Thursday, March 31, 2011

Set 382

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2203. 6-1/2" long:
































2204. Approximately 48" long:





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2205. 8" long:

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2206. Around 24" tall, take a look at Neatorama for more guesses and a chance to win a T-shirt:





























2207. About 54" tall:


























2208. 19" long:

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Answers:



2203. A Stellarscope, a star locator that uses microfiche star maps:































2204. An axle gage, with a scale for indicating the deflection of the spindle, patent number 243,670:





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2205. A seeding device for grapefruit, patent number 1,454,311:

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2206. A truth window, an opening in a wall surface that was created to reveal the layers or components within the wall. In the example seen below it shows that the walls are actually made from straw bales. More examples of truth windows can be seen here. Straw is the hollow stems of wheat or other grains, it is typically used for bedding or mulch and is less nutritious than hay which is comprised of nutritional grasses like alfalfa and clover that are then cut, dried, and used as feed for farm animals.



























2207. A fanning mill that was used to clean seeds, it was hand cranked to get the fan up to a decent speed, then the seeds were dumped in the top, fed down across screen shaker tables, allowing the breeze to blow the chaff out, with the cleaned seeds falling out the bottom.



























2208. A pre-Civil War branding iron holder for use by cowboys, made by the Columbus Iron Works Co., Columbus, Georgia:

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Update:
Someone sent me the answer for the item below that was posted here a few months ago.



2127. A plumber's container for holding grease, rosin, and flour, all were necessary for the soldering process of assembling the joints of lead pipe. A similar grease and rosin box can be seen on this page.

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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.

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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.

10 comments:

  1. 2203 - don't remember the technical name, but you dial in the date and time then look thru it and it will show the positions of the stars/planets. (I have one, think it came with a Nat Geo subscription)

    2204 - used for adjusting wheel alignment

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  2. 2204. is for setting the "gather" (or toe in in modern terms) for a buggy axle.

    2206. Is a straw house "show off window" so you can see the construction of the house.

    2207 is a seed separator/cleaner for small amounts of seed or grain.

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  3. 2203 A planisphere. A misleading name really because perpetual planispheres like this never show you the positions of the planets, only the stars/constellations.

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  4. 2205. looks like it could be used for picking up something that has a hole in it.

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  5. 2206 is called a "truth window", used in houses with straw-bale construction, to show what the house is really insulated with. Weird concept, but neat! :)

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  6. 2207 is a seed cleaner- I used one of these at the nursery where I worked.

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  7. (Just a niggle re Blondin's comment: the word planisphere has nothing to do with the planets (planet < Greek planetes "wanderer"), but means "flat(tened) sphere" (< Latin planus "flat")in reference of course to mapping the celestial sphere onto a flat surface.)

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  8. ghgoebel, thanks for that! I love learning stuff.

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  9. i enjoy your writing ,its so readable ,pleasurable and easy to read .. thx .

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