Re: What is it? CXXII

[Andy Asberry]

Hi,

> >710 is upside down in the top two photos, but correctly oriented in the >bottom photo. This thing sits at the free end of a sickle bar mower for >hay, or a reaper cutter, or a combine cutter head. It helps the bar >float with changes in the ground's surface and separates what will be >cut with what will not be cut. The front point pivots to aid in the >floating. > > >Thanks, > Roger Haar (a different RH) > Tucson, AZ > >

This is correct. It is called a shoe. Sometimes there is one on both ends of the cutter bar. The one near the pittman arm is the inside shoe and the other is the outside or land shoe.

To early farmers, any dividing of a field was "laying off a land." Laying off a smaller tract was done for a couple of reasons. At the rate of a few acres per day, it might me all a farmer could till before the planting or growing season passed. And, secondly, some progress could be seen in plowing a smaller tract; the psychological benefit of seeing an end to a task.

--Andy Asberry recommends NewsGuy--

[GLM]

Andy Asberry wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Very interesting! Thanks very much. When my wife read this it sparked some childhood memories of her father talking about the shoe on the combine.

Gary (who sent in the photo)

[Mark Brader]

I suggest it's 6000 grams, in which case the object is a smallish scale like these:

made with the general layout of this big one

allow for a larger dial, which in this case rotates through perhaps

1/4 circle, not a full circle, and has its needle out in the open.

[R.H.]

I'll go ahead and partly answer #711: you are correct, it's the top of the frame of a world globe. I saw three other globes this week and all of them had degrees on both sides of the frame; only the globe in the photo had degrees on one side and different markings on the other. I'll give the answer to why it has the number 6000 on it in a couple days if no one gets it.

Rob

[rob]

Miles from equator?

[kfvorwerk]

[John Husvar]

Nice link!

Really makes the Minute Of Angle concept much clearer. Thanks.

[Gerard Schildberger]

|> R.H. wrote: |> 711 looks a lot like the top of that metal semicircle that holds an |> ordinary world globe, but 6000 what? It should be 90 degrees, so |> that's probably not it.

| I'll go ahead and partly answer #711: you are correct, it's the | top of the frame of a world globe. I saw three other globes this week and | all of them had degrees on both sides of the frame; only the globe in the | photo had degrees on one side and different markings on the other. I'll | give the answer to why it has the number 6000 on it in a couple days if no | one gets it.

Could it be the measurement in mils? There're 6400 mils in a circle. What are the other gradients shown? ____________________________Gerard S.

[R.H.]

Part of this answer is close.

Rob

[Carl G.]

Backseat driver's tool ;-)

Carl G.

[DoN. Nichols]

According to R.H. :

Well ... a quarter of the circumference of the world is about

6250 miles, and the scale stops short of the pole, so I would guess that that is the distance from the equator -- or if the globe is one of those designed to be free of an axis, it allows you to measure the great-circle distance between two points which are less than a quarter of the circumference apart -- or by adding the value to the South of the equator, you could cover a distance of nearly 12000 miles great circle distance.

Enjoy, DoN.

[Eric Porter]

Using this and the hint that it's used outdoors at a farm or ranch, could this tool be used for installing a barbed wire fence? I'm not sure what the ends would be used for, but the notches on the inside could be used to hold the wire in place with the curve in the tool wrapping around the fencepost. While the tool holds the wire in place, you can secure the wire to the post.

-Eric

R.H. wrote:

[Scott Lurndal]

Doesn't look like any fencing pliers or come-along that I used to install barbed wire fencing, but then that was more than 30 years ago, too.

scott

[R.H.]

When I bought this tool I didn't know what it was for, then last week I saw another one just like it marked "barbed wire stretching tool". I haven't been able to verify this, but as you mention it seems that the slots in the side would work well at holding the barbs for stretching the wire.

Rob

[R.H.]

I have no idea how old this tool is, there isn't a single letter or number on it that I can see. I'm planning to use the links below on the answer page, the first is a collage of about a hundred different types of barbed wire:

next link gives a few details on some specific types:

'm thinking that with so many different kinds of barbed wire there must also be quite a few different and unusual tools for working with them, so I'll probably go with the barbed wire answer for now until I find evidence that it's something else. I've sent a couple emails to some barbed wire museums, maybe one of them will recognize it.

Rob

[Scott Lurndal]

The fencing pliers we used were like 2T-1900 at

We'd use a block-n-tackle come-along to tension the wire.

scott

[sawney beane]

It looks like something I'd want in my tool box in certain situations. The fingers along the sides would be good for picking up the loop at the end of a tension spring to stretch it for installing or removal.

The forked ends would fit around two general rod diameters to pry and compress a coil spring around the rod so that the key holding the spring could be removed or installed.

[kfvorwerk]

[R.H.]

I looked again at what was marked on the other similar tool and it read "barbed wire wrapping tool", I'm guessing that it means wrapping it in coils or on spools.

The answer for number 712: carriage driver's tool, the part on the upper left is a hoof pick and the hex is probably for adjusting a carbide lamp, not sure about the other two parts.

Rob

[Lew Hodgett]

God do you bring back memories.

The rope was 3 strand manila and rough as a cob.

Lew