder is sufficient. 862 I believe this is a cutter for making silage.

--riverman

[Doghouse]

If I'm measuring the temperature of a certain part of an engine, I don't want the "spot" to be so big it includes other parts. 12:1 tells me how close I must hold the thermometer.

[R.H.]

You're right, I removed the word bale from my answer. Hay balers weren't common until at least the 1940's.

Rob

[CBFalconer]

And are disappearing now. You don't see haybales anymore, instead there are some sort of cylindrical things wrapped in plastic (I think). Probably improves immunity to rain.

[Ralph Henrichs]

Small square bales require too much manpower to move & store a ton of hay. The round things you see are called round bales. They can be different sizes and can weight over a ton. They can be handled by one man and tractor.

[RAM³]

CBFalconer wrote in news: [e-mail]:

"Round bales" were introduced by New Holland by the 1950s.

"Square bales" dated back to horse-drawn equipment.

The "round bales" gained in popularity as worker availability fell: too big to handle by 1 person, they could not be collected and stacked by a group of cheap laborers the way that "square bales" could. With the passing of the cheap labor supply [Welfare paid better] and shifts in Tax Laws, it became cheaper to simply buy the added equipment to handle the "round bales".

While both are still available, "round bales" - due to their ease if distribution as cattle feed (they're simply unrolled) and weather resistance

- have gained significantly in popularity.

Right now, I know quite a number of people who'd love to buy as much as they can - even at the exorbitant price being charged for the stuff.

[RAM³]

Ralph Henrichs wrote in news:q1wlh.8$nk6.4 @newsfe03.lga:

In this area, they average 1500#.

Square bales weigh between 50# [Johnson Grass] and 85# [Alfalfa].

[Jerry Foster]

news: [e-mail]:

Not so. New Holland built square balers. The original round bale was about the size of a square bale and the balers that made them were built by Allis-Chalmers. Both had their advantages. The round bale was more impervious to weather and cattle tended to waste less (not caring for the sharp ends left by the knives of the square baler. The square bales were much easier to handle. A wagon was generally pulled behind the square baler and the bales loaded directly on it. The round baler dropped its bales on the ground which had to be picked up later. Square bales are far easier to stack. Etc.

Another issue was that many of the early square balers, specifically those built by John Deere, bound the bales with wire rather than twine. And, while baling wire came in very handy for fixing things, broken bits of it would end up in the hay and the cows would eat it. The result was known as "hardware disease" and the "cure" was to feed them a magnet.

Along with the rise of the very large round bales in the late 20th century, square bales also got bigger. The two string bales, weighing about 50 lbs, which one man could easily handle gave way in many places to the much larger three string bales which were more suited to mechanical handling. And so, today, the jumbo round bales are a common sight on cattle farms where the farmer grows his own hay. But hay that is grown to be trucked to feed lots and dairies many miles away tends to be put up as square bales.

Jerry, who observes that the expression, "haywire" seems to be vanishing from our collective vocabulary...

[Dave Balderstone]

Round and square bales are still very common here in western Canada.