Need help IDing these......

[Mighty_Mouse]

My town i live in dates back to the early 1800's There was even a raid that went through it back then also. And from what i understand is early 1900's a fire ended up taking about 50% of the town. Was driving by what looked like an old foundation. There were old cement stairs(3 i think) that lead to nothing lol. So with the town being as old as it was i thought i would give it a hunt. More so hoping for older silver or copper.(no luck with that but i did find a few stranges Ones you look at and wonder what they were to. The first pic. i have no ides on what it might have been to or what it is. In the middle of the 4 pics. is what it looks like all in all i would say its about 2 1/2 to 3 in. Then the 2nd pic says LONERGAN Phila. PA U.S.A on it. I took pics of small latch open and closed. Theres on threads on the inside so it makes me think that theres was some type of screw that went up through the big hole. What it almost looks like is an older salt or pepper things. You would slide it open to pour what ever out. Its a heavy metal. Any ideas on what it might have been would be great thanks and HH

 

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[MiddenMonster]

My town i live in dates back to the early 1800's There was even a raid that went through it back then also. And from what i understand is early 1900's a fire ended up taking about 50% of the town. Was driving by what looked like an old foundation. There were old cement stairs(3 i think) that lead to nothing lol. So with the town being as old as it was i thought i would give it a hunt. More so hoping for older silver or copper.(no luck with that but i did find a few stranges Ones you look at and wonder what they were to. The first pic. i have no ides on what it might have been to or what it is. In the middle of the 4 pics. is what it looks like all in all i would say its about 2 1/2 to 3 in. Then the 2nd pic says LONERGAN Phila. PA U.S.A on it. I took pics of small latch open and closed. Theres on threads on the inside so it makes me think that theres was some type of screw that went up through the big hole. What it almost looks like is an older salt or pepper things. You would slide it open to pour what ever out. Its a heavy metal. Any ideas on what it might have been would be great thanks and HH

It looks like it's either part of a gas light fixture, or part of a steam-driven appliance. I did a quick search for "lonergan", "philadelphia", and "valve" (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q="lonergan","philadelphia","valve"), and got some returns. It looks like they made steam whistles (http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=3&q=http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Ridge/5612/&e=7249), and safety relief valves (http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&star...s.com/lonergan-safety-relief-valve.asp&e=7249), and a link that talks about the Longergan Company, which seems to be a valve company, but the link wasn't valid. It could also be the valve set for a radiator, or series of radiators.

 

[nesterhaus]

top item

The top item appears to indeed be an old gas spigot with the decorative "leaf" being the flame adjuster. Start on a good foundation and you never know what you might find. Have fun and good luck.
Brett

 

[omnicognic]

I think middenmonster and nesterhaus have it nailed as old gas light fixture, here are some similar examples:http://www.antiquelight.com/SconcePageC.html great finds!