✅ SOLVED Some kind of patent tag?

[listerr]

The writing is difficult to see, but it says:

MUTER
PAT PEND
CHICAGO

I looked up the company - it manufactured radio parts in Chicago. But I wasn't sure if this was a tag or if the piece itself is part of the patented item.

Thanks!

 

[Mud Hut]

Looks like a chain link .. sorta like the ones on a bicycle, but obviously much larger. My bet is Muder is actually Master?

 

[listerr]

Looks like a chain link .. sorta like the ones on a bicycle, but obviously much larger. My bet is Muder is actually Master?

Nope, definitely MUTER. But my husband thought it was from a bike chain as well.

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Probably a master to a chain, not necessarily a bicycle chain could be from motorcycle or machinery chain.

 

[vhs07]

This one is a repair link for a # 60 chain. mine is 1 3/8" long, which looks a bit larger that yours.

 

[Anduril]

Unless this is the first-ever such chain part, I struggle to think what could possibly be new (novel) and non-obvious about it.

So they filed a patent application.
I'll bet they never got one! (At least, not for this.)

 

[listerr]

Unless this is the first-ever such chain part, I struggle to think what could possibly be new (novel) and non-obvious about it.

So they filed a patent application.
I'll bet they never got one! (At least, not for this.)

That was my thought as well; hence the guess it was a tag mounted on the actual patented item. I know it looks similar to a chain part. But it seems strange that they would engrave each part or [even one part, for that matter] with their name, city, and pending patent. Plus, as you said, i doubt this is the very first such chain part. I searched patent applications for the Muter Co. in Chicago, but if this was a tag, it could have been on any one of them. It's a mystery!

 

[NOLA_Ken]

My guess is the patent was for an improved master link design, I went and looked at my bikes and every link is stamped with a makers mark, so it wouldn't be any surprise that that's been a common thing for a long time

 

[coinman123]

Looks like it could have been a tag, attached to some product. Maybe the two holes were to nail it in to the item?

 

[coinman123]

It looks brass, and I have never seen a brass bicycle chain.

 

[coinman123]

Sorry for posting three times, but I still think there is a chance it is from a bicycle. It looks identical to most of the ones I see, except for the fact it is brass (which is rare), and has a patent. Usually just one link has the patent, so there is a very small chance that specific link will fall off.

Actually, I just did some research and found a brass chain with the maker on every chain. They are quite rare though and seem like they are for modern performance bikes.


It could be either one of these options, but I am leaning towards my first choice, the tag nailed into a product (like a chest or radio)

Here's a typical vintage steel chain.

 

[listerr]

Sorry for posting three times, but I still think there is a chance it is from a bicycle. It looks identical to most of the ones I see, except for the fact it is brass (which is rare), and has a patent. Usually just one link has the patent, so there is a very small chance that specific link will fall off.

Actually, I just did some research and found a brass chain with the maker on every chain. They are quite rare though and seem like they are for modern performance bikes.
View attachment 1373091

It could be either one of these options, but I am leaning towards my first choice, the tag nailed into a product (like a chest or radio)

Here's a typical vintage steel chain.
View attachment 1373092

It's thickness is slightly less than a penny; the bike chain parts look to be a bit thicker. It's non-metallic and I scratched a bit of the surface. It has a pinkish hue. Copper maybe?

Sorry to keep posting on this..I'm new to detecting and I knew that I'd like the research/identification part just as much as the hunt itself. Thanks for all the responses.

 

[nhbenz]

As much as it does look like a chain, if it's made of copper I might venture a guess that it was an electrical jumper, given that the company dealt with electronics. Possibly just a piece of the item that hada a patent pending, rather than itself being the actual improved part of the circuitry.... Which makes finding a match tougher. Assuming that it's from the Muter radio company, Leslie F. Muter seems to be who held the patents.

 

[Anduril]

As much as it does look like a chain, if it's made of copper I might venture a guess that it was an electrical jumper, given that the company dealt with electronics. Possibly just a piece of the item that hada a patent pending, rather than itself being the actual improved part of the circuitry.... Which makes finding a match tougher. Assuming that it's from the Muter radio company, Leslie F. Muter seems to be who held the patents.

Maybe Benz is on to something...?
Two minutes on Google shows that Muter acquired Jensen (a loudspeaker company).
Maybe this copper part is a solder lug for a speaker?

 

[NOLA_Ken]

Electrical jumper got me thinking..... Did Muter ever make signal equipment for the railroads? I remember years ago (early 1980s') when they tore out the old Big 4 Railroad line where I grew up in Illinois, my cousin and I ended up with pretty much every insulator from the poles, and also the guts of a lot of the signal boxes. I had a bunch of old glass body Edison batteries, and a bunch of transformers, and I remember there being terminal jumpers on them similar to this piece.... I looked a bit for a matching pic online, and I haven't found one but here's one that shows a similar type of jumper inside a signal light.....

 

[coinman123]

It's thickness is slightly less than a penny; the bike chain parts look to be a bit thicker. It's non-metallic and I scratched a bit of the surface. It has a pinkish hue. Copper maybe?

Sorry to keep posting on this..I'm new to detecting and I knew that I'd like the research/identification part just as much as the hunt itself. Thanks for all the responses.

Yup! I love the researching the stuff I find just as much as I like the digging! I also like identifying other people's finds nearly as much as my own, sometimes even more. Keep posting and we will be more than happy to help . Metal detecting is really cool in how much history you end up learning. In 2012 I wanted to start metal detecting, hoping on finding some mercury dimes and stuff like that. Now I have written 2 magazine articles for Western and Eastern about colonial artifacts (working on 3, though I have been lazy). Whenever I see a cellar hole, a nice patch of woods, an old farm field or an old house, I immediately think, "I wish I could metal detect here right now." Metal detecting will completely change your point of view on everything. Now I know the history of my whole town and county, and have some of it in my very own house in a display case Nothing is cooler than holding an item dropped during the first 10 years in which your town was settled, or even better, before it was documented to be settled.

 

[listerr]

Okay, I think we've figured out an answer that is close enough for me! I posted my query in a vintage radio forum and they said it *looks* like it might be a shorting link to bridge adjacent posts. And that Muter made a lot of stuff. They also posted the following Muter product line from a radio engineering magazine from 1928:



So, I suppose it could be a shortening link, soldering lug, or some other similar implement for any one of these products. Interestingly, I recall that one of the previous owners of the site was a ham radio operator.

Thank you for all your responses!

 

[Back-of-the-boat]

Very cool and information learned.