What is it? Set 523

[Paul Drahn]

Wagons also had brakes on one or more wheel that were operated by a lever. The pieces all needed to be adjusted from time-to-time.

Paul

[DoN. Nichols]

Not just *any* razor blade, nor even a single-edged razor blade. It has its own custom blade (shown in it, but not close up), which is essentially like a section from a straight razor blade, with a socket in the center of the back edge to bayonet onto a spike sticking out of the cross-bar. The blade is a desigend in part of the system, not something from the drugstore. :-)

The upper view in the second photo includes the blade handle (stuffed in the stropping handle) which appears to be missing from the one shown in the puzzle.

Enjoy, DoN.

[DoN. Nichols]

Except that the theremin used capacitive coupling, not the inductive coupling which this uses.

Enjoy, DoN.

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh]

"DoN. Nichols" fired this volley in news: [e-mail]:

Don... as is the case with pretty much any iron-core transformer, shorting turns (in a low-impedance coil) has the same effect as shorting the whole coil.

The contacts weren't intended to 'short coils', just to select taps.

I have no idea what it was originally for, but it's obviously a variable inductor of some sort -- maybe for tuning LF, ELF, or ULF radio, or for an experimentation bench.

Lloyd

[Paul Drahn]

I think my wife could use #3054 to open the 5 gallon paint cans that I have to open by hand, now.

Paul

[Dr Nick]

The Fergusson Tractor was designed so that a single (double ended - different sizes at each end) spanner would fit every nut and bolt.

It was also calibrated to be used as a dipstick:

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[J Burns]

One could use an extra standoff to make a drip loop, but it would be easier if Radio Shack designed the exterior flange with an elbow.

I've replaced the exterior twin lead on people's houses because the polyethylene had deteriorated. Sunlight resistance seems to be relative. A treated tarp will last far longer than an untreated one, but the treated tarp will last a lot longer out of the sun.

My antennas used about 3 feet of twin lead, from the antenna to the amplifier. If I had reception trouble, I'd probably have to replace the twin lead. The rest was coax.

The instructions note that condensation even on the few inches of twin lead in the tube could affect reception. Entering at the basement would mean a lot more wet cable than entering under the eaves. If the TV was not in the basement, it would also mean a greater length of cable, which could cause noise and ghosts on UHF.

If the house was built in the 1960s with the carport adjacent to the basement, I imagine the carport was attached to the house. In that case, I wonder if it was even feasible to have an antenna cable enter under the carport roof.

[Rob H.]

Thanks! Sounds like this is probably correct, I'll pass it along to the guy who sent the photos. I found an ad that shows the tube, it's in the middle at the bottom right on this page:

[Paul Drahn]

The price on mine is $2.19!! Paul

[Gunther Mannigel]

The color of the winding reminds me of telephone wire, so i thought of a pupin coil first. Then i thought of an antenna matching circuit. I seems to be a part of a radio receiver:

cheers Gunther

[Rob H.]

Good answer Lloyd, radio tuner is correct.

[Rob H.]

Great job, that's a good link, I found one a little closer to mine on the same site.

No luck yet on the first one but the rest have been answered correctly this week:

Someone offered to make a video of the wire stripper in action, I'll post a link when I receive it.

Rob

[Rob H.]

Just updated the wire stripper answer with photos that show it in use, instead of a video.

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh]

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

HEH! Even a stopped clock is right twice a day!

LLoyd

[J Burns]

Beside my toilet sits a 39-ounce coffee can. If I sold my house and the new owner asked why the can was there, it would be wrong to tell him that when I brewed coffee, I scooped from the can by the toilet.

The can holds a plunger, which people who bought toilets in the 1990s often need.

If the house in question had existed in the 1950s, when people had little experience with antennas and just wanted VHF in black and white, a homeowner might well have run his antenna cable in at the basement and drilled a hole big enough for a tube because he saw it at Radio Shack.

By the 1960s, people who put up antennas wanted UHF and color. With 800 cable companies in operation, a Columbia resident might not even have installed an antenna. If he did, it's hard to believe he would have made the mistake of running his twin lead to his TV by way of the basement.

The present owner asked not what the tube was but what the hole was for. The slits in the grommets look wider than TV cable. Deformation of the rubber could prove it was used for twin lead. If there's no deformation and the carport is attached to the house, it seems unlikely. If there's a 220V outlet in the basement, the homeowner may have had a compressor to power tools in the carport.

[Lloyd E. Sponenburgh]

J Burns fired this volley in news:l8g313$vqu$ [e-mail]:

You obviously know little of Columbia, SC. IF he lived dead in the city limits, he might have had cable. If he lived more than eight miles outside the city limits, he would have still have been on crossbar telephone service, and likely not even KNOW that there was such a thing as "cable TV". It wasn't until after 2001 that ordinary DSL got up to Blythewood, and that's only ten miles north of the city. Winnsboro (another ten north) was four years later. NOBODY in Winnsboro had cable as recently as 2002; satellite, yes, but not cable.

Besides, in that area of the country, the 'qualified technicians' would have routed twin-lead anywhere they could run it, including in steel pipe, underground. It's as 'backwoods' as you can get. A significant sign of intelligence for someone there is that you don't let the drool run all the way off your chin before you wipe it off with your sleeve.

Lloyd

[Rob H.]

I forwarded the compressor theory on to the house owner, haven't heard back from him yet concerning his thoughts about it being used for either an antenna cable or compressor hose. I guess the only way to really know how it was used would be for him contact the former owner.

Rob

[Jim Wilkins]

Ah kin feature thet.

[J Burns]

What about WNOK-TV? Art Linkletter's House Party, the Arthur Godfrey Show, the Red Skelton Show, I Love Lucy, live broadcasts of services at First Baptist Church, live broadcasts of the Columbia Reds. They broadcast from the Jefferson Hotel on 67, then changed to 19. No homeowner within range would have run his twin lead through the basement!

[Michael A. Terrell]

Did you ever stop to think it went into the basement, to come up through the floor behind the TV in their living room? For a few dollars more, it came up into the wall, and to a wall plate. Not all TVs were along outside walls. The loss in 300 Ohm cable wasn't that bad. 75 Ohm coax was a lot higher.