any idea? an old iron?

[Viddy]

Anyone have any idea what it could be? My initial thought was it was an old fashioned iron?

DEPTH FOUND: 12-14"
GEOGRAPHICS: western Pennsylvania
LOCATION: baseball field. near old train station and previous location of late 1800's homesteads.
SIZE: 5"x8"
COMPOSITION: iron(?) with a whitish and blueish power on it


anyone? I included some pics. Seems there is something, looks like an insulated wire that runs through it and you can see it out the back

[Ramitt]

certainly looks like it

[TheCannonballGuy]

Viddy asked:
> Anyone have any idea what it could be? My initial thought was it was an old fashioned iron?

Although your mystery object is indeed shaped a lot like an antique iron (for clothes-pressing), it is not "an iron" ...and it is not iron (the metal).

The characteristics of the corrosion/patina/oxidation showing on your mystery object's surface indicates the metal is either zinc or aluminum. That proves the object is not a clothes-pressing iron.

The "extremeness" of the corrosion and the presence of an insulated wire indicates your mystery object was a component of a Cathodic Corrosion Protection setup. CCP employs a natural electrochemcal process known as Galvanic Action, in order to protect one kind of metal (such as iron) from corrosion, by connecting a "sacrificial metal" (such as zinc) to it. For example, in my city, buried iron Natural Gas pipes have large zinc rods connected to the iron pipes. The zinc rod is "in electrical contact" with the iron pipe. Doing its intended job of protecting the buried iron pipes from corrosion, the zinc rod corrodes very rapidly, and therefore must be replaced after just a few years.

If you want to learn the electrochemical details of Galvanic Action and how Cathodic Corrosion Protection works, go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion

In summary:
The information given above is my explanation for your zinc-or-aluminum mystery object's extreme corrosion and electrical wire. But I have no explanation for your mystery-object having a similar shape to a typical clothes-pressing iron made before the era of Electrical Appliances. Perhaps somebody else here can figure out the reason for your object's "shape."

[Ramitt]

interesting. I appreciate that you always explain and support your answers, I learn a lot. I withdraw my agreement that it was a clothes iron.

[Rancho Leo]

You're correct. that is the soleplate of an electric iron, usualle made of aluminum. and that is the heating element going through it

[TheCannonballGuy]

Okay, I now agree that it is the thick cast-aluminum "soleplate" from a 20th-century electrical clothes-pressing iron. But, it still looks like some serious Galvanic Action has happened to it, for the thick cast-aluminum to be so severely ravaged by corrosion. Even very thin aluminum beer-cans don't look that eaten-up after decades in the ground. Saltwater can do it, but theoretically there's not much saltwater (or a strong acid) in that baseball field's dirt. Speaking of which... I wonder if multi-decades of grass-fertilizer applications could eat up thick cast-aluminum that badly?

[Viddy]

what was the most surprising to me was the white/blue powder off it. I started getting that while trying to get inder the object and dig around it IDing the location with the ProPointer. had no idea what the white/blue powder off it could be at the time. It was down about 12-14" at least. had my Etrac's depth bars pegged.

An old train building, redone, is there, and my GF said her grandparents talked about old homes and a small church that was there,... Homer City, PA..., that were torn down to make way for the community park about 50 years ago. I was just looking for coins in the baseball field...LOL

Thanks for the input. This was one find that baffled me.