Mystery Gadget 32
The original article provides the answer.
But you might also like to visit this site, which shows the item in contemporary use.
Comments
Guessing it's not a teeter totter...
Posted by crc on 09/30/15 at 08:57 AM
Anything is teeter totter if you are brave enough. (So I have been told)
Posted by OldPerson on 09/30/15 at 09:33 AM
A portable bridge?
Posted by RobK on 09/30/15 at 11:03 AM
My son said he thought you could ride a bike across it and then jump down at the end. Since the article suggests that kids make up their own games to play on I told him that I thought his idea totally fit with the spirit. If it's designed to support up to four people bouncing on it, it should be plenty strong for a single kid and a bike.
Posted by Miles on 09/30/15 at 11:14 AM
UNSAFE!!! UNSAFE!!!
I thought it was, maybe, a ship's chandler's tool of some sorts.
I thought it was, maybe, a ship's chandler's tool of some sorts.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 09/30/15 at 11:29 AM
I guessed it was a diving board you'd put parallel to the water instead of at a right angle, for places where you couldn't build a permanent structure or there's no room for a standard one. I think, according to the description, you could actually use it for that. Kids might like it because two or three could dive together.
Posted by Phideaux on 09/30/15 at 02:48 PM
You just know that the Baptists didn't invent it - bouncing up and down like that could lead to sex.
Disclaimer: I'm a lapsed Baptist so I'm allowed to poke fun.
Disclaimer: I'm a lapsed Baptist so I'm allowed to poke fun.
Posted by KDP on 09/30/15 at 02:51 PM
That's ok KDP, I'm a recovering Catholic myself.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 09/30/15 at 09:08 PM
Looks like a primitive version of that device on Howard Stern's show.
Posted by Harvey on 09/30/15 at 11:50 PM
The cause of dozens of shotgun weddings.
Posted by Eoin on 10/06/15 at 01:37 PM
Commenting is not available in this channel entry.
Category: Regionalism | Technology | Nineteenth Century