Got Another Mystery Object

		Quote:			Posted by gambol1
	B.A. and G.D.This topic has been beat around pretty badly but I don't think we have the answer yet. As far as a wick type oiler. Why would it have a partial hole through it? Wouldn't it have no hole or a hole all the way through?

The wick goes UP, not DOWN and the oil goes UP the wick, not draining DOWN. Why does that seem so hard to grasp? Oil lamps do that all the time. Tiki torches do it in your back yard. The oil is put into the cup and the wick comes DOWN from the bearing block to the oil reservoir. That's the way it was done 200+ years ago. This is not a pressure fed oiler needing a hole through the bottom of it.

In the fall (September or so) I will be visiting my friend at his old mill and get some photos of square (not round) oil cups with wicks to oil wooden bearings (yes, I said WOODEN bearings) that allow wooden wheels to turn which are driven by belts.

A single source turns dozens of belts. When it was first built, a mill wheel turned the entire mechanism. Sometime in the late 1800s, a steam engine replaced the water wheel so that when the stream wasn't moving enough, the owner could still work in the mill.

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,36364.msg225394.html#msg225394

G.D. I understand wick. B.A. ax23c.jpg.  could very easily be it if the hole through it was blocked with something and it had threads or the cover was held on by some other method. 

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That is fine G.D. I had never seen a wick type oiler until you posted the picture. Thanks for expanding my knowledge...In 1963 I worked in a fastener factory in Rockford Il.  they made nuts and bolts, Mostly carriage bolts. Some of the equipment dated from the 1800s and 1900s. These were line shaft driven. As the junior man, part of my job was to oil the  journals on the line shafts, motor bearings, fans,  etc. I had to climb up on a step ladder every day during the lunch hour with an oil can. If you over oiled you would get covered with oil for the rest of the day and the machine operators would complain about the sling off no their machines.  I learned how to put just enough oil in the cups to make it to the next day without them going dry.  The foreman kept an eye on the journals and if any of them smoked he would shut the line down while I got up on the ladder again. I worked through the summer at that job. In the Fall went back to school. 


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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,36364.msg226235.html#msg226235

I think it's already been said, but I'm pretty sure that it is the end of a candle snuffer.  Was it found near a church or a fancy house that would have had such things?  The heavier ones were generally for snuffing oil lamps.
The hole in the threaded end is likely there to dissipate heat into the tube of the snuffer.

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http://www.thunting.com/smf/index.php/topic,36364.msg226366.html#msg226366

Please don't take my post as argumentative, but If it isn't deep enough for a snuffer, I don't think oil or grease cup works either.  Is there any context for the find - commercial, industrial, residential or agricultural?  It could be the fixed side of some sort of steam pop off valve (the shank looks too long for it to be the weight side).  Brass usually indicates hydraulic, lubrication, or ornamental applications so I see where you are going with the oil/grease thing but I can't picture the opposite side of it in that application (how would it attach?) or the need for the threaded stem (why not just a cap?).

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