And this week's Mystery Object is ...

No clues, no further information, no questions answered or speculations indulged, or even any hot cold cool lukewarm icy freezing boiling type games played.

If you get the right answer (exactly right, mind, not just vaguely in the ball-park), I might even send you a prize ...
 
So this must be the point where I start to make super specific guesses with zero hope.....

it is a tool from the Victorian age to help a woman cinch her corset without the need of an assistant.
 
My guess it it's some kind of lifter. You squeeze it together, insert it into the object that's probably too hot to touch, release and the pegs obtain purchase to the inside of said hot object, then you lift!
 
Well, it looks like the sides might compress inward to fit inside something, the little spikes dig into that something when it expands outward again, and then you can use it like a handle to carry.. and it seems it would be adjustable as to how deep it could be embedded too, into a shallower item or a deeper one based on the gapping of the little spikes.. and based on this looking like a reverse image means it might be made of a dark sprayed metal or even iron..

And that is as close as I can get. Btw, looked at your link to Inspired Eye.. some reaaaally nice photos there Paul.
 
Paul,

I had some of those and I've been trying to remember what they were for. During another semi-sleepness night last night I suddenly had the feeling that they are some sort of spacer/clamps for use in a drum type print developer ensuring that the print doesn't move around during the process and that the developer fluid flows evenly over the print.

Would it be fair to assume you are using such a drum to develop your large format negatives and these spacers are being used to ensure the developer fluid flows over both sides of the negative whilst wrapped around the inner surface of the drum?

Barrie
 
Bingo!

Our man from Plymouth has it almost to a tee.

Actually, I acquired a couple of print drums to try reversal processing of paper negatives (because I didn't want to handle Sulfuric acid and Sodium metabisulfite in open trays in my cramped unventilated bathroom-cum-darkroom).

This device is from a Paterson 10x8 colour print drum, and is a spacer that allows you to process 5x7 or smaller in the same drum (the spacer sits vertically in the tank, the paper each side of the pegs, the latter allowing developer to flow when the drum is rotated. The spacer is removed of course when you are processing 10x8s

I've been looking at the damn thing for several weeks wondering how on Earth it was supposed to work, until the penny suddenly dropped with a clang a couple of days ago.

I haven't tried it yet with 10x8 film negatives, and for 5x4 film I use a "taco" method where you curl them in two with an elastic hairband round and develop them in a Paterson Universal (no reels, just the centre column)


The Sulfuric acid/Potassium permanganate bleach, by the way, is pretty hard on the the emulsion layers, and it turns out that drum agitation added a level of mechanical stress to that, so the moment I got the print into the second developer, the emulsion floated straight off the base ... so I've had to start using open trays anyway :sigh:
 
This device is from a Paterson 10x8 colour print drum, and is a spacer that allows you to process 5x7 or smaller in the same drum (the spacer sits vertically in the tank, the paper each side of the pegs, the latter allowing developer to flow when the drum is rotated. The spacer is removed of course when you are processing 10x8s

That can't be right; I've seen this before. It's a Hungarian Persuader, late Cold War Vintage.;)

Cheers, Jock
 
Let’s refresh this thread, what’s in the picture?

4B689189-D8D8-4CAF-9217-1F9DCFA12115.jpeg
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)
 
Yes it’s art, but not the answer I’m looking for. This is not obvious, you should see behind the details, and building blocks, what could it be?
I cheated, found the answer... I never would've gotten the correct answer if I had tried all my life. Even if the axiom of monkeys 🐒 at typewriters eventually coming up with Shakespeare was true, I don't think even those monkeys would've come up with this one. Maybe just a little hint would spur on some ideas.
 
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