Mind Games

[imoldernu]

Like simple quizzes, questions, puzzlers? How about this for starters...

If you can answer, your requirement is to present another simple mind game.

Back in the 1950's, the U.S. Post Office prided itself on being able to deliver... not just in rain or sleet or gloom of darkest night... but even with addresses that seemed unreadable. This is one of their proudest achievements... An envelope addressed to:
Wood
John
Mass
...was delivered, (correctly) to whom?

 

[growing_older]

Snopes thinks it's a good story, but possibly not accurate.

John Underwood, Andover, Mass - snopes.com

 

[growing_older]

If you like this sort of thing, my favorites are the amUous puzzles.

Here's a link: https://sites.google.com/a/kennedycomputers.org/beahm/home/amuous-1

 

[springnr]

If you like this sort of thing, my favorites are the amUous puzzles.

Here's a link: https://sites.google.com/a/kennedycomputers.org/beahm/home/amuous-1

Appreciate the link.
Poking around I saw the page owner John Beahm has a letter his mother wrote about teaching school in 1940/41 on Sinclair Island, one of the San Juan Islands. It is a little over a mile in size. Interesting read, thanks.

https://sites.google.com/a/kennedycomputers.org/beahm/home/sinclair

 

[imoldernu]

Guess we'd best let this one die...
The idea was to ask a question, and see if anyone could guess... then, if they guessed correctly to come back and post a different question...

No an intelligence test... not a springboard for google and not a setting for a chat room... more like a "what songs make you dance"....

One more try... and then back to the archives...

No cheating by using Google image...

Here's the puzzler... What is this, and what is it used for... OK to guess, but if you're sure you're right, then... Post another quiz.

 

[Meadbh]

I'm not certain, but I think that might be a device for extinguishing candles.

 

[imoldernu]

It's from that era, and a good guess. Close, but no cigar... yet.

 

[Live And Learn]

Portable ashtray ?

 

[imoldernu]

Portable ashtray ?

No, but sounds like something you could patent. Good thinking!
Think of a time when showers or baths were a once a week thing.

 

[omni550]

Is it a gizmo that held something fragrant -- so the user could hold it up to her nose instead of smelling B.O. emanating from someone nearby?

omni

 

[imoldernu]

Hoo boy... close enough...
Called a "nosegay"... a Victorian era accoutrement to M'ladies wardrobe that was designed to hold a small cachet of small flowers, which was attached to the wardrobe with the long pin, and when in use, the ring, was on the little finger to hold it safely in the hand...
It was the time of "fainting" and "smelling salts".

More pics here:
https://www.google.com/search?q=ant...BI2Kqga_z4Bg&ved=0CAYQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=681

And sooo... having answered correctly, you have the honor of posing another mind game... with which to challenge the experience and intellect of the members...

 

[omni550]

OK, I guess it's now my turn to post a puzzle.

What is this object?

No cheating by using Google image...

Here's the puzzler... What is this, and what is it used for... OK to guess. If you're right, then... Post another quiz.

 

[Texas Proud]

Like simple quizzes, questions, puzzlers? How about this for starters...

If you can answer, your requirement is to present another simple mind game.

Back in the 1950's, the U.S. Post Office prided itself on being able to deliver... not just in rain or sleet or gloom of darkest night... but even with addresses that seemed unreadable. This is one of their proudest achievements... An envelope addressed to:
Wood
John
Mass
...was delivered, (correctly) to whom?

Snopes thinks it's a good story, but possibly not accurate.

John Underwood, Andover, Mass - snopes.com

I will say that they did deliver a letter to one of my sisters... the envelope had on it...

Her first name
Deer Park, Tx


No other info on the envelope... I will have to talk to my sis to see if they opened it or not.... I do not remember, but think they did not.... and I know it is true

 

[Live And Learn]

Here's the puzzler... What is this, and what is it used for... OK to guess. If you're right, then... Post another quiz.

I need a hint. How big is it ? I'm thinking its either for standing flowers up or some sort of auto part.

 

[Meadbh]

I think the bolts on the sides give some indication of its size. Their presence makes me think that it's important that this thing be bolted to whatever is underneath it. So while I did think of a Christmas tree stand, that seems less likely than a mould for 19 small phallic objects.

 

[omni550]

Meadbh is right...use the wing nuts for a sense of scale.

Hint: It has something to do with a part of a car.

The wing nuts hold the top and bottom halves together. It is not clamped to anything else.



I just saw the comment about a mold for 19 small phallic objects...too funny.

 

[omni550]

Here's a side view of a similar object.

 

[NW-Bound]

Hint: It has something to do with a part of a car.

Bingo!

I think it is an iron, for lack of a better word, which is used to heat up a patch to vulcanize rubber to fix punctured inner tubes. You pour kerosene or some flammable liquid into the cup and light it.

 

[omni550]

Bingo!

I think it is an iron, for lack of a better word, which is used to heat up a patch to vulcanize rubber to fix punctured inner tubes. You pour kerosene or some flammable liquid into the cup and light it.

Ding, ding, ding...we have a WINNER!

It's a circa 1912 vulcanizer for fixing old automobile tube tires. A slow burning powder was poured into this device, when lit the heat was conducted down to the base, where the tire and patch were clamped.

NW-Bound -- Tag, you're "it"...your turn to post a puzzle.

omni

 

[NW-Bound]

I had not seen even an image of this device. Without the side view photo and your hint, I would not get it.

But they jogged my memory, and I recalled seeing a similar clamp used to fix punctured motorcycle inner tubes in 3rd world countries some years ago. Even my dad's 1956 Opel Kadett used tires with inner tubes. They poured kerosene, I believe, to the cup and burned it to heat the upper part of the press.

I wonder if vulcanized rubber patches are still in use anywhere in the world. Any globe trotters know?

 

[omni550]

I had not seen even an image of this device. Without the side view photo and your hint, I would not get it.

But they jogged my memory, and I recalled seeing a similar clamp used to fix punctured motorcycle inner tubes in 3rd world countries some years ago. Even my dad's 1956 Opel Kadett used tires with inner tubes. They poured kerosene, I believe, to the cup and burned it to heat the upper part of the press.

I wonder if vulcanized rubber patches are still in use anywhere in the world. Any globe trotters know?

Original image was in post #12

I'd be surprised if they weren't using vulcanized patches in many 3rd world countries today.

omni

 

[NW-Bound]

What I meant was that prior to seeing your puzzle posted, I had not seen a printed image of this device, nor seen it in a museum, nor read about it.

My answer was based on my recollection of how they fixed punctured inner tubes many years ago, and the home-made clamp that they used did not even look like your antique device. It looked more like a C-clamp, but with a base. The top part that was pressed down was a metal cup made from a small-bore engine piston.

Anyway, here's "my" mysterious device. It's made of wood. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, as I cut them out of an illustration and a video clip from the Web. Still, I think anybody who does a bit of woodworking will have no trouble duplicating this gadget, just from these poor photos.

 

[Meadbh]

A set of knuckledusters.

Civil War Knuckles! - Picture

 

[omni550]

Some sort of castanets, used while clogging or somesuch?

omni

 

[imoldernu]

Spacer for dowels or maybe rope weaving?
Good one!