What is it? CXLII

[R.H.]

Another set has just been posted:

[Alexander Thesoso]

811 Magneto = telephone ring generator. In period piece movies, there are those phones, wall mounted, in wooden boxes with diagonal shelf in front. Microphone mounted on arm on the box, earpiece on cable. Pick up earpiece and turn crank to generate ring signal. The crank goes on the square boss seen in the first picture. Lots of readers will recognize this.

813 ? Metal detector? Find iron shrapnel pieces in WW-1 war victims?

814 Air flow meter. ? Used to measure air flow in heating ducts? The multiple dials on the indicator of the first example suggest that it measures air flow rather than air speed. (counts turns for some specified time to get an accurate measure of the flow rate)

816 ? It looks like a spring scale at first glance, but the hooks are strangely placed. Weight on the hooks would make the reading decrease. Also, it is hard to imagine bending the whole frame enough to use the entire scale. Perhaps it hangs by the large ring, and various weights hang on the hooks causing the whole thing to hang at an angle. Does the pointer pivot at the angle near the left hook?

[Christian Stü]

811 small electrical generator

812 this is a "whatthehellisthis"

813 angle measurement, angle meter?

814 air speed meter?

815 exactly the same thing as 812

816 spring weighing scale

817 oops, next week i tell ya ;-)

Hi Rob, did you ever think about offering your photos to wikipedia?

greeting from germany Chris

[Dave Baker]

813. Device for measuring the magnetism in rock strata. 814 Wind speed measurement 816 spring balance. Measuring the tension in ropes perhaps?

-- Dave Baker Puma Race Engines

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

[spamTHISbrp]

811- hand-cranked generator (missing the crank) used in very early phone service to generate the 'ring' voltage 814- anemometers used on-board ship?

garrr, I'm out.

Dave

[woodworker88]

811 Definitely some sort of primitive magneto/generator

813 Based on the text on the dial, it appears to be some sort of gauge for an environmental condition. Given the unique markings (0-90-0) I would at first guess a type of protractor or angle gauge. Currently I'm leaning towards either magnetic or electric field measurement.

Weirdly enough, I couldn't even find a Geo. A. Caldwell Co. in Boston, Mass. which made anything related to instruments or tools.

814 Looks like a mechanical anemometer for measuring wind speed. Used by HVAC technicians for measuring the airflow in ducting and hoods. Might also have been used with canned smoke for airflow visualization.

815 Maybe a tool for making crimps like seen on the end of duct pipes. More like corrugations than crimps, a common sheet metal tool is used today. Looks almost identical except the interlocking leaves are mounted on a pair of pliers.

816 Definitely doesn't make sense as a scale, more likely it might be used as a force gauge or something. The weird thing is that I can't visualize how the part would close up or move in such a way as to have the pointer follow the scale. It seems as though it would only close up or move down maybe 1/2" or so. This is reinforced by an apparent lack of a pivot point.

After thinking and researching for 15 minutes or so, now I really want to know the answers to this set.

[Smaug Ichorfang]

"R.H." wrote in news:Vtj2h.22466$OE1.19195 @tornado.ohiordc.rr.com:

Jumping in a bit too late: the "shoe former", number 806, is properly called a "last".

[Roger Haar]

HI,

811, looks to be a hand crank generator for a field telephone. 813 Looks to be a device to find cracks in a casing. The instructions include something like

Hold ........needle ..North and South .. . ..Move steadily near surface over the suspected area.

Kind of an early magneflux unit.

Thanks Roger Haar

[R.H.]

From the picture it looks like the pointer might pivot, but I can't say for sure, it doesn't belong to me.

Rob

[R.H.]

If they could use my photos they would be welcome to post them. I don't know much about the site, any idea if there is a particular procedure for offering photos? I looked around there a little but didn't see anything about it.

Rob

[R.H.]

I'll go ahead and give the full text on the lower face of this device:

Hold vertical with needle in north and south line move steadily near surface over the suspected area

I'll give the name of this instrument tomorrow.

Rob

[Steve R.]

#142 is a telephone magneto.

Steve R.

[whit3rd]

811: Telco ring generator (common in physics labs forty years ago... ahh, the memories!).

813: magnetic probe/metal detector? Locator for buried iron...

814: anemometer

816: Looks like a way to weigh a pig in a poke (ya dangle the bagged porker from one end while hanging the thing up from the other end); the two hook/eye pairs indicate two scale scales, though I only see one marked.

[Scott Lurndal]

#812 Combination square #813 Inclinometer? #816 Scale

[DoN. Nichols]

According to R.H. :

811) A very old telephone ring magneto. Hand cranked generator producing about 20 Hz -- the right frequency to ring a phone bell -- or to drop an annunciator to get the operator's attention.

Also enough voltage to really make a "friend" jump when you crank it. :-)

I've never seen one which had the magnets painted red before.

This one is taller than the later versions of the same thing, but it is the style which I played with as a kid.

The center pin moves out to contact the spring contact when cranking, so the coil in the armature is not across the line the rest of the time, loading down the talk signal.

Interesting -- it looks as though the original crank fitting was machined off the center of the big gear, and instead there is a square for a slip-on crank on the back. This suggests that it has been modified for some other purpose, hence the removable crank.

812) Hmm ... perhaps to hold flags for something like railroad signaling? 813) Designed to measure the vertical component of the Earth's magnetic field? Or perhaps to detect discontinuities in a steel or iron object of some large size (via magnetic anomilies, of course)?

For field use, not lab use, at least, or it would not be encased like a pocket watch.

814) For measuring wind speed. The first one looks rather accurate, and I *think* that it might actually count turns of the blades between two times to give a more accurate reading.

They would probably be used in meteorology -- though they *might* be used in wind tunnel testing instead.

815) Not really sure about this -- but I think that it could be used to sharpen knife blades. 816) Well ... it is a scale of some sort -- and I think with two ranges. The heavier range uses the hook on the bottom, and a much lighter one uses the hook on the side. When used for the heavier range, it is supported by the big ring on the top. When used for the lighter range, by the smaller ring on the side. 20 to 300. Perhaps the more sensitive scale was in ounces, and the heavier one in pounds.

It was probably used in sales of produce or products like bags of nails and such. Though it *might* have been used to measure force in tests for breaking point of various materials.

An interesting collection of tools and devices here.

Now to see what others have guessed.

Enjoy, DoN.

[DoN. Nichols]

According to R.H. :

I think that it not only pivots, but passes through an aperture in the upper half of the main ring, and bears on the bottom of that aperture. Thus, when weight was applied, it would move the pointer upwards, not downwards.

And (as I just posted), I think that it is a two-range weight/force measuring device. Use the big hanging ring and hook, and it is for heavy items. Use the smaller hanging ring hook, and it becomes much more sensitive.

If it is for US weights, I suspect pounds and ounces are the two ranges.

Enjoy, DoN.

[Doghouse]

It's curious. One the arms can fold all the way into the side of the triangle.

I like what somebody else said, that it detects cracks in iron. If it were a fixed structure like bridge, I wonder how one would detect cracks running north and south.

I like that. A butcher's steel can make a big difference by keeping the microscopic edge of the blade straight. A butcher's steel takes skill. Maybe this is designed to do the same thing with less skill required.

[Alexander Thesoso]

[Mark & Juanita]

... snip

So, what does a "Caldwell Boxfindr" do?

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

[R.H.]

I think that it's supposed to work like a metal detector, for locating buried or hidden electrical boxes with the magnetized needle. I've done some searching but can't find anything about it, seems like you would have to be very close to the target to get it to work.

Rob