P.S.

Mac, you're completely disqualified because I don't want to have to name it a Large Farva...

Sure ya don't want that liter cola?

Clever idea... I give up. It looks cool, though.

I'm thinkin something to do witha large clock. But it's 2 Am right now and my judgement is slightly off. LOL Well that's my guess.

Nope, not a clock :) Good guess

It’s a locking mechanism possibly for a large safe; a time lock or the pivot gear for the lock. The ball might be the wait that moves back and fourth for the toothed part to move as the ball lifts or swings it moves the teeth.

A pendulum?

Christina Aguilera's jewellery applicator

It's a good shot with nice textures and lighting. But apart from that I've no idea what it is...

All very good guesses. I am particularly impressed with philcUK's effort, but no winner yet.

Also, thankyou for your praise of the photo, Si. The polls wil remain open :)

A counterweight and ratchet mechanism of torture devised by Tomás de Torquemada known as the digame 'tell me' (Spain, circa 1478).

Alright then its a piece of modern art.

I'm afraid the judges can't accept that either. Prismmagic now has the closest guess yet though.

A modern metal sculpture?

Getting closer piner (even though your avatar scares the crap out of me), but not really on the ball yet. I think this is guessable because I know someone who got it. Looking very closely at the image may help. ^^

Momentary lapse of reason.....man this is bugging me! LOL

wiccanway, I'm going to assume that was a guess in the form of a pun so...
No, it's not a mosquito... VERY good guess though :)

It’s a chime or a part of a musical instrument does the pendulum strike the bar to make a tone, By the look and wear on the up right bar it looks like the ball strkes as it goes up and down with the other toothed flat bar,

nothing to do with an instrument, sorry :)

wow dont no wot u r but i like it nicely done

Im guessing... tools of either a woodworker or metalsmith... or a farmer.... or a body artist.. or a something...

ah, an original guess. However, there are also no tools in this picture...

does it have anything to do with cooking? is it for creating anything?

No kind of utensil for cooking or creating anything...
Also:
To answer a PM for the benefit of anyone wondering... This is a real and unedited photograph. I guess it could go in the macro category since it was in fact focused that way, but I put it in general photography so as not to imply that the subject is very tiny, which it's not ****RECOGNIZE A CLUE WHEN YOU SEE ONE?****

A sculpture of a pendulum ball?

heh, like I said, a sculpture is sort of on the right track but it doesn't really capture the whole picture. A sculpture is not entirely wrong but it is definitely more than that. I would have a hard time giving any more clues without giving it away...

Well, can't blame a gal for trying. I was going to say some kind of metronome too until you said it had nothing to do with music.

Well done Torque,nice job.

a part of one of those design scissors

Some kind of executive desk toy?

It is sculptural - the part we are looking at is a serated part of a SAW? the 2 cylindrical parts sticking out look like 'stoppers'. The ball is a type of counterweight that when pulled/released sends the serated part up/down til it hits the stopper...[Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?]

well, there have been some more good guesses overnight, but no winner yet. I'm going to go ahead and give a clue that may not help anyone to see what this is but it should go a long way in telling you what it's not. None of the individual parts here move in relation to eachother... That is, you're looking at a rigid object. No counterweights, no pendulums, no motion of any kind. What you see is what you get.

Sam had my next guess. Is it sitting on the angle it's suppose to be and how much further down does it go? I notice when I increase the size it continues on down at the angle it's at now. Is it math related?

I can't really answer all those questions because I don't want to give too much away. But I can tell you it is not math related... :)

Well, I have looked at it magnified, at every angle, in colors, and in comparison to the shadow and light. I cry Uncle and know I'm going to kick myself once the truth is revealed. However, I must get onto other images. ;) Good luck everyone.

