The head has a passing resemblance to a Republican US Senator who recently lost his gig as US Senate Majority Leader. He is notorious for showing considerable indolence in confirming SCOTUS judges nominated by the administration prior to the present dying administration, but showed astonishing alacrity in getting conservative judges confirmed by the Senate, resorting to shamelessly, cynical, political hypocrisy.
I thought female which I why I said Rosie. Wait, what am I saying? It still could be. *confused* This thread has gone straight into the gutter FYI. Gramps would love it. In fact I do recall when we visited hearing colorful language including GD, SOB, $hi+ and once even ti+s. RIP. Gone too soon.
It is unfortunately all too true that grand and great grandparents are often underappreciated until after they are gone, and the questions that one could have asked them remain unanswered, because the family elders are gone well before those belated questions could be framed and asked. With what I now know, and what I would like to have known about their 'back then', I am somewhat saddened and regretful of my own unasked questions. The best that I can do is to record a testimonial for my own grand children and those who follow after them, anticipating some of the things that I think that they might have asked me when I was alive, and those things that I think they ought to know about me, after I am gone and cannot speak on my own behalf. I think that my contributions to the Survival Monkey Forum, may be a useful resource for getting some measure of my thoughts on life, and the world.
Realizing that this is WAY off the topic, the point is well made, possibly worth a thread of it's own concerning writing down anecdotes or short stories of life for the descendants that have (or develop) curiosity. That would, indeed, be prep related, and there's no assurance that SM will remain available as a resource for generations yet unborn. Write it down while you are able. (My kids know where to look for the short stories.)
Today I shall ask Pops if he knows. That was his FIL and they didn’t always see eye to eye. Likely folks know this but Bangor is a submarine base. (I too shall stick to the topic hereafter)
I tried that several years back, Mom started writing but decided it was too depressing? So I have nothing from her. Ask another cousin that knew a lot of the old people, Bought a ledger book and all, I ended up with nothing a second time.
Back to the OP...I would venture a guess at a signalling gun. Gets mighty foggy, ya know, and they have been in use for centuries... Just my
Whatever the object is, it has been nicely machined. It could be a foreign order (something done off the books whilst on the clock without official sanction).
Seeing it has a solonoid to fire it ,it might be like a home defense devive one might install at a window. In the early 1900s there were window devices that used gun powder to alert the home owner, this could be a variation, only a bit more aggressive.
My brother paid for a subscription to a newspaper archive. We have been sharing 'cuts' (clips) or columns from as far back as the 1920s. Been filling in bits and pieces of my Paternal grandfather life using the clips. My avatar image is of my great-grandfather's harness shop in KS. Grandpa ran several businesses in his lifetime - to include a portable roller rink just after The Great War. Found out one of my grandmas was knocked up before she got married. The other regularly lied about her age, shaved off almost a decade before she passed. You can spin up a solid timeline and establish a good family tree from newspaper articles from back in the day. I want my children to know where they came form & something about their entire family. Using the web to backfill isn't hard - I'll hand someone my old high school yearbook. Tell them to pick a name at random. Within a couple of hours I can almost always generate a family tree back at least to their grandparents within a couple of hours using non-paywall sources on the web.
The device remains me of a fog signal cannon Heavy fog a loud report was sounded every minute as a warning to any approaching ships?
The History of Fog Signals by Wayne Wheeler | US Lighthouse Society Fog will really mess up your ability to tell direction, much less distance.
We would turn on our fog horns in the Gulf from time to time when needed. Blew for 2 seconds off 10 seconds, If the .Gov boys landed for an inspection and the homes didn't work you got an INC. Incident of non compliance