What Is It ?? (Vintage Gizmo)

[YamadudeXS650C]

I've always been interested in gizmos, gadgets, contraptions. When I was a teen, my Dad said I had a mind like Rube Goldberg; being pre-internet, I had to drop into the library to find out what he meant. When he heard me listening to The Doors doing 'Celebration of the Lizard' (from Absolutely Live), he said that I no longer had a mind. But I digress.

I picked up this 17" x 7" x 7" solid oak hand-built box at a rummage sale last year; the seller had no idea what it was. I have since developed a pretty good idea of its purpose, but I thought I would offer it up to y'all for your consumption.

I believe that someone rewired it in the 70's or so. There was a leaking 6v battery on the right. Intermittent button switch on the front.

The top comes off straight up, held in place with brass pins.

The dropper bottle has a fluid in it, but age has reduced it to something innocuous. The bottle says it was a script of the narcotic Belladonna, which is no longer found in drug stores. Wealthy women put it in their eyes to make them glossy and increase the size of their pupils.

The copper pipe is held in with copper handmade pinch holders:

The gizmo in the middle back should be familiar to those who are into very early machinery:

So, anyone want to take a guess what this whole gadget was used for ?

 

[resto]

It looks to be some sort of small cannon. The liquid with the eye dropper is most likely the fuel that's put in the screw hole next to the spark plug (looks a bit corrosive). Can't make out what model of Champion plug that is, it may be an important clue..............

If you had found this in Australia, I'd say that it's main function was to kill those huge spiders that crawl up their walls..................

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

It looks to be some sort of small cannon. The liquid with the eye dropper is most likely the fuel that's put in the screw hole next to the spark plug (looks a bit corrosive). Can't make out what model of Champion plug that is, it may be an important clue..............

If you had found this in Australia, I'd stay that it's main function was to kill those huge spiders that crawl up their walls..................

A cannon for sure, but why such an elaborate presentation?

 

[wrenchjohns]

my guess agrees with others, carbide cannon, great noise maker! Some people just need to beautify basic stuff, just like XS650s fun, fun, fun but no T-Bird takeaway. john

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

Yep, Model-T buzzbox ignited cannon.
Not sure about Aussie spiders,
But, being made in New York, mebbe the Watertown region,
I would think:

Residential sized avalanche cannon.

*Blammo* ............ *Whomph*....

 

[MaxPete]

High beam indicator / warning cannon to be mounted on a motorcycle luggage rack for night riding on highways?

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

Kudos to 2M; he at least got the ignitor correct. The Ford buzz box, or Trembler Coil, was used in the Model T's, hit 'n miss engines, and the first automobile, the Benz-Patent Motorwagon, which had an engine that was essentially a hit 'n miss. I just recently saw one of the few repros made of this car at the Seal Cove Auto Museum on Mt. Desert Island, Maine. I took the '80 Xs650 there for a "Cars and Coffee".

But I don't think this gizmo was a just a cannon. That little cork prolly cant provide enuf compression to make much of a bang, and if BIG Bang compression was indeed produced, what the heck was the designer doing using thin-walled copper tubing for a barrel? It could split (they DO have a production seam) and splatter the user; not to mention the little screw becoming a projectile.

I think it was an early 1900's demonstration piece, perhaps used at county fairs, showing internal combustion principles. Back then, lots of people were very sceptical of those crazy automobile things scaring the horses on the road, and needed convincing of the viability of motors. Maybe even used at the Great New York State Fair in Syracuse, which is where the Belladonna script was sourced (near Syracuse University).

 

[MaxPete]

......ok, your answer may be correct....too.

 

[Mailman]

I think you're all wrong.

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

I picked up a nicer Ford buzz box recently at a flea market in the Catskill mountain region:

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

I think you're all wrong.
View attachment 103003 View attachment 103004

I Love It !!
Hand !!
Where is Gary on this one ??
Cara Mia !

 

[MaxPete]

Wasn't his name Thing?

 

[Mailman]

Wasn't his name Thing?

Yup! Thing ( From the Adams Family TV show)

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

Wasn't his name Thing?

Dammit, Pete, always correcting me
I had the image of Thing in my mind, but ultimately confused it with the wonderfully scary Hand in the 1963 horror flick, The Crawling Hand:

The girl in the bikini was built for you !

 

[MaxPete]

Nice - she is cute indeed!

 

[TwoManyXS1Bs]

In high school science class, I wanted to test one of my gunpowder formulations. Put a little in a small test tube, mounted horizontally, and used a Model-T buzzbox to ignite it. Worked much better than expected. *Bzzzt*, *roar*, and it launched outta the classroom, out the window, and scorched 100 yards across the compound, smashing into the gym.

Ahhh, good times...

 

[wrenchjohns]

That little cork prolly cant provide enuf compression to make much of a bang, and if BIG Bang compression was indeed produced, what the heck was the designer doing using thin-walled copper tubing for a barrel?

I've used a hand held tin coffee can with a nail hole for ignition(match) capped with plastic lid, add a couple carbide pellets and a couple drops of water. It goes BANG and I still have 2 hands full of fingers. The idea has been around for a while and the cannons although not electrically fired, are still available on ebay. john

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

In high school science class, I wanted to test one of my gunpowder formulations. Put a little in a small test tube, mounted horizontally, and used a Model-T buzzbox to ignite it. Worked much better than expected. *Bzzzt*, *roar*, and it launched outta the classroom, out the window, and scorched 100 yards across the compound, smashing into the gym.

Ahhh, good times...

You must have been the teacher's favorite.

I had a miniature cannon much of my life just like this. A firecracker fit neatly in the barrel. Major Kablammo.

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

When she was about 45, my sister married an MIT physics professor (aged 59) who spent his spare time making PVC spudguns, especially shoulder mounted versions. He experimented endlessly with more powerful charges.
This is not him:

What is it with guys and cannons ?? What would Sigmund Freud have said about this ?

 

[MaxPete]

Yeah....guys and cannons....always a recipe for danger and fun.

When I was an undergrad we made shoulder mounted beer-can bazookas assembled with duct tape (we ARE Canadians afterall) fueled with lighter fluid to fire tennis balls across the field between residence buildings. It was very cool to hear that whhhooooommmmphhh sound and see the vomit of flame out the end when it ignited. The only rule was - no use inside the buildings.

.....funny how nobody ever seemed to consider the possibility of one of those things bursting and blowing the gunner's fool head off......

Ahhhh, the invincibility of youth coupled with the stupidity of horney, beer-soaked young engineers, wrapped in an excessively competitive spirit.....

We're not like that anymore at all - nooooo, not us!


PS - the young man in the photo above really should be wearing safety glasses...