Set 390

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2251. Around 5" long:

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2252. Approximately 8" long, the entire barrel is hollow and open on both ends:

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2253. 14-1/2" long, take a look at Neatorama for more guesses on this one and a chance to win a T-shirt:

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2254. Sent in by a visitor who is looking to find the exact purpose of this device:

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2255. 36" diameter:





























2256. 3" long:

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Answers:



2251. A bolt from a Sten submachine gun, also called a breech block, the small part in the center on the end is the firing pin:

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2252. A Cressi Torpedine Sport spear gun, for underwater hunting, text on it reads 'Il Pescatore Subacqueo, Cressi, made in Italy, Genoa'.

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2253. A trowel bayonet, for use by soldiers to dig trenches.

In many of Frederick Remington's paintings you see soldiers lying behind their horses for cover. This was not conducive to winning, for if your horse was wounded or worse dead it was a long walk back to the fort. What was needed was an entrenching tool. In an effort to cut down the weight load of the soldiers it was planned to incorporate this entrenching tool into an already issued piece of equipment. Thus was born the intrenching bayonet. The name trowel was taken from the bricklayers tool that the intrenching weapon resembled.

The trowel was meant to be used as a hand tool for digging. Some liked the extra leverage gained by mounting the bayonet to the end of the rifle. Needless to say plugged bores and bent barrels were the order of the day.

Similar to patent number RE6083.

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2254. A perfume pump atomizer:

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2255. A wheel from a Qing Dynasty cannon that was made in 1695, the cannon just sold at auction for $149,500, much more information on this historic weapon can be seen at the link.



Other examples of this type of wheel can be seen here and here.




Shoeing of the wheel was done with metal plates called strakes, which were kept in place with strake nails.

























2256. A Minton fishing rod holder, patent number 2,890,847:

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I own a lot of different tool books but the one that I use first as a reference is the Dictionary of American Hand Tools: A Pictorial Synopsis (Schiffer Book for Collectors)
It has over 4,500 images and is a great book for learning about about a wide variety of tools. This book gets my highest recommendation.

I've decided to become an Amazon affiliate to help pay for the costs of finding and purchasing items to post here. Please consider purchasing books through my links if you are interested in them, there is no additional cost for the buyer and a small percentage will be paid to my account.














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Last week's set is seen below, click here to view the entire post.








More discussion and comments on these photos can be found at the newsgroup rec.puzzles.