What is it? Set 248

[Rob H.]

A new post has been added to the web site:

[Howard Garner]

1401 - Appears to be a glass plant.

[BillM]

1402 fence stretchers

[Jesse]

1404: I am guessing that it is used to move hay stacks. The piece behind it is a swather. It would be mounted on a sickle bar mower to put the hay in a row when it was cut. Jesse

[Christian Stü]

today only one (really) silly guess from germany

1404 i don´t know wherefore this tool is used, but i would like to have the bottle of wine you can open with it.

greetings chris

[Matthew Russotto]

1399: Some sort of concrete-finishing tool 1400: Perhaps part of a larger machine; the center looks kind of like bearing races. Although it would have to completely disassemble for that to work.

1401: Some sort of cooling tower

1402: Clothespins 1403: Looks like an elk. Maybe just a deer. 1404: Transporter for hay bales

[Rob H.]

Yes, it's a glass container plant, though I'm not certain if the upper structure is a baghouse or cooling tower.

Rob

[Winston]

--Winston

[Andrew Erickson]

1399 - Possibly this is used to bind together papers with a wire or plastic comb sort of binding to make impromptu books. The angle of the handle looks rather odd for that use, though; you shouldn't need much leverage in that direction, and keeping the work a bit away from the body would not be a help. 1400 - Tool to manipulate vee belts? If the cones are free to rotate, this would tend to lead credence to this wild guess. 1401 - It's a CIA station intended to grapple for UFOs that fly by. 1402 - I suspect these are rope tensioners, similar to (but larger than) those commonly used to hold tent flies in position. 1403 - Possibly a manipulator for logs or slabs, either in a sawmill or when cutting trees in the field. I'm assuming it's more closely related to the two-man saw than the mounted deer heads. 1404 - Derrick for use when butchering (possibly for scalding hogs?). The rake like thing in the background is rather curious looking, too, assuming it's not another part of the same device.

Now to read other guesses...

[Eigenvector]

I don't believe it's the baghouse, more likely a cooling tower for hot gasses to escape - the structure is open at the top and runs the entire length of the roofline.

Unless I'm mistaken this is the Fostoria Glass plant in Fostoria Ohio. Although the plant is derelict now.

[Jesse]

I'm sorry if this shows up twice but I didn't see it post the first time.

1404: I am guessing that it is used to move hay stacks. The piece behind it is a swather. It would be mounted on a sickle bar mower to put the hay in a row when it was cut. Jesse

[DoN. Nichols]

1399) Interesting. It looks as though it is intended to cut two parallel grooves -- perhaps on either side of a round-bottomed groove for decorative woodwork. The round shaft appears to be spring-loaded so it would act as a guide, but would retract with pressure allowing the rows of knife blades on either side to come into contact with the workpiece. 1400) O.K. I have a question. Are the brass (or possibly bronze) pieces free to rotate on the axis defined by the handles?

If so -- I might consider it to be a tool to use to guide a belt or rope back onto a pulley.

If not -- I have no idea.

1401) I have no idea what the building is (or was) for, but it would appear to require bringing in a lot of sunlight for some purpose. Perhaps to trap heat? 1402) These seem to mostly be pulley blocks with load hooks, or more primitive versions with the rope sliding through a smoothly finished hole angled to make the rope slide smoothly. 1403) The long-handled object, not the really long saw I presume.

At a guess, it is for twisting a tree which is being cut down to better control where it will land.

1404) Looks like something designed to screw into a hay bale to lift it -- and perhaps to allow it to be swung over to be lowered into some form of carrier or transport device.

Now to see what others have guessed.

Enjoy, DoN.

[Curt Welch]

I was thinking it might some type of jig for marking interlocking dove-tail joints (except without the angled dove tails - don't know what these would be called). However, you seem to be right that the end of the fingers seem to be a sharp edge making it look like knives or markers of some type.

The way the spring seem to work seems to suggest the tool is pushed into or against something. However, with the handle being out the side, you wouldn't be able to push vary hard, so that would indicate the push is not to create a cut, but maybe just to hold the tool against the object???

The spring loaded bar also can't travel very far because it will hit the handle if it moves too much. This makes me think the bar is used only to serve as an alignment aid of some type. But nothing at all comes to mind as to what the tool would be working with.

Someone else suggested the belt idea. That sounds reasonable because belts were far more popular in the past than they are now so the tool and associated crafts might have fallen out of common use. But yet, it doesn't feel quite right.

One thought I had was that it looked like knife sharpener. Maybe with the addition of some missing stones held between the cones, that could be what it is? Just a wild guess that's probably way off base.

Another idea is that it looks like some type of forming tool. Maybe for bending some sheet metal of some type over an edge. Could it have been used to do something like close a can or container of some type?

It's interesting that the angle between the cones is close to 90, but slightly greater than 90 deg. That seems to rule out it's use with forming a square corner or being used to press on the sides of a square corner. But it might have been used to press on the edge of a square corner for some purpose. But at the same time, the fact that the cones can spread out leaving a flat shaft between them seems to indicate that the tool was not used to apply pressure at the intersection of the cones but was instead intended to apply pressure on the faces of the cones.

hum.....

[Brian Lawson]

Hey Rob,

1402 I believe is a collection of various devices to hold or clamp rope

[Phil Kangas]

1400 looks like a device I'd like to roll up and down the back of my neck sometimes, bet that would feel good...;>) phil

possibly bronze)

handles?

I'll check

on it, so I

but didn't