Set 443

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2569. Sent in by a visitor who is looking to identify this device, text on it reads "Made by Wm. A. Phillips Medical and Dental Electrical Specialties St. Louis":

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2570. 10" long:

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2571. 18" long, take a look at Neatorama for more guesses and a chance to win a T-shirt:
























2572. 6" long:

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2573. 9" long:

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2574. 10-1/2" long, another unidentified tool, it was found in someone's great grandfather's medical kit, who practiced medicine up until 1910:

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Answers:



2569. Possible answers for this device:
-a rheostat as mentioned in patent number 933,723, which is entitled "Composition of matter and method of making the same" by inventor William A. Phillips of St. Louis
-a cautery transformer similar to the one on this page
-for adjusting signals to a pair of headphones, to test hearing sensitivity
-a quack medical device

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2570. This is a broom pounder or broom hammer, it was used to compress the broom corn and tighten the wire as the corn was fastened to the handle.

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2571. This is a wrench for turning the nut on the inner end of a tooth in the cylinder of a threshing machine, seen in use in patent number 793,729 below:



Not sure exactly which patent is for this tool, it could be number 711,422:



Or possibly 754,069:




























2572. A .30 caliber Tribuzio palm pistol:

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Below is another type of palm pistol that I posted a few years ago:






























2573. These are lobster shears and are almost identical to poultry shears or general purpose kitchen shears:

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2574. No luck finding a definitive answer yet for this tool, the most common guess for it is that's it a cautery iron although others disagree with this answer:

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Are you interested in Old Tools and Tool Collecting? Want to learn more about tools, and meet some great people who have the same interests? Please take a minute to check out the Mid-West Tool Collectors Web Site at this link: www.mwtca.org.































To submit photos, send them to the address in my profile, please include dimensions, any text on the item, and where it was found.




















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.