Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire What is this contraption?

My dad would say it's a gawddamnedwhadayacallit.
But I could be wrong.

"Get away with"?

I see there's some confusion on what a survey is, and what a surveyor does.

A survey is a reflection of legal markers on the ground to mark said property, along with supporting documents, legal description, and accompanying signed and sealed plat.

Of course I would have my crews cut down brush along property lines, and even set points online so that land owners who can't read survey maps can find their way to the back corners... .....for a price.

Had one guy call up and complain that he couldn't "find the string".

Ummm... What string, Sir?

"You know, the survey string between the points on the front to the back. That's what a survey is."

Ummm... No. That's not what a survey is, but I can send my crew back out there to run some string for about $800 more. He didn't want string that badly.

A little work and that box would make a fine tackle box. Don't know what that gizmo inside is.

Don't need no crankup damned music player no more.


Oh, wait. Wind it up, attach cable, then the spool spins without the handle turning?

Had it rigged to make a moving target...

You are right- Ya got to throw into the mix--- Construction surveying and of course Highway Surveying---- and something called Mine Surveying. Different from PL Surveying,

Maybe it has been handed down within your family as a curiosity item to keep the young busy before television was common.

It would be a handy sort of thing for dropping and winding in a plumb bob, for checking verticals on masts, antennae etc. It would also be useful for winding out an retracting a large/long chalk line, for marking out straight lines on fences or construction, but it is a lot bigger than any I've seen.

If it was made or lined with lead the other thing it reminded me of is an enclosure for holding, paying out and retracting a radioactive source on a line for radiography on large heat exchangers and the like, on power stations. I rather doubt that there was a time that these were stored in an unlined wooden box though.

It'd be interesting to know where the thing really is for though.

Old style fishing reel.

Not sure what it is, but it seems immaculate.

Exactly my thoughts.

a Confusatoriator.

In 1000 years it might still confusitating folks

What'll it get on ebay?

Yeah buddy, It looks like a nice one.

I figured there would be a surveyor in the crowd that would get his hackles up over what I said! :-)) Not confused at all as to what a survey is. But there is a difference between establishing a line on a map and marking a line on the ground. My issue is that sometimes surveyors will find or establish the two points on the ground that define a line, but there is no marking of said line between the two points. I can well read a survey or a legal description, but when trying to find property line (in my case for the purpose of a timber sale), there is often no sign of the line between points. Me and my hand compass do the best we can through the jungle that is eastern NC, but if I am off by a fraction of a degree in a line of perhaps several thousand feet, or if my estimation of the distance is off, I may not find the iron at the other end of the line, especially if it is not marked either. Even if the line was shrubbed out by the surveyor, if it was done only a few years back, it may be undiscernable by the time I get there. But I have found lines that were run 50 or more years ago when the surveyors went to the minor trouble of side-chopping a few trees along the way, and marking witness trees around the irons. No string required.

If you want the line chopped between points, you need to specify in the beginning. Lots of work, costs more. miles

IMO, the gadget is wayyyy not related to surveying.

IMO it was used to hold the fairly thick line for rodless deep trolling for fish like lake trout. OP your location is UP. I know guys repurposed victrola for their Seth Green rigs on Seneca lake in Finger Lakes Region of Upstate NY. The wound up victrola would help the fisherman store the line as he pulled it up by hand without having to crank a handle all the time. No rod was used with the original system. Just a line storage system which for many was similar to a downrigger storage spool.

I had heard some guys used tricycle front rim with handles as an alternative line storage system. But that required always controlling the handle of the wheel.

While the rigging style is still used most guys use a heavy ocean style reel and rod to control the line and heavy weight.

Just texted my friend in Len in Rochester that has one. He said:

"Yup I have one still for lake trout. It is one with a double spring. It stored your fishing line. When you wanted to let it out it would wind up the spring then when you wanted to take line in you would let the spring wind it in as you pulled up the line."


Seth Green rig taken from a discussion:

It is a multiple leader (up to 5 maximum now) trolling system with the leaders spaced apart (often 20-25 ft apart) used primarily for deep water trolling for trout and salmon. A 2 -4 lb weight is at the bottom of it and a variety of depths can be trolled at a single time with just one setup so that you can have 5 lures going through say 100ft at a time. It is very effective and especially when the thermocline forms in the lakes as it can be set up to cover above below and within the thermocline itself maximizing your potential for fish of various targeted species. The Seth Green was named for it's originator who fished it first on Keuka lake in the 1800's and it is also called a "thermocline rig" or just plain "rig". He also started the first trout fish hatchery (Caledonia. NY I believe). Some folks refer to it as "meat fishing" and various other names and sometimes in a derogatory way and they sometimes say it isn't worth doing because you can't feel the fish (especially small ones) with the heavy sinker and rods etc. but my suspicion is that most of those people haven't even tried it, don't understand how to actually do it, or are too lazy to do it (it does entail some work) because it is truly a lot of fun and one of my favorite ways to fish out of all the fresh and salt water fishing techniques.

more:
https://www.libraryweb.org/~rochhist/v6_1944/v6i3.pdf

For dropping the “cannonball” in a down rigger. you attach your line to to troll for lakers in the finger lakes.

Takes a lot less line. When the fish strikes, it pulls away from the Down rigger.

It is I fact a part of a Victrola. The spring helps to bring the downrigger back up.

Winds a tape to measure tank level.

dick stretcher.

That's what I do if I am involved in ordering the survey, but most of the time the survey was done years prior to my involvement; in fact, quite often the survey I'm looking at is of the adjoining property. Honestly, I don't see how it costs any more to slap a few chops along the way if you are shrubbing the line out anyway. Otherwise, yes, it should be understood at the outset whether or not the line is going to be marked or merely established. I understand that, but I'm not sure whether surveyors explain all it to their clients or not.