Help! Can You Identify This Item?

A number of posts and photographs on our travels, as well as a post on "Writer's Block, Algonquin Hotel, NYC" will come soon.



For now, though, I and the good people at the Talbott Tavern, Bardstown, Kentucky, need your help.

What is this thing?

Comments

AYDIN ÖRSTAN said…
How big was this thing? The way the spikes were distributed makes me thing that when that thing was rotated the spikes did something in sequence. Could it have been part of a player piano or organ?
Deniz Bevan said…
That was one of the first things I thought of. But you'd think the museum people might have considered that? I wish they'd had a list of the items they'd ruled it out as being...
NBB said…
I agree, looks like the barrel in a hand organ
AJ Kandy said…
The barrel diameter is too small, and the spikes too long and thick, for a musical instrument - you wouldn't have a very long sequence of notes, though I did think music box as well. I'm thinking it might be part of the gearing for a mill machine, similar to this: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_h4dZqj4OHI/TXaRnUnmlGI/AAAAAAAAMGM/Cj6FAt__9MM/s1600/mill_machine.jpg which I found here: Days On the Claise - the end gear suggests a connection to a larger driving wheel like a waterwheel (if there was a flowing river nearby?) Could have been used for grinding or pounding ingredients for beer... :)
Deniz Bevan said…
Good idea! As far as I remember, there is a river - more importantly, the item's in a tavern, so the beer connection certainly makes sense.
S.P. Bowers said…
Hubby thinks it's some kind of drill or grinder. The spikes are too regular to me musical related.
Deniz Bevan said…
That makes sense! Maybe part of a farm tool...