~1885 graphite pick??~

[treasurepirate1]

~1885 graphite puck??~

Been going to an antique barn that's a smaller section to a furniture store for about four years. It's just a hobby for the furniture store owner so the whole barn basement and upper floor is literally filled with thousands and thousands of antique items of every kind skattered piled and boxed up everywhere. If you want it they have it. I've searched this place for years and come up with tons of gems at dirt bottom prices. Anyway I've seen this item on the same shelf and same spot for almost four years. I caved and Bought it today. I just don't know what it is. It says "ROYAL REGISTERED AD 1885" it appears to have been poured and has a crack running along most of the side. It's very soft and light weight making me think it's a graphite composite. It's about 1 1/2 inches by about an inch thick. What the heck is this thing?

 

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[ANTIQUARIAN]

Based on it's size and look, I was thinking a 'Royal Mail Bag' seal.
But seeing as you said that it's "graphite composite" makes me re-think what it may have originally been used for?

Dave

 

[Tony in SC]

The pic on the right looks like a pivot point or bearing surface. Very early on graphite was a bearing material??

 

[Hawks88]

I thought maybe a cork or stopper at first but I really don’t know just guessing. Good luck.

 

[treasurepirate1]

Based on it's size and look, I was thinking a 'Royal Mail Bag' seal.
But seeing as you said that it's "graphite composite" makes me re-think what it may have originally been used for?

Dave

I never thought of a pivot point! That would make the most sense with the unusual concave cone. I also noticed a broken bubble in the middle of the divot. I forgot to mention it and it makes me think it was poured into the shape and not ground down. It could be a new one that was never used though. Who knows

 

[A2coins]

A weight for something scale ect ?

 

[DCMatt]

Medicinal charcoal tablet?

[FONT=&quot]By the mid 1800s charcoal, as a medicinal, suddenly became a well known treatment for a number of health conditions. Notice this entry:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]"...Charcoal mixed with bread crumbs or yeast, has long been a favourite material for forming poultices, among army and navy surgeons. The charcoal poultice has also obtained a high character in hospital practice as an application to sloughing ulcers and gangrenous sores, and recently, this substance has afforded immense relief in numerous cases of open cancer, by soothing pain, correcting foetor, and facilitating the separation of the morbid structure from the surrounding parts. It is unnecessary to mention other instances of its utility; for in this form Charcoal is now admitted into the London Pharmacopoeia, and it is in general use in all naval, military, and civil hospitals..." James Bird M.R.C.S. (Surgeon - Royal Glamorgan Militia, 1857)[/FONT]​

[FONT=&quot]After the development of the charcoal activation process (1870 to 1920), many reports appeared in medical journals about activated charcoal as an antidote for poisons and as a cure for intestinal disorders, and much more. By the end of the 20th century Activated Charcoal was employed by every modern hospital, clinic, research department, and poison control center in the world in hundreds of varied applications. From wound dressings to ostomy bags, from drug overdose to kidney dialysis units, from hemoperfusion cartridges to drug purification, from the treatment of anemia in cancer patients to breast cancer surgery, the role of activated charcoal as a medicinal continues to grow.[/FONT]

 

[Timbermaster]

I’m wondering if it is a crucible of some sort, or something similar used in assaying metals.

 

[treasurepirate1]

Medicinal charcoal tablet?

I did some digging on this and came up with this https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Roll-10-...s-33mm-For-Buring-Incense-Resin-/391879569972 it could be used for burning inscents? I'll look into it further! This looks promising!