What the ____ is that?

lisab

OK now let's think about this...there are notches in each of the arms, like you could string something between them - like a rubber band?

Gad

Lol Lisab!!

What the hell is that???? This device seems so prosaic and useless, my hands would do whatever that 'thing' is suppose to do in no time.... Unless it's a mesuring tool?.. No it's not..

WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING!!

ImaLooser

I think it is for firing rubber bands. The are stretched by hand, latched, and the chain is a release. The giveaway are the little grooves for holding the bands. The kind of thing people do for fun in a bar. There is probably a target, bets are laid, etc.

edward

It was used by Chrysler to install bearings in car mufflers.

edward

Seriously it looks like it was used to lift something someone didn't want to touch. Ok so that is going to get some wacko comments.

OmCheeto

It looks like something that wanted to be down first, and then up second.

I'm voting for that thing that old style projectionists used cover the lens of the first projector when the first film reel was done and the second reel was ready.

Not that I've ever been an old style projectionist.

Wait a minute.

I know one.

I'll call my brother!

edward

The only place it appears in google images is in forum threads that are asking.......What the hell is that?

jim mcnamara

It clearly cannot have been made in the past 30 years - it is all metal. Of course the acid test for dating would be to look for the 'Made in China' stamp. 'Made in Japan' would date it to the 1950's. :)

Jonathan Scott

Note the sort of guide rail up the side of the post, which stops short of the top, then the notch in the bottom edge of the sleeve and the more worn patch just above the top of the guide rail. That suggests to me that it is designed to be raised up above the top of the guide rail then turned until the notch holds it in place.

Jimmy Snyder

Strange that the guide rail only goes down so far, but the paint is worn off of the post far below the slider.

Evo

The notches in the arms were to secure a chain or clasp that would close the arms around a glass container. The chain would raise or lower the container over a burner, or as someone suggested, release the clasp instead.

The item appears to be brass, I believe that the color is patina, not paint.

It was the predecessor to this thing.

http://agarwallabglassware.com/produ...blies/2730.jpg

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Astronuc

It's an old-fashioned multi-functional brass doohickey with a chain driven, vertically adjustable thingamajig. The missing thingamabob is separate.

edward

It was definitely meant to be raised and lowered and then turned at the top once it was past the guide rail. Note the notch in the moveable part.

Bill Foster

The upper arm is immobile. The chain attaches to something which leads into the box. I imagine that when the chain is pulled, it pulls that lower arm up, against spring loaded tension from inside the box.

Whatever it's meant to hold, it cannot be too heavy, or the whole thing will tip over, given the moment arm since it looks like it's mean to hold it at the top of the shaft. So a beaker full of liquid is out of the question.

Evo

The beaker would likely only hold a tiny amount.

Bill Foster

I don't see how a beaker would attach to those arms anyway.

nazarbaz

This thread could be a lot more interesting to an archeologist from the future than the object itself... A civilisation sinking in an ocean of useless stuff looking nonetheless for some meaning and purpose to what it did not so long ago...