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Bricktop
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CR4 Challenge #1270

12/25/2008 11:40 PM

OK, here's an easy one. What is this device:

Still in production today. Spare me the wise-crack answers, the pen is only there for scale.

Stay tuned, I have some really hard ones coming up, (I'm not even really sure what they are).

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caramba
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#1

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/26/2008 12:19 AM

I'm puzzled twice - by picture and how could you order something without knowing what it is?

I have no any ideas either a ton of ones that means the same :). Ok, here's one thought which came first --- isn't it a some kind of ice fishing rod?

BTW, Merry XMAS!
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Bricktop
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#2
In reply to #1

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/26/2008 12:57 AM

I didn't order anything. I work for a company that's been in business since 1883. Instruments that are no longer needed, or are now obsolete, have been regulated to the "back room", and will sit there forever. Many are older versions of instruments that are still used today. Others are devices that new technologies have passed them by. All are devices that the company spent a great deal of money on, so there is a reluctance to just discard them. Some actually belong in a museum.

But this device is still manufactured and used today.

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3Doug
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#12
In reply to #2

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 12:58 AM

I've spent my share of time working in warehouses, so I know that obscure and strange items can show up in inventory. Sometimes they are things that lots of people wanted or needed at one time, but later they just turn up as curiosities. Once in a while, somebody actually orders one of those things, the books or computers show that it's in stock, but finding it is another matter. That's when the warehouse becomes a "where?"-house. As long as nobody wants it, it just gets in your way and gathers dust because you can't send it back to the factory or sell it.

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#32
In reply to #2

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/29/2008 12:21 PM

Relegated, Bricktop... the word is RELEGATED.
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Bricktop
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#33
In reply to #32

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/29/2008 12:26 PM

Yes, I stand corrected. I gave my proof reader some time off for the holidays, I'll never do that again!

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Ed Weldon
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#10
In reply to #1

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/26/2008 11:01 PM

Comment by caramba: "how could you order something without knowing what it is?"

I rated this answer as good because it gave me the biggest laugh (and because Bricktop started the thread, LOL)
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Rorschach
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#34
In reply to #10

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/29/2008 12:29 PM

Reminds me of the story of the Navy Quartermaster on an aircraft carrier back in the late sixties that discovered the order code for the Corvette Stingray's that NASA provided all the Astronauts and proceeded to order himself up one. When the ship pulled into port, there sat the beautiful car awaiting him. There were also a couple of shore patrol officers awaiting him too......

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caramba
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#35
In reply to #10

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/29/2008 12:49 PM

Hi, Ed Weldon! I had been wondering all that time who gave me GA as my answer was rather fun then serious. I'm SciFi fan and to be honest my first move was to say that this device originated from known Lucas saga. Do not call one for it's pretty as banal. Just at the moment I was surfing site where I had been ordered (by my cousin) to find out something decent for fishing.
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Hendrik
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#3

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/26/2008 1:00 AM

It looks like a dremel tool. (compressed air powered)

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jdretired
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#4

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/26/2008 2:59 AM

Looks like a small regulated hand pump, with a supply inlet and discharge. Maybe some thing to pump up balloons?

Regards JD.
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#5

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/26/2008 11:06 AM

Vacuum pump

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TexasCharley
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#16
In reply to #5

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 10:44 AM

I'm on board with bwire here. For vaccum purposes. Or a keg pump?

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CJMcGill
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#6

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/26/2008 3:15 PM

Drinking water filter, portable for camping.

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#7

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/26/2008 7:50 PM

Looks like my wife's three-fold umbrella!

Just making a guess but it might be a gas sampling whatchamacallit. You connect it to a port, pull back on the handle and it sucks the gas into it for testing. Or the thing does the actual test itself. I don't know.

regards,

Vulcan

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#8

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/26/2008 10:52 PM

My old girlfriend had one, but I really don't want to know what she did with it

Hmmmm ... or maybe I DO

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#9

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/26/2008 11:00 PM

May be pneumatic filter regulator, with black knob to drain out the water!
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3Doug
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#11

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 12:39 AM

It is obviously a handheld device. It is not a fold-up umbrella - no pleats. The item sticking out on the right end could be a tee-handle, which would indicate a pump or a suction device. But it could be something else. The numbers that I can see printed on the metal band are 010101, and their orientation indicates the top of the device is to the left. This would preclude the right end being a handle unless you use the device upside down.

