What is it? Set 295

[Rob H.]

Great guess, they are gyroscopic controls for an airplane.

Rob

[Steve R.]

I believe the Romans used "Stimuli" around their forts to cripple attackers. Caltrops were used in the middle ages to cripple horses.

Steve R.

[Steve R.]

1683 The electrical bits are a dead giveaway. It's probably an early autopilot.

Steve R.

[Christian Stü]

1686 i have seen similar tools for cutting metal window blinds to fit perfectly into the window

greetings from germany Chris

[dpb]

...

... Yeah, I was joking entirely on the implication of pneumatic tires at the time...

I'm pretty sure "caltrop" isn't in Caesar at all; origination appears to be roughly 1000 AD according to OED (from similarity to plant w/ a thorny head/sticker somewhat like what we call a "goathead")...

--

[J. Clarke]

The word isn't, but the object apparently is, only in latin it's supposed to be "murex ferreus"--the entry in vicipedia for that term (not that vicipedia is necessarily correct) contains a photo of the very same object we are discussing or one very, very much like it. This usage is also supported by "A Dictionary of Roman and Greek Antiquities" by Anthony Rich, published in

1881.

Quintus Curtus, writing around the time of Caesar, uses the term: "Nondum ad iactum teli pervenerant, cum Bion quidam transfuga, quanto maximo cursu potuerat, ad regem pervenit nuntians, murices ferreos in terram defodisse Dareum, qua hostem equites emissurum esse credebat, notatumque certo signo locum, ut fraus evitari a suis posset" in discussion of the campaigns of Alexander, several hundred years before. Whether his description of the Alexandrian use is correct or not, clearly he was familiar with the term, and if he knew a military term, it is difficult to imagine Caesar not knowing it.

[Morris Dovey]

C'mon, John, we don't /all/ speak/read Latin. Translation, please...

[Richard Heathfield]

Allow me. I did Latin O-level.

"None to throwing telly came through, with Bion who fled across, as much as possible running he could, to the king came through announcing, Maurice's ferrets in the earth - um... thing... of Dareus, whose cavalry was sent out to be believed, and to note for sure the sign of the path, that the German girls ran out at his very own, he could."

(I scraped a C. And I must admit I was joking about Maurice's ferrets. In reality "ferreos" is probably "railway" or something like that.)

[Morris Dovey]

Methinks your C is much more reliable than your Latin. :)

ROFL (Si, I have no ferrets today...)

[J. Clarke]

I don't speak or read it either--but about halfway through you see "murices ferreos", which would be the plural.

[Nick Wedd]

A murex is a very spiny sea snail, also know for producing a purple dye, with which rich Romans dyed their togas, and orthodox Jews still dye their tassels. So a "murex ferreus" would be an "iron sea-snail".

Nick

[J. Clarke]

Be careful with your assumptions--the use of a word in modern biology does not necessarily reflect its use in classical Latin. In this particular case Aristotle did call certain sea snails "murex" but it was apparently also used to refer to a "sharp stone" or "projecting rock", and murex shells do often have various points sticking out, some of them quite long, so one can easily imagine them being referred to by the same name as sharp stones or that a caltrop be named after them.

[DoN. Nichols]

Consider the length of chain to allow the key to reach the clock on different height watchmen -- and perhaps in awkward places where it is difficult to get close to the box.

So the box contains the key, and a length of chain which is secured by the top screw of the three which secure the box to the wall. The chain runs down through the notch in the floor of the upper compartment, and is bundled in the bottom compartment with the key itself.

Enjoy, DoN.