Ok, Torque. I have read the above and decided more info was needed.
I visited your site (impressive) and gained some clues there about you and how, potentially your mind works.
I decided that if all I read was correct, then you would post something relating to your interests, but which perhaps us mere mortals may find tricky to identify.
You would probably not lie about it being real and unedited.
Your resume indicated experience with aviation and design, so I thought perhaps a single part of a larger machine.
But sculptural? I guess well trained and talented engineers would consider themselves artists as well, and a maquette is used by artists and designers - a real mini-representation of a future product.
So at this point I want to say a model/prototype for part of an airplane engine... or similar.
BUT - then I looked at your links and looked at the one to the virtual billiards/pinball game.
I looked at your age and quals and thought, 'engineered engine part' sounds like work. Caedes is more about fun, and you are relatively young, so... I then reached the decision that perhaps it is still a model, but something to do with the workings in a pinball machine?
Now after all this detective work I bet I'm completely off track - but it was fun!

I am impressed and slightly terrified by your sleuthing mum... :) I am very sad to say that while I admire the effort, I don't think it will help you or anyone else in this case. So... I'm glad it was fun for you at least :).

The picture is not of a model, or an engine part. It is also completely and in all other ways unrelated to any pinball machine, its successors and/or assigns.

bjb, I am sad to see you go, but maybe, inspired by mum's determination, you will return for another look :). However I am well aware there are an endless number of wonderful images to view on here so I can't fault you for getting back to that.

Good luck to everyone as the contest marches on...

Ooh let me add, that while I did say "sculptural" was on the right track, I did not mean to imply that this was made by me. All I did was take the photo. Credit for creating the object goes to some unknown third party. Hope that clears up any confusion (except for the confusion of what this might be)... :)

I am sad that all that sleuthing was in vain, other than to eliminate some possibilities.
Please do not be terrified. I am a teacher, and we do that to some people without meaning to! Apologies. It is just so hard to figure out, and I'm not used to that!
(Bet it feels good to baffle a chalkie!)
I really hope the answer is difficult and obscure or I'll be Sooooo annoyed with myself!

I think it's safe to say that this is in fact pretty obscure so I hope no one is being hard on themself. I only know one person who figured it out (Mac, disqualified on line one for being a long-time friend of mine), and his logic to guess it was baffling to me. I don't think I would have ever guessed it either. If this goes on for too long without a winner I might have to let him name it after-all since he will have been the only one to actually figure it out. Let's just hope it never comes to that. How do ya like them apples, mac.

sorry about the blank comments above. if you're not careful when you play you can poke an eye out... (Not a clue, the object is not an eye-poker or anything)

part of an electric carving knife?

Nope, good guess. I think someone else actually guessed something along those lines earlier, but it is not a kitchen utensil...

it's a tiny tiny peice of art by a modern artist ... someone with a weird name ... found in a museum of modern art? somehting like that? a structure ... but a tiny one as you used macro on it ... or a small part of something much biggeri don't think it's actually a real object that you would recognise is it? coz it sure as hell doesnt look like one ... getting closer?

Well, I'm going to go ahead and say that it's definitely a real object... If you saw the whole thing you would surely recognize it, but looking at just this part of it, it seems clear that most people are not recognizing it easily. However, I do think this part of it makes a better desktop than would the whole thing. I will upload a picture that clearly identified what this is AFTER someone has guessed it, but I won't put it here because it is not fit for wallpaper in my opinion... More on that later. Also, this was not taken in a museum.

Oh! And remember, it's not THAT tiny. Let's say breadbox, for a size reference. Man these clues are getting good, but I can see why this is still very tough.

this annoys me to no end...i know i've seen this before..but where...hm...perhaps it will come to me

Are all the pieces attatched, or merely hanging around in the same area..?

The pieces are all attached to eachother, and the attachments are permanent and rigid. However, I don't think that's much of a clue as to what this happens to be, maybe a bit of a help though....

Does this pic show the section the right way up? ie., were you standing straight on to the object when taking the photo, and then you have posted it the same way up?
And one question - you say we will probably recognise it when it is seen in full, does that mean it should be familiar to us, or merely that we will recognise it as a real object when we see it - ie will we be able to name its generic form?

