# Any idea what tool this could be?



## Craftyjam (Aug 11, 2021)

Received this tool from my Grandfather and I cannot figure out what it is used for.























It appears to say "J.H.Haywood".
Any ideas what this could be?


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## allpurpose (Mar 24, 2016)

I've seen one, but darned if I remember where.. There is an entry in google books under the name J H Haywood listed as the patent holder in gasometer.. Ring any bells?
Just in case anyone is interested...a gasometer..or a short explanation of what they were..


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

My guess is it's a marking gauge sort of like a speed square to mark angles.


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## Craftyjam (Aug 11, 2021)

Steve Neul said:


> My guess is it's a marking gauge sort of like a speed square to mark angles.


Yeah, this is what I think as well. Still, I haven't ever seen one with a raised handle like this before.


allpurpose said:


> I've seen one, but darned if I remember where.. There is an entry in google books under the name J H Haywood listed as the patent holder in gasometer.. Ring any bells?
> Just in case anyone is interested...a gasometer..or a short explanation of what they were..


Very interesting! Seems like a red herring, but happy to learn about the gasometer.


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## NoThankyou (Mar 21, 2018)

There were many so called gasometer in Brooklyn when I was growing up. The "meter" part doesn't make sense to me but . . . . 

They were really tanks for heating and cooking gas. The structure would rise to the structure as the gas company made enough gas to fill the tank. Usually the gas company could make enough gas over night to fill the tank. During the day, cooking would draw the tank down and the supporting structure would be visible. 

Today we use natural gas. Basically cooking gas was manufactured by spraying a water mist over burning coke. This would produce a mixture of CO and H which would burn rather well. Also if unburned and with the high CO content it was hazardous. I can remember when we were migrated to natural gas back in Brooklyn. The gas company had to send a technician out to every home to adjust the gas to air mixture on all the stoves. That was in the early 1950s.


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## allpurpose (Mar 24, 2016)

I remember the old gasometer on the way to my grandparents old house when I think back..it wasn't that far from the old coal fired electric plant on the river. That old plant was taken down years ago when the river started killing off all the fish and stinking up the town..
I guess it was one thing to pollute the air, quite another when the whole city smelled like rotting fish..


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## johnedp34 (Jun 30, 2016)

When the V2s started raining down, the govnmr first said it was gas explosions to explain the loud bangs. Then when people like my Dad kept visiting sites to get Dural alloy, they had to admit was German rockets and no defence.
WE had three hit within a mile.
johnep


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## ducbsa (Jul 6, 2014)

Coke oven gas has about the same heating value as natural gas and steel mills use it in the various furnaces. Blast furnace gas has about 10% of that and the boiler furnaces to burn that are immense to capture the heat.


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## Bob Bengal (Jan 2, 2021)

We can link to Flicker?

__
https://flic.kr/p/gAkMWH

"DH Lawrence was employed for a brief spell as a clerk at JH Haywood, a surgical appliance manufacturer, here on Castle Gate, Nottingham."


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## Bob Bengal (Jan 2, 2021)

Craftyjam said:


> Received this tool from my Grandfather and I cannot figure out what it is used for.


Welcome to the forum.

What info can you post about your Grandfather? Could be clues there. Where did he live, occupations, hobbies, interests etc.


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## JZWOOD (Nov 8, 2020)

I did a quick search on Google images and came up with this. They call it a brass miter template if yours is the same as the one in this link.
William Marples Brass Mitre Template - Review (findmytool.co.uk)


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## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

I searched for "brass mitre template" and found lots of images of them. They were all called "brass mitre template" and many were for sale. Some mention "pattern maker"

What I could not find is how they were used. There have been lots of them for sale, but my guess is that none of them were actually used by the sellers.

Any idea how they were used?


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## sunnybob (Sep 3, 2016)

The "gasometer" name is a complete nonsense. They were Gas Holders. Simply that and nothing more.
The metering was done as the gas left the factory, to match up with the metering at each household or receiving factory.
Seems to me that tool is simply a 45 degree mitre gauge for scribing lines around large timbers or metal sections.


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## HicksBenedict (Aug 11, 2021)

sunnybob said:


> The "gasometer" name is a complete nonsense. They were Gas Holders. Simply that and nothing more.
> The metering was done as the gas left the factory, to match up with the metering at each household or receiving factory.
> Seems to me that tool is simply a 45 degree mitre gauge for scribing lines around large timbers or metal sections.


Hehe i thought it's some fancy tool... anyway thanks for the heads up Buddy!!


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## Tool Agnostic (Aug 13, 2017)

They seem rather thick and heavy, as well as very bulky to store, just to be used as angle guides for scribing lines. The fences are very thick.


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Tool Agnostic said:


> They seem rather thick and heavy, as well as very bulky to store, just to be used as angle guides for scribing lines. The fences are very thick.


It may be because in that era things were made to last and being heavy make it less likely to bend.


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## kiwi_outdoors (Jan 15, 2020)

I don't think that I've heard the vendor name "Marples" since Ieft New Zealand.

And yes, we had "wet gas" stored in "Gas Holders" up until I was a teenager, and we switched to natural gas from an offshore source.. Wet gas was poisonous (if abused) because it was CO and H2. So sticking one's head in a gas oven was a painless suicide method.


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