Comments on: What is it? Game 41

By: cosmo7

cosmo7 — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:41:34 +0000

Part of a voting machine?

By: Adam Stanhope

Adam Stanhope — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:05:39 +0000

It is a counter.

By: joel

joel — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:14:47 +0000

It’s a counter.

By: Phyreblade

Phyreblade — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 18:55:08 +0000

I’m guessing a counter. Counts to 1000. You have 3 gears, each with 10 teeth, and one vertical pin on each gear intended to engage the teeth of the next. Each gear has a spring that engages the spaces between the teeth in order for each wheel to remain locked in it’s last position unless manually advanced by the lower gear. (i.e. they are not freewheeling.)

I would also hazard a guess that the metal flange/tab in the left was used as a interface/guide for the actuating mechanism, which would interface with the first/lowest gear, and the big spring on top probably served as a return spring for the actuating mechanism.

And now, having demonstrated a level of nerdiness beyond even my wildest dreams, I shall now proceed to take a lethal dose of Paracetemol. It’s been a pleasure…

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 17:40:10 +0000

Hahaha @Randall! Weslaf tooth aligner!

By: Alasdair

Alasdair — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:38:48 +0000

Some kind of musical instrument. (early xylophone)

By: Werk

Werk — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:34:02 +0000

A very old, simple lock. Probably a combination lock for a draw-bar.

By: algonkin

algonkin — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:19:14 +0000

Photoshopped LOL @ Matt!!!

It’s a door knocker (not a door bell)

By: Randall

Randall — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:00:30 +0000

A Weslaf tooth aligner. Manfred Q. Weslaf was a scottish inventor with crooked teeth. He invented this device to help straighten them, and later developed Wenslaf false teeth mde from sheeps teeth. He died penniless and drunk, a broken man with a frightening smile.

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:58:32 +0000

A counter from an old cash drawer.

By: matt

matt — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:11:08 +0000

Photoshopped!

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:08:09 +0000

Its the inside of an old telephone.

By: Craig Clayton

Craig Clayton — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:15:00 +0000

It is the same type of counter that is is in automotive odometers,based on ten, just that it is older, so I would guess that it was used in a flour grinding mill to count bags or times a door opened.

By: tim

tim — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:56:47 +0000

it’s a doorbel

By: Aramax

Aramax — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:27:22 +0000

It’s a telegraph.

By: gert

gert — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:26:08 +0000

@Silver: tourist, sheep, we’re thinking along the same line

By: gert

gert — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:24:59 +0000

It’s a decimal counter – each wheel has 10 teeth, with a pin on one of the teeth to advance the next wheel. It would count from 000 to 999 I suppose.

It looks old, I wonder what it used to count… sheep perhaps?

By: Silver

Silver — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:23:40 +0000

Darn, Flemming said what I also knew.

I would farther guess that it’s a counter used to count the number of people who pass through a place. It’s somehow attached to a plank or step that people step on to trigger it. I’ve seen something like that (what I described, not the thing in the picture) around Hadrian’s wall to count tourists.

By: Gabrielle

Gabrielle — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:26:57 +0000

I’m guessing it’s a morse code transmitter.

By: Kate hegarty

Kate hegarty — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:24:28 +0000

Is it a lock of some kind?

By: Flemming Frandsen

Flemming Frandsen — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:16:49 +0000

It’s a counter of some sort.

Each wheel will make the next advance one tooth for each rotation.