What is it?

[BustedKnuckles]

Bingo. Part of the magnetic core memory from the NORAD SAGE computer system (Air Defense system). It was an IBM Q7 computer. That piece represents 1 bit of a 33-bit computer word with about 10k addresses.

This is the "little memory" of 10k capacity (yes, 10 k). The "big" memory was a whopping 256k! (That's 1/4 of 1 meg).

My father was a member of the RCA team that designed and built some of the first machinery used to manufacture ferrite memory cores. He later went to work for Sperry-Univac designing and building the same kind of equipment right up to the end-of-life of that technology.

 

[Basil]

This should be easy...

Um, it's a cold plug

 

[coldplugs]

Um, it's a cold plug

Very funny.

(That popcorn eater is spooky...)

 

[HealeyRick]

Homemade Sprite rear axle hub. When an axle shaft breaks (like they usually do) you can replace it with a length of 1" iron pipe threaded on one end:

 

[HealeyRick]

OR ....

It's the base to screw the pipe into for one of those Maine "Air Mail" mailboxes (also useful for when the snow starts getting deep)

 

[TRMark]

Something to do with preventing water hammer?

 

[Boink]

19th century Wild Wild West UFO?

 

[coldplugs]

The Sprite hub idea is fascinating. All suggestions are brilliant. But wrong.

A hint: almost all cars today have at least one.

 

[BustedKnuckles]

A muffler for an antique stationary engine?

 

[GregW]

It's a round toit.

 

[coldplugs]

A muffler for an antique stationary engine?

Exactly!

(Hah - no, I never seem to get a round toit...)

 

[Mickey Richaud]

Exactly!

(Hah - no, I never seem to get a round toit...)

Dang! I thought it was an Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator.

 

[BustedKnuckles]

I used one of these working in my uncle's store when I was 13...

 

[Mickey Richaud]

I used one of these working in my uncle's store when I was 13...

View attachment 34909

Is that how you got your busted knuckles?

Looks like a combination bottle opener/rake. (Cigarette butt collector?)

 

[PAUL161]

Super heavy duty "Back Scratcher"! :highly_amused:

Looks like a small stove coal rake.

 

[GregW]

Used for getting nails out of buckets? (When you are buying a pound or two)

 

[BustedKnuckles]

Greg got it... I used it to rake nails out of a bin 2 feet wide, 3 feet high and 3 feet deep into what looked like a steel tub that I sat on a wood stool in front of the bin. After the first week I learned why that the rest of the men used welding gloves when they did it.

 

[NutmegCT]

Another for the farmers:

 

[Basil]

Tiller?

 

[NutmegCT]

Tiller? noop

By the way, the photo shows the tool upside-down.