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Full Version: Whatchamacallit? What is this?
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I love estate sales. I find some pretty cool things and I meet all kinds of interesting people. There’s this one man that I’ve ran into several times. He’s a character. He would dominate in Trivia. He loves to talk, and he knows a lot about history, but there was this unusual looking brass cart, and nobody could figure out what it was for. It was driving me nuts. He said that he meets once a week with a group of older men and that he always starts it off with a trivia question. They love it, he said. He promised that he would ask them if they knew what it was. He said that he wouldn’t forget, and the next time that he saw me, he’d tell me. I was able to figure it out within a few minutes, though. It was an antique Chinese noodle cart.

[Image: 47210390781_0966388ecd_m.jpg]

The other day, though, I found an odd thing, and nobody seems to know what it is. The only markings on it is a patent date of November 13, 1928.

Does anyone know?

[Image: 47210396891_1573c68c01_n.jpg]
Looks like a cross between ''Newton's cradle'' and something else. ha!
Part of an abacus?
My first thought was some sort of carding tool or curry comb, but that's not it.
(Feb 25, 2019 10:26 PM)Magical Realist Wrote: [ -> ]Part of an abacus?

That’s what I thought at first, too, but the wooden beads don’t move, and I can’t find one that even resembles it.

I thought maybe some sort of knitting device because the brass hooks move but I can’t find anything like it.

I'm completely stumped. Undecided
(Feb 25, 2019 07:51 PM)Secular Sanity Wrote: [ -> ]The only markings on it is a patent date of November 13, 1928.


Is the cone-shaped end removable or un-screwable? If so, then it might be a pre-plastic era's way of bundling together those "hooks" as a set, with the wood beads keeping them separated enough to avoid becoming a tangled jumble which could be less attractive for retail sale. (Primitive plastic and its earliest precursors had been invented well before 1928, but the artificial substance didn't become ubiquitously available in marketed products until arguably 1950.)

OTOH, if the patent date is on the wood rather than the "hooks", then that probably implies it's a single contraption rather than just a way of bundling the curved strips (whatever the heck the latter's purpose would be).

EDIT: Just realized I'm purely taking it for granted that's wood from nothing more than its appearance in a small image. Could be painted metal, too, or maybe is an early synthetic substance.

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An early cascading tie rack?
[Image: 235010.jpg]
(Feb 26, 2019 12:24 AM)Syne Wrote: [ -> ]An early cascading tie rack?

Lacking a non-awkward means to fasten or attach itself to a wall or anything else potentially rules out a function for holding slim items like ties, keys, etc.

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(Feb 26, 2019 12:27 AM)C C Wrote: [ -> ]
(Feb 26, 2019 12:24 AM)Syne Wrote: [ -> ]An early cascading tie rack?

Lacking a non-awkward means to fasten or attach itself to a wall or anything else potentially rules out a function for holding slim items like ties, keys, etc.

~

Yeah, true. Looks like a tie rack, though. 

And yes, they're wooden beads and brass hooks. It doesn't come apart at all. The patent date is on the one of the hooks. 

Guess what happened last week, C C. I met another guy at a sale, who said that his father used to work for the railroad, and that I could come by and check out his stuff. I got some pretty cool old railroad lanterns but he also sold me a huge train light. You know, the kind that goes on the front of the train. I paid a hundred bucks for it. I didn’t know much about it, though, so I posted it in one of those train forums. A guy hits me up and wants to buy it. He only lived 30 minutes from me. Can you believe that? He owns one of the big lumber companies here and his hobby is restoring old trains. I met with him in his shop. It was really cool! He's restoring two trains and he paid twenty three hundred dollars for it. I double checked and the most that one like mine had ever sold for was only three thousand. Not bad, eh?

It pays to be friendly.  Big Grin
(Feb 26, 2019 12:37 AM)Secular Sanity Wrote: [ -> ]Guess what happened last week, C C. I met another guy at a sale, who said that his father used to work for the railroad, and that I could come by and check out his stuff. I got some pretty cool old railroad lanterns but he also sold me a huge train light. You know, the kind that goes on the front of the train. I paid a hundred bucks for it. I didn’t know much about it, though, so I posted it in one of those train forums. A guy hits me up and wants to buy it. He only lived 30 minutes from me. Can you believe that? He owns one of the big lumber companies here and his hobby is restoring old trains. I met with him in his shop. It was really cool! He's restoring two trains and he paid twenty three hundred dollars for it. I double checked and the most that one like mine had ever sold for was only three thousand. Not bad, eh?

It pays to be friendly.  Big Grin


Go get'em. Multifaceted connections throughout the social strata traditionally enhance the chance to be a magnet for coincidental opportunities (heck, just attending the right parties can increase conversational luck in that department). But interpersonal encounters via the web sure add a whole new dimension to serendipity. Smile

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