Help! Could this be a pocket watch??

[parsonwalker]

Found in known Union Camp. Appears to have mica or something like it on both sides. If not a pocket watch, any ideas?

 

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[HuntinDog]

I don't think it's a watch.
The mechanics are too big.
Sorry I can't help with the ID though.

 

[DCMatt]

I don't think it's a watch.
The mechanics are too big.
Sorry I can't help with the ID though.

Agree. Not a watch.

It reminds me of the inside of the turn signal switch on my 1948 Chevy. Or some other kind of electrical part.

 

[Hawks88]

Sorry but to me it does look like the bridge plate of a pocket watch. The little piece that’s sticking out of the top right side of the first pic. looks like the lever that you would slide your finger nail under to pull upwards on to unlock it so you could change the time. The levers would be located under the bezel of the watch. These were used on old railroad watches. These watches would be called lever set pocket watches. This is just my opinion and I’ve been wrong before.

 

[Kray Gelder]

I have to agree with Huntindog and DCMatt. Those are steel components, and if you look closely at the "lever", it is a copper strip electrical bus that's all bent up.

 

[cactusrat]

My first thoughts where "coil and points" from an old car.. Its been to long ago since the last time I have seen one.

 

[Edsel Detector]

I say, base for a bell for a bike

 

[Icewing]

Looks like an electrical contact plate from a horn button or flash light or something. Exactly what I am not sure.

 

[Joe-Dirt]

Miner’s head lamp??

 

[Stringtyer]

The mica suggests electrical insulation and the copper lever may be some sort of switch. If the other items in the picture were found in the same general area, the knurled nut (to the upper right of the mica piece) looks like a screw-on electrical connection that is typical in some sort of communications equipment.

A very quick search of old telegraph equipment shows something like your item as part of a Caton Pocket Relay. I found this information on PRE-1881 TELEGRAPH EQUIPMENT - TELEGRAPH & SCI INSTRUMENT MUSEUMS. There are other examples there that may be helpful.



I'd like to see some of the other parts and pieces you found in the same area as the mica disk.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Could the mica actually be Mother of pearl.

 

[tamrock]

Could the mica actually be Mother of pearl.

I think it's mica and was used to insulate against heat or producing a stay current is my thoughts.

 

[lairmo]

Looks distributor/points-like?

 

[parsonwalker]

Thanks everybody. Its def Mica, and Kray is correct, the bent-up copper is super thin. Too thin to be a lever. Most likely an electrical grounding strap I'm thinking, after reading all of your thoughts. It's a CW camp, but as we all know, a lot of stuff gets tossed/lost on a working farm in the subsequent 150 years!

I have to agree with Huntindog and DCMatt. Those are steel components, and if you look closely at the "lever", it is a copper strip electrical bus that's all bent up.

 

[Johncoho]

After repairing and restoring many old pocket watches, I can almost say that is 100 percent not a pocket watch. Not sure what it would be, maybe an old compass?

 

[olroy70]

mica was used as an insulator in a lot of electrical parts for cars..........including coils

 

[A2coins]

I go with a bike bell also

 

[trdking]

To me it looks like the top of a battery or coil. 100% Definitely not a watch.

 

[trdking]

I don't know why this didn't hit me before, but it is the base of a light bulb socket

 

[Plug N Play]

Turn of the century ceramic fuse blocks also have the proper traits.
(Mica was also used as the early fuse windows)