huh, i woulda guessed "sculptures", but i went to art school. i did a google search for "stone balls" and "stone spheres" the other day and came across this (and others)....
b.w.
Nope, that's not it.
Rob
Best guess so far, you're right about it being placed on the neck of an animal, but it's not for leading them around.
Rob
You are correct in that it's a simple microscope with a glass plate and 45 degree mirror but it wasn't marked as being for looking at gemstones, though I'm sure it could be used for that. It's probably more of a general purpose device, and was tagged "microscope slide viewer".
Rob
Thanks for the links, I hadn't seen these before either, very interesting/unusual looking artifacts.
Rob
Is it put around the neck of a cow to make it difficult to get through a barbed wire fence of four strands or so?
With the help of all the hints, perhaps 961 is/are used to hold the animals still in a convenient pose for slaughter.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Are you sure, Rob? To me some of them look like gross weights and tare weights.
Weight a moment... If we are fishing for gross and tare-able puns, what's the net difference?
Carl G.
"Carl G." wrote: Weight a moment... If we are fishing for gross and tare-able puns, what's the net difference? ^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Easy, Carl. I think I've been pun-ished enough.
Hi Rob,
Maybe what was called an "Animal-Poke"? Put around an animals neck to prevent it from grazing. See the following for some similar devices:
I was surprised how many patents there were for the animal pokes, I couldn't find an exact match either but it was slightly entertaining to see the pictures of animals wearing the various contraptions. I find very few of these things when I go to auctions.
Rob
I've been to quite a few auctions and antique stores around Wisconsin and have never seen one.
I know it's not really on topic but I'm curious. Why was it so important to prevent an animal from grazing that there were so many types of pokes?
As illustrated in the first patent link on the answer page, they are only trying to prevent grazing of crops through a fence, normal grazing can still be done while wearing the poke. I guess a hungry cow or pig could eat a lot of corn if it was fenced in next to a field of it.
I have a book of very old tools that show a drawing a poke that was used on a goose, I searched the web to see if there was a photo of one but didn't have any luck, though I did find this ordinance from the town of Mexico, N.Y.:
"April 7,1801, it was voted that no hog shall run at large without a goose-poke eight inches above the neck and four inches below, small hogs in proportion, after the 10th of May next, until the 26th of October next."
Probably to keep the free running hogs out of everyone else's crops.
Rob
According to R.H. :
To be a slide viewer, it should have a frosted glass plate somewhere in there. Just plain mirrors would let through artifacts of the light source, unless it was diffused. I think that the jewel examining tool might be the better description.
Enjoy, DoN.
"R.H." wrote
As an old farmboy, I can tell you that all domesticated animals resent being fenced in. They test and challenge fences constantly. Fence repair is a common chore on the farm.
I would think that one reason for such a device would be to cut down on the wear and tear on the fences.
I have never seen one of these animal pokes though.
Having grown up on a general dairy and hog farm in Minnesota, I am tolerably familiar with the problem. While I have never seen a wooden contrivance similar to these, we had and used steel ones made in the '50s. They were made in two halves and bolted around the cow's neck and had hook-like extensions facing forward and spike-like protrousions pointing toward the rear near the cow's neck. The device had no effect on the cow's ordinary activities, but, if she reached through a fence, the device would get hooked on a wire and the spike would jab her.
To hold livestock, barbed wire fences must be tight. When cows start reaching through (you know, the grass is always greener...), they'll stretch and loosen the fence and soon they'll be walking through or over it.
I've never seen such a thing for a pig, but they're a whole different matter. Barbed wire won't hold a pig. That requires woven wire. And the pigs will try to go under it. The cure is to put rings in their noses to keep them from digging. (I always used to think the rings were a bit cruel, but now with all these kids running around with pierced practally everything....)
Jerry
According to DoN. Nichols :
[ ... ]
Never mind -- I now see that you were referring to prepared microscope sides, and I was thinking of 35mm film slides. :-)
It looks as though the magnification is about right for 35mm film slides, based on the distance from the glass surface and the relative simplicity of the lens assembly. The other shown in your answers page looks like a much better piece of equipment.
Enjoy, DoN.
I can only imagine the reaction of PETA to such a thing, no matter that it may protect the animal from injury at the wire fence.
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