The red item appears to be a cap over an opening or connector, and it is held on by a strap that is part of the piece. If it covers an opening, it means that a substance either enters or leaves the device through that opening. If it covers a connector, the connector might be for DC input, or signal output.

The fluted projection from the left end could be an adjustment or operating knob. Or a cap.

I know it's not a thistlewick. I think it is a dumaflatchy.

The pen is from Cleveland Electric Labs.



The image was brightened and rotated to show how I found out where the pen came from by making the details show up better.

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#14
In reply to #11

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 8:54 AM

Is it an older model of one of these?

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#22
In reply to #14

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 9:14 PM

I think that's a really nice looking plastic swiss knife. It even has a thermometer and a counter to count how many times you've opened it.

regards,

Vulcan

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#23
In reply to #22

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 11:08 PM

Given a dimensions and if you're right this one is a cold steel for assault. I'm frightening for what that counter could be. BTW for which a goal could be a hook there? :).
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MOBI
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#24
In reply to #22

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/28/2008 1:59 AM

I say Vulcan you are very observant..............I think!!!!!

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#13

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 6:48 AM

This is a pump used for measuring concentrations of specific gases. We always used them for animal research however they are mostly used for safety purposes. You place the glass tube in one end and draw a specific amount of air through the tube. The chemicals in the air react w/ the chemicals in the tube and change color. We used this these for measurement of ammonia, CO2, Hydrogen sulfide and methane. However there are many tubes available. There are a few different manufactures. One is Drager:

http://www.buydraegertubes.com/draegergasdetection.aspx

I can't remember who manufactures this style off the top of my head...right now.
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Tad
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#17
In reply to #13

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 11:20 AM

I'd have to agree with you and MOBI. This particular pump is made by Gastec.

Tad
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#18
In reply to #17

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 11:25 AM

Yes that too is a good one. We used to use a device for gas sampling that was not unlike this. Ours was very different in its physical shape, but this seems to have the necessary ins/outs etc.

Hmmm.....could be.

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#19
In reply to #13

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 11:42 AM

I gave you a GA!

Looks like a Gastec brand...50 and 100 ml sampling...?

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#15

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 9:02 AM

Fire extinguisher? The old ones used carbon-tetrachloride.

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#26
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Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/28/2008 10:18 AM

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#27
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Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/28/2008 11:22 AM

Aha!.......long time no see Jaguar.

The old CTC fire extinguisher................also good for dry cleaning and as a degreasant. I once remember throwing a gummed up carbie in a bath of CTC overnight, blowing it through with a high pressure air nozzle...........and............bob's ya uncle..........nice clean carbie.

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#28
In reply to #27

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/28/2008 7:43 PM

How did you know I had an uncle named Bob? We called him Uncle Bob.

;)

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#29
In reply to #28

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/28/2008 11:45 PM

Just a good guess I reckon.................I figured that among our worldwide membership I could find at least one with an Uncle Bob.

I suppose I could have said............and Sams your uncle.

Then we would have this

............but, I don't have an Uncle Sam either!!!!!!!

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#20

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 11:54 AM

Not sure what it's called, but I think the physicians used them years back (and probably still do).

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#21

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/27/2008 6:31 PM

A solenoid.
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#25

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/28/2008 3:43 AM

Closest thing that I have seen to this was diamond paste dosator.......

Did You try to move this handle up and down? You are not giving enough data.... so it could be hand vacuum pump for making things like radio lamps, and it surely look like things I saw in Physic laboratory, Laser Division.........

If You gave us more data about this company and its business, perhaps it could give us a clue.........

It could also be hand pump for vaseline greasing but most puzzling part for me is this scale 10101010 which could be binary 2, 8, 32, 128 (from right to left)......

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#30

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/29/2008 9:12 AM

I'm going to go WAAAAAY out on a limb and guess that it is a high power RF amplifier vacuum tube for radio broadcasting.

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Bricktop
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#31

Re: CR4 Challenge #1270

12/29/2008 10:34 AM

Yup, It's a gas sample device:

http://www.sensidyne.com/prodcat.php?ID=1

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3Doug (2); agua_doc (1); Anonymous Poster (2); Bricktop (3); bwire (1); caramba (3); CJMcGill (1); Cooter6000 (1); DCaD (1); Ed Weldon (1); gsuhas (1); Hendrik (1); Henrik14 (1); Jaguar (2); jdretired (1); MOBI (4); Rorschach (2); snygolfgs (1); Tad (1); TexasCharley (3); Vulcan (2)

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