Slender Cow Bell?

[markinga]

This bell like object was found where a barn once stood. It is hallow but has not clanger. could it be a candle snuffer? It is about 5 inches high, hollow, and made of heavy cast? brass.

 

[Elton]

n/t

 

[markinga]

That was one of my first thoughts, but why would it be hollow and tapered slightly outward?

 

[flinthunter]

I would say it's likely a weight of some sort. It looks a little light for a window weight. I'm thinking a clock weight or scale counterweight..

 

[glenn3-88]

I'm 63 and have known window weights, cotton weighing scale weights and none of them were hollow.
They were either solid cast iron window weights or cast iron weigh scale weights that had a lead center
that could be poured by the manufacturer and ground out to insure their accuracy. Even in those days
there was a government agency that went around checking for accuracy. I really believe this was the
handle for a dinner bell. This would have been tied to the end of the rope you would have pulled to let
the workers in the field know that dinner was ready. It should be somewhat heavy to keep the wind from
continuing to wind it around the pole. After about one wrap, it would unwind itself. We had one that was
really similar to this but didn't have the dovetail at the bottom like this one.

 

[flinthunter]

Here's another thought. Maybe a whiffletree tip.
http://www.findmall.com/read.php?30,328406
http://metaldetectingforum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=202643&stc=1&d=1362493706

 

[markinga]

I think Flint got it!

 

[Larry (IL)]

This flinthunter guy must be a walking encyclopedia, he comes up with answers for stuff I never even heard of before.

Daryl, I had to look up what a whiffletree was

 

[7centsworth]

This flinthunter guy must be a walking encyclopedia, he comes up with answers for stuff I never even heard of before.

Daryl, I had to look up what a whiffletree was

I did to Larry. I had never heard of one. I have now thanks to this forum.

 

[Larry (IL)]

This forum has gotten to be one of my favorites Travis. Just amazes me what is found metal detecting and before I started putting names on the odd finds, everything I didn't know what it was, was just junk

 

[7centsworth]

Junk was what I called them to Larry.

 

[glenn3-88]

Flinthunter you are almost 100% right but this is the metal end piece for the buggy poles that turned the buggy.
It has a screw running up the center to screw into a "round only" carriage pole. Their main use was for
the ends of the buggy poles to hold up the poles when the pony stopped and were strapped to the harness.
Which brings to mind, they were not used for large mules-and draft horses as they were not durable enough.
Usually they were used on a 2 wheel buggy drawn either by a pony or small horse. A single tree or whipple
tree is oval shaped and much larger than this could fit on due to the extreme pressures they pulled. We had both
the wooden single trees with the heavy steel eyelets on each end and the solid steel ones with hooks on the ends
used for pulling logs out of the woods. The wooden ones would not stand up to pulling a log in the old time logging
industry. I knew I had seen one before and after I saw your message and example it came back to me that the age
of 8 I had a pony named Rusty and a 2 wheel buggy my daddy got me for Christmas one year and those Whipple Ends
were on the buggy. All you did was the collar for the pony had a steel loop in it with a leather strap just like a belt you
wear only smaller. You would run that strap through the loop and back through the end of the whipple end and when
your pony came to a stop, especially with a 2 wheel buggy, the poles would not come loose and hit the ground. Behind
that the harness hooked to the poles and the end of the poles were joined with a cross member that had a loop in it that
hooked with a chain into the ends of the single tree to pull the buggy.

 

[flinthunter]

Flinthunter you are almost 100% right but this is the metal end piece for the buggy poles that turned the buggy.
It has a screw running up the center to screw into a "round only" carriage pole. Their main use was for
the ends of the buggy poles to hold up the poles when the pony stopped and were strapped to the harness.
Which brings to mind, they were not used for large mules-and draft horses as they were not durable enough.
Usually they were used on a 2 wheel buggy drawn either by a pony or small horse. A single tree or whipple
tree is oval shaped and much larger than this could fit on due to the extreme pressures they pulled. We had both
the wooden single trees with the heavy steel eyelets on each end and the solid steel ones with hooks on the ends
used for pulling logs out of the woods. The wooden ones would not stand up to pulling a log in the old time logging
industry. I knew I had seen one before and after I saw your message and example it came back to me that the age
of 8 I had a pony named Rusty and a 2 wheel buggy my daddy got me for Christmas one year and those Whipple Ends
were on the buggy. All you did was the collar for the pony had a steel loop in it with a leather strap just like a belt you
wear only smaller. You would run that strap through the loop and back through the end of the whipple end and when
your pony came to a stop, especially with a 2 wheel buggy, the poles would not come loose and hit the ground. Behind
that the harness hooked to the poles and the end of the poles were joined with a cross member that had a loop in it that
hooked with a chain into the ends of the single tree to pull the buggy.

Thanks for the update. I learn something new on here all the time.

 

[glenn3-88]

Flinthunter you are almost 100% right but this is the metal end piece for the buggy poles that turned the buggy.
It has a screw running up the center to screw into a "round only" carriage pole. Their main use was for
the ends of the buggy poles to hold up the poles when the pony stopped and were strapped to the harness.
Which brings to mind, they were not used for large mules-and draft horses as they were not durable enough.
Usually they were used on a 2 wheel buggy drawn either by a pony or small horse. A single tree or whipple
tree is oval shaped and much larger than this could fit on due to the extreme pressures they pulled. We had both
the wooden single trees with the heavy steel eyelets on each end and the solid steel ones with hooks on the ends
used for pulling logs out of the woods. The wooden ones would not stand up to pulling a log in the old time logging
industry. I knew I had seen one before and after I saw your message and example it came back to me that the age
of 8 I had a pony named Rusty and a 2 wheel buggy my daddy got me for Christmas one year and those Whipple Ends
were on the buggy. All you did was the collar for the pony had a steel loop in it with a leather strap just like a belt you
wear only smaller. You would run that strap through the loop and back through the end of the whipple end and when
your pony came to a stop, especially with a 2 wheel buggy, the poles would not come loose and hit the ground. Behind
that the harness hooked to the poles and the end of the poles were joined with a cross member that had a loop in it that
hooked with a chain into the ends of the single tree to pull the buggy.

Not a problem. Ironically, I was watching American Pickers that night (a re-run) and there was a guy on there whose family
moved over here from England 8 generations ago. The were extremely wealthy and brought all their carriages. As they
were showing them I happened to see one with the brass ends just like the one above.

Thanks for the update. I learn something new on here all the time.