Thursday, November 20, 2008

1465. I haven't been able to verify any of the speculation for this device, the most popular guess is that it was used when firing artillery in the Civil War, other suggestions:
-used in hot air spy balloons
-a surveyor's instrument
-used on a ship, similar to a binnacle



It was discovered over 60 years ago along with two pistols in the basement of an old Civil War era home that was being demolished near Chattanooga, Tennessee.






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The base measures 5" x 5" and it has a well made cover with dimensions of 4.25" x 4.25" x 6.375":



The next photos show one of the two pivoting tabs, and one of the slots used to lock the cover to the base:












The pistols were wrapped in newspapers, lying on each side of the device. Text on the pistol below reads "A. Waters, Milbury, MS, 1839", these guns were used by both the North and South during the Civil War.

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The only markings on it are the directional letters N,S,E, & W:

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1466. A wire puller, the round part is used for leverage when drawing an electrical wire tight, patent number 1,068,059.

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1467. A tray for holding slides, for use with Wollensak and Revere projectors:









A case for the trays, it holds a total of 540 slides:


















1468. An ice card, it was placed in the window of a home or business and could be seen from the street by the iceman, to let him know how many pounds of ice were desired by the customer.















1469. Still not sure exactly what this set was for, that closest that I've seen to it on the web is this Korean travel cutlery set, others guess that it could be a cooking set or pharmacology toolkit, for making medicines from herbs.

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1470. A house jack, primarily used for leveling houses and barns, these were also used for lifting vehicles and machinery.






















To submit photos, send them to the address in my profile.














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







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