Welcome again to Quixotic Quantum Quandary! It’s that special moment of the week where you all get to eyeball some mystery technological piece and spend the next 5 seconds few hours noodling over what it could possibly be. You have been doing so well here that I keep working to ratchet up the challenge, so let’s see what you all can do!
This particular item is another from a museum visit, not my personal collection. On another visit to an unrelated museum, I found myself on the receiving end of some overly friendly conversation from one of the museum docents. As a relatively quiet individual, I am typically not one to initiate such conversations. However, it seems that often something about my demeanor attracts a certain level of, shall we say odd, discussion with strangers. In this particular instance, the fellow was gazing upward at the building’s crown molding, and used that as a springboard for a talk on the work he was doing restoring and renovating an old house, and how that project was precipitated by an upcoming marriage, and that the wedding for the marriage in question was going to be in the backyard of said house, and how that brought along with it the construction of a gazebo and removal of a tree and building of new fences. We conversed about such for perhaps 30 minutes, as my wife kept glancing over and laughing at me, and my children ran amuck amongst the exhibits. He was a friendly gentleman for sure, yet I still scratch my head over exactly why I needed in all on that information. Does today’s Quandary have you scratching your head?
If it does, I , of course–because all the commenters here are super swell–have a tiny little hint to offer to everyone!
Wrangling up parts for this little mystery is a fun job for me every week, and I’d like to get you all in on the fun! I am always on the look out for something good I haven’t thought of to use, so if you have a super strange piece of some old or neglected technology, please send some photos my way! Just email HycoSpeed@gmail.com and throw Q³ in the subject line so I’ll see it.
Is it cheating if the museum I work in has something similar? Or just more nerd points?
What I think it is is pictured over here…
http://www.temple.edu/students/ieee/brownbag.html
but I've been wrong before.
Hmmm. I hit refresh right before I posted my answer below, and your guess wasn't here then. Have you invented a time machine?
I think it's cheating. And bonus nerd points. So, to answer your questions, yes.
And you got it, fairly close enough I'd say, nicely done!
<img src="http://atomictoasters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Q3-No15-Answer.jpg" width="500/">
As an aside, your Scout looks like one I have seen before on, uh, a [different] website, and I thought you had a job of more mythical proportions, are you still doing that, or is the museum your new gig?
The Mothbusters kinda shot themselves in the foot at the end of the season, and got rid of three fabricators, including me and a guy who'd been with Jamie's M5 Industries operation for longer than there were Mythbusters. However, the words "fabricate equipment to demonstrate scientific principles" were already on my resume, so pioneering hands-on science museum The Exploratorium took me on for a 26 month contract. Better pay and they don't blow up everything I make after a week. (Actually, it turns out the guy at the workbench next to me was with Jamie in the M5 Industries days, too. I was wearing a T-Shirt with one of Jamie's robots on it and he goes, "Hey! I built parts of that!")
Likewise, the [different] website shot themselves in the foot (again) when they told me I had to join a social network to log in. So I traded up to Hooniverse/Atomic Toasters for my car-and-technology entertainment needs.
Hooniverse/Atomic Toasters: the car-and-technology destination for anti-social networkers.
Need to rework that and put it on a T-shirt.
…or on a H/AT.
Win. I tip mine to you, sir.
Well, I am sorry to hear that, and also, congratulations! Sounds like pioneering hands-on science museum The Exploratorium is a pretty nice gig. Let me know if you run into any nifty old tech around the museum back rooms, the weekend edition of AT can always use an exclusive exposé!
I myself drifted completely over after that redesign borked the site and comments on my phone, I couldn't even hang one long enough for the social network thing.
I need to get some of our excellent Toasters swag to start handing out as Q3 prizes, so your shirts can continue to stimulate workbench conversation.
"Scratching your head" implies context for a crystal radio, which would seem to fit the proper era for the brass and wood construction.
I would think that is a tuning coil.
<img src="http://jlf.pagesperso-orange.fr/tsf/09.jpg" width=500>
We can call it a tie, check above for a full photo of the 1915 tuning inductor. Did you ever build one of those crystal radio kits? I remember being relatively unimpressed with the radio listening ability of the one I built in 5th grade.
I was probably about 7 years old when my dad was shopping for some industrial machinery at an equipment liquidator's facility. The guy had a case full of the Radio Shack crystal radio kits with the spring loaded terminals, gave one to me, and introduced himself as Santa Claus (he also looked the part with white beard and round belly, though no red suit). I'm pretty sure I assembled it right after I got home. It was probably the most complicated kit i had built at the time, and I'm not sure what the actual sound quality was, but I'm sure it sounded great to me.
Some number of months later, I had mentioned that I made a working crystal radio to my grandmother's sister. "Those old things?" she asked. "I used to play with those when I was a girl. You have TV now; why don't you watch that instead?" It really let the wind out of my sails.
It could be an old type of rheostat, but I very much doubt it. It's lots easier to guess what it isn't.
wow,