# any clues?



## judu (Sep 10, 2009)

found this today and im trying to figure out what it is..its about the size of a hockey puck and its made of metal. like a steet i guess.....anyone have any clue what it could be?


----------



## privvydigger (Sep 10, 2009)

I dig those bottles all the time....mostly thought of as stove polish I believe.....if its not a cap and solid maybe used to rub it it.  Cool find anyway


----------



## VA is for Diggers (Sep 10, 2009)

If it's threaded, it's probably a can lid made of pewter. The most collectable ones are from the civil war period; yours looks like it's from 1880's + .


----------



## cyberdigger (Sep 10, 2009)

looks like a lead ingot..


----------



## Plumbata (Sep 10, 2009)

Cap to an old varnish can?


----------



## judu (Sep 10, 2009)

not real sure, i know its solid. its not hollow at all. its not threaded like a lid or anything.


----------



## cc6pack (Sep 10, 2009)

shoe dressing, polish, aluminum tin, 1920's?


----------



## athometoo (Sep 12, 2009)

if it is solid it could have been a machine die to press the tins with . here is a later pic of the tins . probally a die (interior mold) for a machine to stamp and mold tin sheets . when they went to new wording or acl or it wore down it was replaced .


----------



## towhead (Sep 13, 2009)

Yes, I think shoe polish too.... look here:

http://www.tias.com/140/PictPage/1923143467.html

 -Julie


----------



## towhead (Sep 13, 2009)

Whoops.... sorry athometoo, I just noticed it was the same picture you had up....shoe polish it is!

 -Julie


----------



## cordilleran (Sep 13, 2009)

Forget the Micmac Indians. Although they enjoyed themselves with a similar winter pasttime, large flat rocks were the projectile of preference.

 Look to the Scots -- or the Canadian Brits -- who in about 1800 found a way to wile away a frigid day on the ice and take winter boredom to a new level.

 Whether you call it ice hurley or shinty, the game's the same: projecting a puck into your opponent's net. But there was a lot of experimentation before the game of ice hockey evolved into Stanley Cup status.

 Rocks wouldn't do. The were too unwieldy due to variances in shape and density. Technology demanded uniformity and the Whittemore Brothers stepped into the competitive ice rink, so to speak.

 What you have in your possession is an early prototypical ice hockey puck made of pot metal, literally anything that would melt and congeal in the kiln. It's weight helped it to adhere to the ice nicely. Granted, it took a little more muscle to move it about but men moved mountains in the day. There was only one problem. Should it become airborne in competition it would likely cause serious injury. Needless to say, early practitioners of the winter sport would definitely not qualify as Pepsodent models.

 With new techniques in synthesizing rubber in the 1860s, metal hockey pucks soon lost favor with ice hockey aficionados and were relegated to the dustbin of history.

 (NOTE: this information is written and dedicated to Rick, who urged me to write in a clear and concise manner in keeping with contemporary journalistic style).


----------



## hj (Sep 13, 2009)

Perhaps a part of a machine very much like the one pictured here: Whittemore Bros. in Boston manufactured one similar.

http://books.google.com/books?id=B0zTAAAAMAAJ&lpg=PA503&ots=Bdaht3C63L&dq=%22whittemore%20brothers%22%20boston&pg=PA503#v=onepage&q=%22whittemore%20brothers%22%20boston&f=false

 hj


----------

