WHAT IS THIS? New description notes added since original post
This glass jar was found in Lake Washington last summer, at a section of Madison Beach where locals have been tossing their unwanted housewares for decades. Does anyone know what it is? It is about 3" wide and 2.5" tall. It is made of a single piece of glass and has threads on the rim for a screw-on cap or lid. The reservoir or whatever it is in the center is the same height as the outside jar, but the top is slightly irregular as if a close seal were not required. As you can see this reservoir or whatever it is is not quite cylindrical, but slightly flattened. I can't figure it out.
posted by Jim Woodring at 11:38 AM
33 Comments:
If the center column comes above the lip of the glass (tough to tell) it could almost be an eyecup of sorts.
I would guess that it held a candle.
If it has a patent number on it you can look it up at google patents. But it looks like an insulator of some sort.
Yes, it looks like a battery rest. Whatever that may be.
If it can hold ashes, it's an ashtray.
Thankfully for those around me, I don't smoke.
A door knob. Check out the similarities to 'doorknob' + glass in Google images.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Let's try that again with a working link...
Well I've spent about half an hour looking through patents issued in September of 1899 and containing the word "glass", and I highly recommend the experience.
"Insulator" was my first guess, but it doesn't look right. Most insulators were colored, and had heavier glass. Also this thing has a lip that makes it look like it's intended to have a lid of some kind.
Closest thing I've come up with so far is a patent for a paste-bottle with an internal brush holder. If the center column rises above the lip, this could definitely be it.
see the thing itself over here.
Never mind, that's not it. Wrong date, wrong design. Still! I bet you could hold paste in this if you wanted to!
I sent these pictures to an old glass collector and expert; one who knows a battery rest when he sees one. It isn't a battery rest. His note to me said in part:
"Very unusual piece of glass. Nothing comes to me, looking at it, so it's still a mystery, sorry!"
O well.
J.W.
Looks like an antiquated juicer to me!
looks like a glass door knob with the brass fitting stripped for quick scrap cash to me.
Jim, you should put the patent information back up on the post.
If it helps, in addition to searching via Google Patents you can also go to the US Patent website to actually look up a specific issue date (I think your date was 09/05/1899)? From what I can tell, Google Patent search doesn't allow one to search by actual issue date -- the closest you can get is to search within a given month. Of course, perhaps the date on the object represented when it was filed for (in that case would it say patent pending? my head hurts).
Unfortunately, according to the US Patent site there were 475 patents that were issued that day.
Here's a link to search based on the 09/05/1899 issue date.
Heya splotchy-
The patent info is still posted, and the day may come when I submit to the tedium of combing through patent records in search of this thing's identity. In a way I want to figure it out if I can... like solving a puzzle. Nobody who has seen it so far can offer even a hypothetical explanation of what it is. It's definitely not an insulator or a battery rest or a doorknob or an ashtray or a candle-holder. Aye, but what IS it??
I googled "patented united states and england" and found this. It's a paste jar!
But what was in it?
I can't find the exact patent for it either but K. Signal had the right idea.
I think it is the top of a food processor
More specifically it's probably a Sengbusch inkwell.
Sorry, I am a lunkhead. I now realize the original image contained the patent information.
Congrats, to nidrian on what appears to be a correct ID.
It definitely looks like the Sengbusch Model 51 in the link he/she posted.
Yes, it is undoubtedly a paste jar.The cop is drunk, the doll is stuffed with sawdust. Nidrian (!), you deserve a prize. Let me know your address and I'll send you something.
J.W.
idont know nothing about this piece,..may be to put candle or something with fire,.... jim, i have a dude, do you use oil paint to the canvas?,..for example in the fly dragon and human pig tired and drinkin,...this i like a lot ,the colors... sorry and salut!
Sí, ese cuadro se pinta en aceite en lona. Gracias por su interés.
J.W.
Man I was so close.
They sure knew how to treat their mucilage in the old days.
Its amazing you found a 100 year old Inkwell. serious HARMONIC CONVERGENCE
In the lake of all places!
Looks like a lake plug. You'd better put that thing back where it came from.
So it's a paste jar and not an inkwell right? I was hoping for inkwell. The fact that a cartoonist stumbles upon a 100-year old inkwell would just be too perfect.
I'm very sorry, I don't know what it is.
I'm in the euthanasia business, so I can show you how to use this thing, if you have a spare grandpa around.
You put beer in it and snails and pillbugs crawl in and drown.
I think its the long lost treasure of Pirate Worg from the planet Zzop!
But I'm not sure...
-A
This is a device to prevent ants from climbing onto a table. Each leg of the table is set in the central depression and a small amount of kerosene is poured into the moat.
Voila! Cake and candies are safe from depredation.
------------ max
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