What is it? Set 300

[Rob H.]

This week I need some assistance with the second last item, number 1715:

[LD]

1711 - cow pie catapult 1712 - porthole frame 1713 - combination razor blade sharpener and butter keeper 1714 - post hole auger? 1715 - cone head baby helmet 1716 - portable forge?

[Alexander Thesoso]

1711 Guess: Underflow Water Wheel. A chute, in which water (irrigation?) happens to be flowing sits in the U under the paddles. Provides a little auxiliary power, perhaps to pump a little of the water up a hill.

1712 Interesting... The hinged closure and mounting bolts are comfortably robust for a pressure vessel closure, but the screws that would hold in a disc are less robust. LD could be right, that this is a porthole, but the closure seem inconvenient. I'd expect a porthole to have one or two dogs to close it. I'd vote for a pressure vessel closure that is more rarely opened than a porthole.

1714 Another Hay-bale lifter?

1715 Clips on to a fluid (brake? hydraulic?) line to catch the fluid and direct it into something to catch it when draining???

1716 Forge

[Grumpy]

1711 - Dynamometer This is a test load to absorb power from a steam or diesel tractor flat belt drive 1712 - porthole

1714 - handle for bailed hay

1716 - portable forge?

[Jesse]

1711: Baker Fan to figure out horsepower of a tractor. The faster the tractor can turn the fan the more horsepower it has. You can convert the RPM's to horsepower. 1713: Starting base for corn shocks to be stacked against to dry? 1716: Portable forge for rivets?

[Jerry Wass]

1716 small blacksmith forge---portable--probably for farrier.

[spaco]

1716 Yes, a blacksmith's forge and blower. It did not originally have those wheels, I'd wager, because they'd be in the way for your feet. Normally you'd stand right where they are. This is a a good sized forge, not a "small" one. From all the pipe used in the conversion (wheel supports, tool hanger), I'd say the guy liked plumbing.

Pete Stanaitis

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Rob H. wrote:

[Steve W.]

1711 - Baker fan. mainly used now to demonstrate older engines. The original use was to place a constant load on an engine to break it in and test it for operation. 1712 - Looks like a porthole or small access hatch from a ship or sub.

1713 - Similar to a drying stack used with hay/straw. Placed to allow air to circulate through the material to dry it.

1714 - Hay vent? Used to pull some hay out and let air in.

1715 - Snap on oil funnel. Used with the new plastic bottles so you don't have to fight with pouring the oil.

1716 - Coal forge. Looks like one of the kit styles that resembles a wheelbarrow.

[Andrew Erickson]

have pretty quickly spinning paddles. I'd have to assume it's a fan or blower, perhaps intended to blow chaff away while threshing. It also looks insanely dangerous, even by farm equipment standards.

1712 -- This looks to me like a frame for a porthole on a boat. In actual use there would, of course, be a hefty glass disk mounted in the swinging portion. I suppose it could have been also used to provide an inspection/access window to something else like a firebox or boiler. 1713 -- A wooden pyramid made of slats; possibly used to stand up/dry grain of some sort? or provide a degree of ventilation into the middle of a bin of grain? 1714 -- I know I've seen pictures of this somewhere, but can't think offhand of what it was. Obviously, it works somewhat like a corkscrew or auger bit. Maybe it's a soil cultivator? 1715 -- It's one of those useless plastic thingies they give away at car shows. 1716 -- Portable forge for (fairly small-scale) blacksmithing work. The hand cranked thing is a blower. The pipe handles, to cart it around, look as though they could get mighty hot while this is being used, so I assume it's not typically repositioned much once the work is begun. Maybe used by a farrier...although I would have thought that most modern ones would instead use e.g. an oxyacetylene torch instead.

[Leon Fisk]

[Rob H.]

This is correct, it was placed over a hole in the floor of a corn crib and allowed air to circulate and kept corn from falling into the hole.

Rob

[Rob H.]

Good answer, someone left this link in the comments on the web site:

[Steve W.]

I have a couple (freebies from car shows as well) in the tool box. They work BUT because the hole size doesn't let oil flow fast they tend to overflow! They do work good for anti-freeze and thin fluids though.

[DoN. Nichols]

1711) Well ... it is obviously for farm use, given all the tractors in the background. However, I'm going to have to guess at its actual use.

It could be to aid in separating wheat from chaff, but I don't think so.

Or -- it could be a device to prevent overspeeding -- which goes between the power source (a steam tractor seems most likely) and the load (which seems likely to be a large circular saw of the sawmill type. Those blades are very sensitive to speed, and have to be tuned for the speed at which they will be used, so this takes power in on one pulley with a flat belt (likely the one on the right which shows more wear) and taken off the device on the near side pulley to drive the saw blade.

1712) A fairly large maritime porthole -- missing the thick glass which should be in the hinged frame.

I am surprised to see the anchoring bolts and nuts still present, even though it is not bolted to a ship's frame. The four big loop handled nuts are to be loosened to allow the porthole to be opened. Loosen all four, hinge them out of the way (the two on the top might be awkward and need an extra set of hands) and then the frame bearing the glass window can be hinged away from the mounting ring.

The material is probably bronze to resist rusting/corrosion. A magnet would easily show whether or not it is steel.

1713) An early version of the traffic cone?

Perhaps to protect a plant from attack by something like a deer which finds it delicious?

1714) This looks like a tool for cleaning the bore of a muzzle-loading cannon -- except that the shaft is not long enough.

Perhaps it is for gripping a bale of hay or cotton?

1715) Hmm ... no clue as to the age, other than the fact that is is some form of plastic. If it were from the 1940s or 1950s, I would consider that it was intended to go over a lamp bulb inside the car, to focus most of the light on a map or a book in the passenger's hands. 1716) A forge for a blacksmith or a farrier. Put some lit coal in the bottom of the well, add more coal on top of it, turn the crank to blow air through the bottom of the well, hold the workpiece in the top where it gets all the heat, then carry it to the anvil visible in the background of the first two photos, and apply hammer strokes to accomplish the shaping or welding as needed. Given the fact that it is on wheels, I suspect that a farrier is more likely to be the user -- but it could be used by a blacksmith just as well.

Now to see what others have suggested.

Enjoy, DoN.

[Steve R.]

172 is a porthole, missing the portlight (glass), and deadlight (cover).

Steve R.