What is it? Set 236

[R.H.]

As I mention on the site, the answer page will probably be posted on Saturday or Sunday.

[kfvorwerk]

1326. Metric clock. Karl

[Brian Lawson]

1326.. is a taffrail log, used to measure speed and/or distance traveled on a boat/ship.

[Richard]

[Tim Shoppa]

actually know how the pointer-type electromechanical ones work!

Tim.

[Jesse]

#1329 Sales Tax Token

[whit3rd]

1326: a ship's log (counts off length of line to a float tossed into the water)

1328: a sounding apparatus? For maritime depth measurement, in conjunction with a weight and line. The cover looks noncorroding in ocean spray...

1329: some kind of tax token, only the historical archives of the state of Illinois can tell us how it was used.

1330: an AC voltmeter, probably to monitor generator output. Note the scale is very nonlinear near zero volts, it might use a copper oxide rectifier. 1940s or earlier. This has a mirrored scale, one lines up the needle with its reflection for accurate reading (to eliminate parallax).

[Barbara Bailey]

#1329 is a tax token.

[Mark & Juanita]

1326: Well log

1329: Sales tax token from the days when sales taxes were less than 1%, so you needed something worth less than 1 cent. (Funny how the government never seems to do with less, isn't it).

1330: Old voltmeter

[Stealth Pilot]

dont think so. this one should have a little spiral propeller at the end of a stout line that is dropped in the water. it spins and drives the instrument much like a car tacho I think.

[Ed Huntress]

Yeah, that's a screw log. I think they also called them "taffrail logs," but the original type of taffrail log (which I used to make out of Honduras mahogany in small quantities and sell to the wooden-boat crowd, back in the '70s) was just a flat board attached to a knotted line. The board had a peg in it that would pull out when you jerked the line, which allowed the board to plane its way back to the boat when you pulled the line.

Those original logs date back centuries. The screw logs came in sometime in the 19th century, I think.

-- Ed Huntress

[Stealth Pilot]

the mechanism of operation is quite different. your mahogany log should have been pie slice shaped with a weighted edge. it would sit vertical in the water so that it's resistance kept it pretty well motionless and would pull a knotted line overboard. an elegantly simple piece of technology.

Stealth Pilot