WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?

[gxray]

I have dug 2 of these things in CW camp areas.They seem to be made of some lightweight graphite/carbon composite type of material but give a good non-ferrous signal on my Nautilus detector. I watched a video on youtube where another relic hunter dug one. (3rd item dug in this video)

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here are some pics

 

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[PBK]

I have dug 2 of these things in CW camp areas.They seem to be made of some lightweight graphite/carbon composite type of material

Maybe some sort of carbon electrodes with metallic content.

 

[Monty]

Usually bits of carbon like that come from old batteries. But most of the ones I have seen are round. Monty

 

[sticksboards]

pieces of grafite rod from inside old drycell batteries

 

[cheese]

They are broken carbon electrodes for old arc lighting.

 

[Ohio Jerry]

I've dug two of these strange pieces at an 1800's homesite and never got a positive id. Carbon electrodes for arc lighting? Thanks Cheese,I'll have to do some research on arc lighting
Jerry

 

[taz42o]

Hi gxray, are you sure these are graphite? Graphite will right on paper just like a pencil.that is what is in most pencils not lead. They may be ferrite, it will not right on paper. Ferrite is used in electronics . I believe old radios had small a rod of ferrite with wire wraps around them, I think for a noise filter on antenna.

 

[chipveres]

I'm leaning toward carbon rods for batteries or arc lights. Ferrites for radio will be post-WW II. Coil cores before that will be sheet iron or powdered iron in a binder. They will show up on a metal detectoe as such.

Chip V,

 

[EDDE]

Usually bits of carbon like that come from old batteries. But most of the ones I have seen are round. Monty

yup battery cores

 

[cheese]

Look how big they are. They are around an inch across the midsection, and I have found them 6 to 8 inches long. What battery would have that? There are thousands of them in the old bottle dump in my town. The newest stuff in that dump is from around the 1930s. The oldest so far is from early to mid 1800s. This town was a huge resort town and had electricity at the turn of the century, only a few years after new-york city got power, and I believe the rods in the dump are from the streetlights back then. All are flat on one end, bunt off or broken on the other (just as would be if used for carbon lighting). Many still have the copper cap on the end. Some are splined to fit the tube they slide through to maintain the correct arc distance as the carbon rod is burned away.

Here is a pic of a few that I have. Note the copper remains of the connection, and the burned away tip of the center one. The one on the right is unused.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Does this help any? http://www.google.com/patents?id=tn...910&source=gbs_selected_pages&cad=0_1#PPP1,M1

 

[cheese]

I found one of these recently that was encased in tar. When I wondered aloud why it was encased in tar, my friend said it was part of a battery. He seems to know what he's talking about when it comes to this kind of stuff, and it looked just like yours, so it stands to reason it is part of a battery as someone else mentioned earlier (apparently some BIG batteries). I remembered this post and the mention of a battery, so I tracked it down so I could correct myself. I also know carbon rods were used in certain types of lighting so which ones are which, I don't know. I'm pretty sure the worn one in my pic is from lighting but the others may be from batteries. Just wanted to correct myself, as I'm not so certain anymore....