Set 478

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2779.

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2780. 14" long:

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2781. 1-1/4" tall:





























2782. Approximately 24" long, take a look at Neatorama for more guesses and a chance to win one of their funny T-shirts:

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2783. Sent in by a visitor of this site:



































2784. Someone is looking to find the purpose of this tool:

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Answers:



2779. A cattle guard, or cattle grid, it is an "obstacle used to prevent livestock from passing along a road or railway which penetrates the fencing surrounding an enclosed piece of land. The gaps between them are wide enough for animals' legs to fall through, but sufficiently narrow not to impede a wheeled vehicle or human foot. This provides an effective barrier to animals without impeding wheeled vehicles, as the animals are reluctant to walk on the grates."

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2780. A Norlund spear or gig, "...for birds, fish, or animals", patent number 689,743:

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2781. Someone had sent this in looking to find out what it is, it's a superegg, a geometrical solid of revolution obtained by rotating an elongated super-ellipse with exponent greater than 2 around its longest axis.





























2782. A saw toothed fireplace trammel for hanging pots over a fireplace from various heights, the hook on the left would have held the pot handle, looks like it's missing its ring on the other end from which it would have been hung above a fire. The exact working of the mechanism for adjusting the length is not clear in the photo but it almost certainly works in the same manner as the trammel in the second photo on this page. A similar trammel with the mechanism in the unlocked position has been posted here.

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2783. Most people call this a chain connector, for use in repairing a broken chain, but this site says it's a figure eight sister hook for cable pulling.



































2784. Not 100% sure yet about this device, several people have said it looks like a reloading tool, the most similar ones that I have seen can be found here:

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