What is it? CCII

[DoN. Nichols]

According to R.H. :

yet. :-)

Posting from rcm as always.

1115) A "Bug" -- made by VibroPlex. A device for speeding (and making more regular) Morse code.

This one seems to be in need of some refurbishment, especially in the contacts for sending dashes -- which look somewhat corroded.

Anyway -- a press on the round keytop (right) with the index finger sends a dash by closing the contacts at the right-hand end of the image as shown.

A press on the trapezoidal keycap, however, causes the long arm to vibrate on the spring which attaches it to the shorter part of the key, causing the contacts near the middle to open and close in a well timed sequence to send a series of dots. Adjustment of the sliding weights tunes the rate of the dot generation, which should be matched to the dash width in a specific ratio.

When the trapezoidal key is released, the long arm contacts a moving weight in the bracket at the left to damp its motion.

These days, there are digital bugs to send the dashes and dots, and they are just two contacts to select dots or dashes, and the real money is in generating keyswitches for these with an optimum "feel".

1116) A mechanical counter. The digits are visible through the holes at the bottom of the cup-shaped depressions. The wheel to the left (as shown here) is the least significant digit, and a (difficult to see) projection rotates the next wheel by one digit. This wheel (the middle one) has the projection just engaging the next wheel, and the final wheel has a projection (which engages nothing) at about 4:30.

The mechanism which advances the first wheel presumably passed through the bronze (or is it brass) structure on the left, but most of it seems to be missing.

Now -- as to *what* it counted, I have no real idea, but I will guess that it might have counted ballots in a polling place.

Hmm ... or could it have been part of the back side of a voting machine (pre computer style) which counted the number of votes for a given candidate? It looks rather poorly made for the purpose, but it might have been for one of the very early ones used in a place where there were not too many voters -- though it would be easy enough to add another wheel to handle up to 9999 votes. Beyond that, the friction might be a problem on rollover from 09999 to 10000.

1117) This motion suggests that it is intended to serve to rotate back and forth an automotive valve, when lapping it to its seat.

The screwdriver blade type tip would fit into a slot in the valve, but I'm not sure why the square socket with the clamp screw. That looks about the right size for holding a lathe cutting tool -- but I'm not sure what it would do so for.

1118) This is a special plane designed to turn a cylindrical surface, either for making a dowel, or a round trunnion on the end of some wood to fit together to make furniture.

It looks to me as though the blade both is projecting too far into the cylindrical area, and (perhaps) is upside down. I think that the bevel should be the other way around.

1119) If the projections were round, I would suggest a tool for removing or inserting a C-ring.

It could still be used for that purpose if pins were to project out the holes on the side of the jaws.

But with the square projections, it is for some other kind of catch for removing or inserting something special.

1120) This looks like another version of a valve lapping machine similar in function to the one near the top;

This one would engage two blind holes drilled into the face of the valve to rotate it.

1121) For carrying messages along taught wires.

It looks as though a cylinder bayonets into the bottom of the carrier.

This is some sort of predecessor of the tubes carrying money and paperwork to and from bank drive-in windows, except that this does not depend on airflow (think big central vacuum cleaners for the latter style.

*Now* -- I can go see what has been guessed (and perhaps even read the official answers already. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

[R.H.]

One more item for this week.

Yesterday I took some photos of a mechanical pencil that has an unusual piece on the eraser end. We used to have one of these in my family years ago, I'm not sure if they're common or not, a photo of it can be seen here:

close-up:

idea is to describe the purpose of this part.

Rob

[Artemus]

It's used for dialing a rotary phone. Art

[Markem]

An old fashion key stroke logger

Looks as though it is a bell upon mechanical pencil.

Mark

[Bill Rider]

The handle on 1120 would allow the user to keep the tip engaged and keep the top end of the tool from turning. The lever would turn the tip through 360 degrees or so.

1117 seems to be for some other function. It limits movement to an arc of 90 degrees or so. You couldn't use the tool effectively without keeping the end opposite the tip from rotating. I think something was supposed to fit over the end that looks like fletching on an arrow, to keep it from turning.

If it's important that the clamp end not rotate too far, that could explain the screwdriver tip. The machine where the tool was used would have a hole with two wedges, like a pie pan with two big slices left. The hole would keep the tip from sliding around, and the wedges would limit how far it could turn.

If you simply wanted to turn the tip back and forth through a limited arc, why the crank? Turning a crank would help a user operate it at a certain speed, like a fisherman reeling in a lure.

So I think it was to turn something back and forth through a fixed arc at a suitable speed. Windshield wipers come to mind, but I don't think the tool was for somebody sitting on the hood of a car driving through the rain.

There's no washer under the cotter pin. I wonder if it was designed that way.

[R.H.]

Correct, it's a phone dialing tool, patent number 2,247,027: