This is a booby-trap, or trip-wire firearm, and is attached to a solid object, such as a door frame or tree trunk. A wire or string is solidly affixed on one end, and the other is tied to the ring. When someone walks into the wire, the weapon discharges.
The wire could also be attached to a door, and when the door is opened, the firearm shoots whoever is entering the room.
We got some good possible answers for the first device, but still not sure about the last one. Here are the answers for the rest:
"Rob H." fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@news1.newsguy.com:
Rob, on that last item...
I used to keep goats. That is almost identical to a "dis-budding" iron we used to de-horn young kids. In fact, had I not been dawdling, I'd have suggested that earlier. It's so close to what we used, it could be the same tool.
LLoyd
why 6 terminals would be useful.
William Ansyl Phillips was known for making electrical resistance material and railroad equipment. His partner, Frank Meeker Rumbold, was editor of the Saint Louis Medical Journal. His practice specialized in problems with the ears, nose, and throat.
Aha! It takes 6 terminals to attenuate headphones with a pair of rheostats; otherwise, the frequency response would be uneven. This box looks right for a doctor to stand behind a patient, feeding him tones of diminishing volume as the patient signaled which side.
AFAIK, dentists didn't check hearing, but Phillips may also have produced drilling equipment.
In looking again at the images for #2569 I noticed that there are tags on/for each set of terminals (three tie tags). Is there anything of interest written on them?
I sent the owner an email asking about the tags but haven't heard back yet.
From what I've seen on researching disbudding irons, they are used in a similar manner as cautery irons and could probably be used interchangeably. The one on my site is from a doctors medical kit so I would lean towards it being a cautery iron though I didn't see one like it on the web nor did I see a disbudding iron like it but I did see some of each tool that were close. Thanks for the info on the dehorning tool.
Sounds reasonable, I'll ask the owner if there were any headphones with it when he got it, in case it came in a box of stuff that he didn't realize might have been related.
Just heard back from the owner, here is his reply: "The tag in the back says: AC 110 volts. The tag to the left says lamp. The tag in the front right is illegible."
False premise! The tag said "medical and dental".
Lloyd
In 1858, "Scientific American" and the New York Tribune carried articles about using electricity for dental anesthesia. In the 1859 Edinburgh Medical Journal, J. Smith, MD, wrote about it. The patient would hold one conductor and the other would be attached to the forceps. Smith concluded that it didn't block pain but could have a placebo effect.
Forty years later, most dental offices had AC. In the mouth, perhaps
1ma at 10vac could provide a tingle. Perhaps the dentist used a drug for extractions and added the light bulb and tingle for placebo effect.
Or possibly the tingle was to hide the needle stick? Or maybe a speed controller for a drill prior to the air powered high speed ones? Different speeds depending on the bit being used ?
It looks unsafe to hook up 110VAC to exposed terminals, but at least they and the lamp terminals have plastic caps. The front terminals, which the operator could easily touch when reaching for the knob, have no plastic. That led me to believe the voltage was too low to feel with the hand and the resistance too high for a metal tool to draw much of an arc.
That led me to think it wasn't a motor control. I agree that it might have been for needle pain.
You got me to look up dental drills. Electricity made it possible to reach 3,000 rpm in 1914. Nowadays, it's often 400,000 for drilling and
40,000 for other tasks. I believe the electric ones have run on belts, but now there are dremel motors that let a dentist change speeds in the middle of a job.HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.