✅ SOLVED Test your skills on this one! Spent years trying to ID this.

[musclecar]

I found this in Alaska about 10 years ago, and have never been able to ID it. It is an aluminum piece, about 3 inches square. It has 15 teeth and is numbered 1-15. There is a stop preventing it from spinning freely. The back has two tabs that may have been used to mount it. ANY GUESSES?

Thanks,

MC

PS The quarter used for size was found yesterday! 1935S Yeah!

 

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[jasonbo]

Is it a Racing pigeon clock or door counter once all 15 pigeons are back it locks?


or

thermostat or oil furnace dial?

 

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[jasonbo]

Since we're working for Beer and Wine here's my entry:

IT'S A PERFORATOR!

It travels left to right and right to left on assembly line equipment to cut dough making 15 small slits for steam to escape when making apple pies or chicken pot pies crusts.

No that looks like this

 

[jasonbo]

Well since this was haunting me all night i asked the one people i know, the people i work with at the cabel company.

Yes we all went to MIT.

So i get the usal corney answers then soem others not so corney one was a loom thread count which actually was not bad. But then the computer guys said yeah thats HEx 15 char. I said guys it probably i little old for a computer they said no teletypes used hex. This intriged me an yes they did 15 cog wheel one 2 chars and puncuation. so thats our answer thus far. so if you dial a number once you get one char twice for a differnt an one is a blank.

 

[trikikiwi]

Kia Ora,

... This intriged me an yes they did 15 cog wheel one 2 chars and puncuation. so thats our answer thus far. so if you dial a number once you get one char twice for a differnt an one is a blank.

Jasonbo, Bro, can you explain this bit, a bit more please

I'm trying to get my head around (Nooo! not like The Exorcist), that it only counts to 14? It doesn't count 15 because of the stop. It counts from 1 to 14 and then it has to start again. The fact that it has the 15 stamped, but not counted, lends some significance to the fifteenth thing-a-ma-jig.
If only we knew for what?
I still accept Bluezman's explanation, as to the use of the item, as the most credible.
Cheers, Mike

 

[BioProfessor]

As far as I can tell, this was part of a temperature control device on an old refrigerator/incubator/freezer. It worked pretty much like the ones we have today do except you used your finger to turn the dial to change the temperature of the inside. It would only turn so far - coldest - and down so far - warmest - and it needed only one turn. The cogs just made it easy to turn. The numbers are just for reference just like they are on today units. The clips are there to hold it during the manufacturing process and to hold it in place while the cover was placed over it. It is only part of the complete device which makes it tough to identify. Hence the long time to figure it out.

That's what my sources say and I can't find a reason not to believe them.

Daryl

 

[ivan salis]

a long while back I said a reefer part on semi tractor trailers ---for setting defrost cycles- I think --temp control seems like a good choice to me ---maybe ---we carried reefer tractor trailer units full of food on the containerships quite often----Like I said I do believe I have seen this beast somewhere before in mt 27 years of sea travel (but god only knows where) racked my brains till my head hurts over this "thing"----Ivan

 

[Kilika]

I HAVEN'T SEEN ONE OF THOSE IN YEARS!!

You guys are all guessing, and you coulda' just asked me! My (Ex) boyfriend wore one of those as a belt buckle... said it saved him from whittlin' down the bedposts. Took me awhile to figure that one out, but when I did..
Well, that's why he's my Ex

Do I win a bottle of wine (or at least a beer?)

Good luck. Great guesses so far.

 

[BioProfessor]

So he's your ex because he had to stop at 15?



Daryl

 

[Kilika]

Daryl -
There's no gracious way for me to answer that.
But like many people guessed, when you got to 15, you just started over.
(At least, hedid )

 

[BioProfessor]

Sounds like he would have needed more than one buckle. Either retire it at 15 and screw it to the headboard and get another, or wear two. One to count the number of 15s from the other. Then when you are at 15 15s, you would add a third buckle and so on. If it was really that bad, he would look funny with all those buckles anyway.



Daryl

 

[Kilika]

LOL!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Well since this was haunting me all night i asked the one people i know, the people i work with at the cabel company.

Yes we all went to MIT.

So i get the usal corney answers then soem others not so corney one was a loom thread count which actually was not bad. But then the computer guys said yeah thats HEx 15 char. I said guys it probably i little old for a computer they said no teletypes used hex. This intriged me an yes they did 15 cog wheel one 2 chars and puncuation. so thats our answer thus far. so if you dial a number once you get one char twice for a differnt an one is a blank.

Nope. Hexadecimal uses characters 0 through 9 and then letters A through F before it begins the 16's place (second character). 15 base 10 would be "F" in Hexadecimal and 10 in Hexadecimal is "16" in base 10. I took Assembler/ASM and Logic Circuits (using the 8080 chip) in college (ugh).

 

[relic lover]

I just wanted to bump this post back to the top of the list because I am a sick sick man!

 

[Hill Billy]

A counter for the wifes ovulation cycle twice a month.

 

[captain Jack]

Piece from the inside of a vending machine?

I think something like this....I have a few vending machines and a slot machine and it looks like a piece that would come out of one of them however I cannot exactly identify it.

 

[trikikiwi]

I just wanted to bump this post back to the top of the list because I am a sick sick man!

Nice one relic lover!
My sleep patterns were just starting to return to normal

Cheers, Mike

 

[BioProfessor]

Thanks. I thought I had Googled every gadget known to man and sent a picture of that #+%&!@+* thing to as many people as would look at it. Now I gotta start over because I can't remember what I Googled or who I sent it to.

I say we take a vote as to what it is and that's it. For now and forever it will be a ?? Somebody start a list.

Daryl

 

[jrlowe]

Looks like a dial in changing frequency channels. Perhaps an old television dial.

 

[wirelessworldinc]

I have no freakin clue but it is very interesting. I hope that you find out what it is. Mary ann

 

[BioProfessor]

Hi Mary Ann,

Looks like history repeats itself. Isn't this where we started about a million posts ago


Daryl