It is correctly oriented vertically. You will recognize it but not because you will have ever seen it before most likely... Hope that helps

Ok, there have been a number of questions asked about our mystery subject lately, but it's been quite a while since any actual guesses... Sooooooo... I've decided to drop a bomb clue that should be enough for someone to figure this out pretty soon.... So here it is:

This picture was taken in my very own bedroom, and the object is in my bedroom all the time, meaning I did not just drag it in here for the picture.

Well, I hope that helps someone to figure out what it is really soon so I can begin thinking about a new mystery.

Part of a piece of furniture? Meh, I dunno...

A lamp base that I would hope not to trip into.

possibly an objet trouvé .... possibly ... or a coat rack ... abstract coat rack ... cheese grater getting closer? or further away?

part of your bedpost?

B.J.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT IS A LAMP BASE!!!!!!!!!!!

WELL DONE

It sits on my nightstand though so no risk of tripping on it. I can tell everyone now that the way my friend guessed it was by looking at the light source. He could tell that it was shining down from directly above it (where the lightbulb sits), and if you look at the light on the wall behind it you may be able to tell that the slanted shadow is created by a skewed lampshade (not parallel with the wall). Did any of that help you B.J. or just the fact that it was in my bedroom? I'm curious to know.

WE HAVE A WINNER! B.J. will you do the honors of choosing the new name for this picture? Thanks everyone for playing along. I hope we can do it again sometime.

that's a damn cool lamp you got there. ; )

Good one Josh Funny . well done

Thanks guys it was a gift from my grandmother. A great conversation piece :)

Lol. Bet you were shocked to see me post again. I would like to turn the honors of naming the piece over to Mum42 if she'll have them. She worked as hard as I did on this if not harder. You may see in my above post that I did speak of looking at it from the light angle. Once you finally admitted that it was correctly oriented vertically, I had my guess but then we had our differences there for a bit. I personally would call it Grandma's Gadget, but then I'm a real sentimental sort sometimes. ;)

ok we'll see what Mum42 has to say then. Will she like Grandma's Gadget or come up with a name of her own? The suspense is unbearable! :)

by the way, B.J., did you say you had that guess in mind before I ever posted the bedroom clue? If so I am even more impressed. Sorry about the misunderstanding that kept you from guessing then but I'm very glad we cleared it up!

Me too. ;) Yes, after you said it was vertical. I had also posted that I knew I was going to kick myself. I really didn't want to have to do that! I can be such a girl and it would hurt!!

"Grandma's Gadget" is definitely the best name.
I was never even thinking about the light source (tut-tut) - I was way off track!
Congratulations to bjb! - and thanks for thinking of me! :-)

Ok Grandma's Gadget it is! My thanks to everyone for the tireless guessing efforts and all your kind comments about the picture. Hope you will still enjoy the photo now that you know what it is :)

Ha! Yeah, I never would have gotten that. See why I gave up when I did? LOL

what does granny use that for decapitation???!!?!?!?

re "I will upload a picture that clearly identified what this is AFTER someone has guessed it, but I won't put it here because it is not fit for wallpaper in my opinion... More on that later." Also, this was not taken in a museum.

ok josh... i went thru all these... what a hoot ! And what is the "more on that later" ?? I would certainly be interested in seeing ALL of this lamp. "~" [the wave]

Great close up shot! I got it after reading the comments here and getting down to your comment about it being in your bedroom. Then I realized the light that was in the background must be from a lamp. Quite the brain teaser...good job:-)

Cool!! A gadget for defence. nice shot!!!

LOL lmao nice :*)

Wow i am a new one and i just started reading all these messages as i was guessing i had guessed a lamp ver early on but not because of the light feflection.
it was the litle ball on a string that did it for me is it not a pull chain lamp?

sorry for all the typing mistakes
i type too fast

Lol, this is the funniest upload i have ever seen! Cool picture and a cool lamp as well, well done!

awesome!!

Good shot!! Congratulations, its awesome!!
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