At the front & back there is a hole with a chute under it. There are four gears (one each side, and one top & bottom) which turn when the handle is turned.
A piece of paper fed into one end comes out the other looking like this:
It's seem a bit vicious. I don't think you can see how sharp the gears are in the photos. (I had my fingers in it yesterday, seeing if there was anything useful caught in the corners. Mostly dust-dust, some dandelion seeds and possibly tiny wood splinters. If we were on TV, we could whip that dust down to the lab, and know after the next ad break, where the thing had been ever since it first came into creation.)
People donate things to the local museum or bring them in to be identified. Most of them I work out, eventually.
This one has been there for many years though (60 or so, I think). http://monissaw.livejournal.com/166169.html
Trouble is, once you've looked at something for a long time, you get bogged down into thinking it must be 'this' when it's really 'that', so a few set of eyes helps (which is why I add much information on them). Also there's always a chance that someone has seen something similar somewhere.
That plus the roughness along some of the edge makes us think it was made for, or by, whoever used it, rather than made to be sold. Of course, that means it could be a one off, but... they seem to have known what they were doing, it's fits together very well, so it must be based on something.
My guess would be something to break fibers of plants. Say sugar cane so that the cane juice could be better extracted. Or maybe flax. Make the final output product more susceptible to processing chemicals.
Just a wild guess. Your agriculture is quite different than ours I suspect.
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-31 07:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 01:39 am (UTC)It's seem a bit vicious. I don't think you can see how sharp the gears are in the photos. (I had my fingers in it yesterday, seeing if there was anything useful caught in the corners. Mostly dust-dust, some dandelion seeds and possibly tiny wood splinters. If we were on TV, we could whip that dust down to the lab, and know after the next ad break, where the thing had been ever since it first came into creation.)
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 01:42 am (UTC):\
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 01:50 am (UTC)No :)
People donate things to the local museum or bring them in to be identified. Most of them I work out, eventually.
This one has been there for many years though (60 or so, I think).
http://monissaw.livejournal.com/166169.html
Trouble is, once you've looked at something for a long time, you get bogged down into thinking it must be 'this' when it's really 'that', so a few set of eyes helps (which is why I add much information on them). Also there's always a chance that someone has seen something similar somewhere.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 02:31 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 02:41 am (UTC)It was friends locked, but to a custom group taken from friends that I had at the time. Now it's public :)
Re: what is this
Date: 2007-08-01 01:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 04:53 am (UTC)Nothing.
That plus the roughness along some of the edge makes us think it was made for, or by, whoever used it, rather than made to be sold. Of course, that means it could be a one off, but... they seem to have known what they were doing, it's fits together very well, so it must be based on something.
no subject
Date: 2007-08-01 02:42 pm (UTC)Just a wild guess. Your agriculture is quite different than ours I suspect.