Once again, it's time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog! Do you know what the object in this picture is? You can win even if you don't know!
Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will each win a T-shirt from the NeatoShop.
Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?
Check out the What Is It? Blog for another picture of the backside of this mystery thing. Good luck!
Update: the scary-looking object in question is a chainsaw bumper spike, or dog bumper. It attaches to a chain saw and is held against a tree to help steady the saw while it cuts. Read more about it at the What Is It? blog. The first correct answer came from Berhard, who wins a t-shirt! The funniest answer came from Colin M, who said it was a "megalodonometer."
That’s obviously a tool used be a Ichthyologist, they use it to measure the size of a sharks teeth, but only when they are still in the sharks mouth, hence the reason for the two bolt holes, which is used to mount to a stick, cause I do not know a Marine Biologist that would put their hand inside a sharks mouth.
That's good enough for a t-shirt from the NeatoShop! Thanks to everyone who played this week, and thanks to the What Is It? blog.
Comments (51)
I Heart Entomology ash grey 2x
Support bacteria - L
tough girls need tough makeup!
Never Grow Up ladie’s fit M
Or maybe a hand-held 99-year time machine?
I initially wondered if it might be for counting people (entering an entertainment event) or animals in - a kind of stock check.
But numbers are back to front indicating that it would require some kind of stamping or branding (as said by Hollywoood) allowing numbers to be read the right way round. I would rule out branding due to the size of the numbers. Also you would expect there to be a longer distance between what is being heated up to being red hot and the person holding it. The circular design also doesn't seem right for branding.
The hand-held gadget seems designed to allow quick and easy movement of the numbers, ranging from 00 to 99. So it could be a stock numbering tool, but what happens if you have 100 of the same item? Perhaps a pricing tool makes more sense, as already suggested by Amanderpanderer.
What about age? I have no idea but guessing 1850-1910.
Also, I like the look of it. I bet it would feel good to hold, but not sure about it's usefulness as a sex toy!! Ouch, Nostra. That's just wrong.
During the great depression, families had to line up to recieve government provided meat and cheese from a regional government-opperated butcher shop. Those were tough times back then, tough times. So tough, in fact, that famlies had to wait in long lines. This device was a government project designed to increase efficincy in these markets. it worked like this:
1.) A representative from each family in line would take a number. (Similar to the deli at your local grocery store? That's right! This is where it all started.)
2.) The clerk would take the order and send it back to the boys in the butchering room.
3.) The butchers would cut the meat and cheese for the order.
4.) This is where the device-in-question comes in. They would use the device to stamp the meat and cheese with the corresponding number held by the customer. The shop worker could swing the device like a hammer to stamp the food and the device was capable of rapidly advancing in numerical sequence simply by actuating the lever on the side.
5.) The meat and cheese were then wheel-barrowed to the front counter along with other peoples orders, and because they were all stamped, the clerks could differentiate between them.
6.) Ta da! The food is united with the hungry American family.
Now there you have it! Riddle solved! By the way, to develop this tool the government spent 42 million dollars, and if you think that sounds like a lot, just think how much it was in 1935! But as you can see, it was worth every penny as it helped us, as a nation, through some tough times.
P.S. My t-shirt size is small. I like a tight fit to show off my muscles.
The difference is that the stamp is used not at the sawmill, but in the actual logging operation in the woods to mark the ends of logs with a numerical representation as to where in the forest they came from and thereby who owns it. That way the Forest Service or the sawmill knows of the log has been stolen.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.