I bought one seemingly almost identical to the one advertised here in this old listing. This contraption has a tapered output shaft. There’s nothing on the output shaft of the one I bought, though there seems to be a black blob on the one in this listing (but it’s dark and blurry enough I can’t make it out much.
It’s a pretty little thing. But it’s got my curiosity up. The linked ad is the only thing close that I turned up online, and they don’t state a purpose.
Is it a “stop” or “stay”?
For a line. I’m thinking clothes line.
Just a thought. This being FQ and I have no cites.
Just a little knowledge of pulleys.
It resembles some antique farm implements for bale handling, there’s a lot of stuff to move in barns.
It seems kind of general purpose-y, but I see some listed as a bobbin winder or yarn winder.
ETA, you’d attach something like this to it:
ETA2: Google Image Search “Antique Cast Iron Bobbin Winder” and you’ll see plenty of results showing the same thing as seen in the OP, at least enough that I’m confident that’s what it is.
Could it be part of an clothesline strung between buildings, with the line moved over the pulley system (using the crank) for putting washing on and taking it off?
Looks like just a generic hand pulley that could have been used for any number of things that required a crank mechanism, like a sewing machine, etc.
Exactly what I’m thinking. There was some kinda line it cranked..
There was one on every farmstead that needed a line for wash.
I’ve seen them on old barns.
I wonder sometimes did they string them up between a house and a barn to feel your way to the barn if you couldn’t see due to natural weather events or darkness.
We are having a current conversation in my house. I want to put one up between the house and and tree or post(preferably where I could use it at my deck chair
) to have an easily refillable bird feeder. In case I’m too lazy (or unable)to walk out there.
Yep. Got the same reaction here…
Some of the clotheslines here
might have had pulleys fastened with a clamp, and moved with a crank.
My wag is that it could be used to apply power to anything that we now power by electricity. A bobbin, a spinning wheel, a table saw, a sewing machine, grinding wheel, etc.
Joey_P, you mad genius!! That is EXACTLY what it is! Here’s one of the pix, and it matches mine in every detail I can think of to examine.
“For sock knitting machine”. Looking at some of the “sock knitting machines”, I suspect that a sock knitting machine that used that might have just used the same winder for the machine and for the bobbin.
Its for winding something very easy to wind and you want it to wind fast.
so only creating bobbins or reels of a light string/thread.
Its a generic winder that transfers big rotary winding action into a fixed turning spindle. Bobbin winding is definitely one possible use, but one of the reason traditional spinners have a foot treadle action is that it frees up two hands to do your spinny business. Obviously this one requires one hand to turn the crank. It was probably made generic and universal enough that it could attach or transfer-connect to a bunch of workshop and domestic industrial devices.
There are sock knitting machines in the fabric museums at Lowell, Masachusetts and at the Belknap Mill in Laconia, NH. In fact, the one at the Belknap Mill is “hands on”, and you can crank the handle yourself and watch it automatically knit the sock. It’s pretty impressive.
Based on this photo, I’d guess it is a dedicated bobbin loader.
ANTIQUE GEARHART SOCK KNITTING MACHINE CLEARFIELD PA / ACCESSORIES | #3833407610