What is it? Set 295

[Rob H.]

Just posted a new set:

[Stealth Pilot]

1683: I've never seen one of these in the flesh but I would hazard a guess at an early sperry gyrocompass sender unit or an artificial horizon sender unit. it seems to have a number of compensating gizmos around it and the woodwork looks decidedly aircraft. this would be the sender back in the fuselage that drives the pilot's instrument. 1684: looks like something made quite recently but I'm guessing the original would have been dropped behind the lines in WW2, in the thousands along roads, to spike the tyres of enemy vehicles. I dont know what they were called but dropped on to the ground one spike always pointed up.

[LD]

1682 - looks like the thing that holds hooks on per boards.

[Andy Dingley]

horses since Roman times. This one's for use against pneumatic tyres - It's not just a spike, the tubes will also let the air out, even from most self-sealing runflat tyres.

[J. Clarke]

"Caltrop". The basic design dates back to the Romans or earlier. There's a photo of that very item on the wikipedia page for "caltrop"--a fine point of the design is that the hollow tubes make them effective against self-sealing tires.

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh]

"Rob H." fired this volley in news: [e-mail]:

1681 is a Radio Shack soldering iron rest, to go with their Cheapest- of-the-cheap Chinese irons. 1683 is definitely an inertial platform; with 2-axes, it's most likely a ball horizon sender. (by 1968, that whole unit would fit over the span of a large hand, and totally enclosed -- I had one with a sticky bearing that would creep too much to be certified)

LLoyd

[grrly girl]

1685 - could it be a Tabernacle? The notch in side would stabalize the wine bottle.

[Marc Dashevsky]

Lobby meant peg boards, and he is right.

[Northe]

1685: Possibly an outdoor telephone box?

Northe

[Steve W.]

1681 - Soldering iron stand. Usually included with the low end irons.

1682 - Looks like retainer clip. Probably used to hold a wire in place to prevent damage.

1683 - Look like gyroscope units used to control something else.

1684 - NASTY Caltrop. That one looks like it was intended for traffic control to punch a hole in a tire. Smaller ones are used for anti-personnel use.

1685 - Key box from the looks of it.

1686 - Some type of shear?

[Andrew Erickson]

high for me.

1681 - Cheap soldering iron stand (or possibly a woodburning pencil stand/rest, since the cheap ones are nearly the same appliance as cheap soldering irons). Probably came in the package flat, and the owner had to assemble by pushing the cutout bit upwards. 1682 - This appears to be a little yoke that snaps or slips onto something else, presumably so it can be better hoisted or tied down. It looks as though possibly tension on the small loop in the middle would tend to cause the barbs to engage and hold tightly, while releasing the tension would permit them to release. Without knowing the material it's made of (and how springy it is), it's hard to say for certain. 1683 - Looks to be a mounted gyroscope, probably part of a guidance system for an airplane or ship. 1684 - Tire puncturing doohicky used by law enforcement types to (try to) force a fleeing vehicle to come to a stop. The four equidistant points ensure that one is always going to be pointed up, regardless of how it falls, and the two hollow tubes provide a quick path for the air in the tire to escape. 1685 - Possibly this held a weatherglass for safekeeping? Purely a guess. 1686 - A tool for either crimping, bending, or cutting/notching sheet metal. Possibly used for flashing or roof drip edge or similar construction needs.

Now to read some other guesses.

[whit3rd]

1685: watchman's key station; a watchman would have to walk his rounds and key-in at successive stations on a 'watch clock' that registered his evening's activity. Each station housed a different key.

[dpb]

...

...

Dang!!! In reading Caesar I didn't learn the Romans ever faced Gauls w/ vehicles that had inflated tires!!!

[Matthew Russotto]

1682: Holds a shaft onto a rectangular thing Looks more like a part than a tool in itself. 1683: Seismometer? 1684: Ceiling pitch checker 1685: Mailbox for unpopular people 1686: brake

[Rich Grise]

They'll also spike horse feet, or a sandal. >:->

Cheers! Rich

[J. Clarke]

No, of the design of that particular caltrop.

[LD]

I knew that! :)

[DoN. Nichols]

1681) looks like the fold-out leg for advertising give-away desk calendars, or perhaps plastic picture frames. 1682) A clip for routing ribbon cables and round cables in a computer case or somewhere similar. 1683) An early example (perhaps even a prototype) of an aircraft inertial guidance system (gyrocompass, artificial horizon, and (apparently) a barometric altimeter (the stack of disks to the left))

The gyros (in side the housings in gimbals) are apparently powered by three phase electricity -- maybe the 400 Hz common in later aircraft, or perhaps even 60 Hz.

1684) A welded-up caltrop(s). The original ones were scattered to interfere with horse-bourne military.

However, since this one is fabricated of hollow tubing, I think that it is one intended for use by police to let the air out of automobile tires. It punches through, and provides a very fast exit pass for the air.

1685) This looks like a night watchman's station. It is bolted to a wall, and contains a special key which records the particular station number onto a paper tape driven by a clock which the night watchman carries around -- thus proving that he was where he was supposed to be when he was supposed to be there.

The key is attached to a chain which terminates in the upper compartment with one of the bolts which secure the station to the wall. It then runs down through the notch cut in the floor of that partition and into the bottom box where the key lives. The chain allows enough free travel to easily fit into the keyhole on the clock, but keeps it there to keep the watchman from carrying all the keys to one place as the start of his shift, and simply marking the clock at the right times without being anywhere near the places he is supposed to be for most of the night.

1686) A hand-operated shear for cutting something at right angles to the long edge (which fits in the tray to the side of the jaws. It could be for ribbon cable, or parts of terminal strip kits, or any of a number of other things.

Now to see what others have suggested.

Enjoy, DoN.

[John Husvar]

Those were made of solid metal since nobody cared whether air came out of feet or hooves. :)

There's a fellow at the SCA Pennsic War who does an iron smelt every year and forges something out of the produce. One year it was caltrops with three-inch spikes. OUCH!

[dpb]

Man, I figured folks could see a joke w/o it being pointed out to them...oh, I forget, it's usenet; how silly of me.

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