Here is the full description of them from the email I received:
"...would like to identify is a 5 lb plastic bag full of brass strips. The brass strips are 3" by 1/2" and approximately 1/32 thick."
Hopefully we'll get an answer for them in the coming weeks.
They sound like reeds for some musical instrument.
I use playing cards as feeler gauges and shims. Each is about .01". I see how many I can insert, and that's close enough for me.
I've seen brass feeler gauges sold in packs of 10 or 12 of the same thickness. Perhaps they're used as I use playing cards. If stacking is precise enough for you, it could be quicker than looking for the gauge of the thickness you want. If you lose or damage one, who cares? With stacks of identical gauges, you can measure more than one gap simultaneously; that might help in assembling some things.
You'd want holes to keep your gauges on a ring. Round holes could bind if you had a stack of gauges 2cm high on a ring 3cm in diameter. Hence the ovals.
Another possibility is rust proof label tags for just about anything. Plants & keys are two. Art
Maybe not, if it was over-runs from a one-off project which someone does not want to say anything about (until he gets the patents). There are so *many* things that the specified shape could be used for, so unless there are part numbers on labels on the bags -- which might take some work to interpret. For example, a lot of things for the government are marked with a part number and the Federal Supplier code. The only one of those I know was from Melpar (where I worked almost fifty years ago), which was "04071" IIRC. So, if you find just two numbers, one will the the supplier code, and the other a part number, and if whatever it was was classified, good luck in *ever* finding out, as by the time it is declassified, likely all the documentation has been destroyed because it is a *real* pain keeping classified documents. The amount of re-checking every so often, and the IG checking whether there are documents which are really not needed and so on. And the containers have to be checked at the end of each day, and annotated if they were not opened, or annotated when they are opened and when they are closed *every* time they are opened and closed, and then finally checked to be sure that they are properly locked at the end of the day anyway.
From the shape and the slot, it *could* be an access cover to some controls inside something. You loosen the screw and slide it to uncover some adjustment pots or switches -- or to lubricate something, or whatever.
And are they *truly* brass, or could they be Iridited (or Alodyned) aluminum or steel (gives the product a yellow tinge, and good protection against corrosion -- quite common on military parts.)
Good Luck, DoN.
So much history is lost. we don't know what so many items are. Our ancestors are probably irritated with us, having forgotten so much.
The answers for this set have been posted though three of them have yet to be identified.
Have a great weekend!
Rob
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