Can anyone identify this?

[Jim Tobias]

I'm sure this is probably a common old item along coastal regions but my in laws found this on a piece of property within 400 meters of a creek that flows into the Patuxent River. It weighs around 300 lbs. Shell crusher of some type??
He had pictures and asked me and I told him I did not know but I knew a forum that I frequented that would likely have the answer.
Any ideas??

Jim

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[Justin Ludwig]

I'm pretty sure at 300 lbs, it's the heaviest Gatorade bottle ever.

[Jim Tobias]

Well....it was a 20 oz bottle!!

[Dennis Nagle]

does a 2x4 fit in the top part between the tangs? Maybe that acts as the handle for turning. Maybe for grinding sugar beats.

[Tai Fu]

At first I thought it must be a drill bit for oil wells... but now not so much...

[Myk Rian]

Coal crusher?
Long shot.

[Andrew Hughes]

My guess is a prospecting tool for breaking up ore or rocks to check for gold.Thats my guess form a thousand miles away.

[Judson Green]

I don't think it be for anything too hard. Notice how many of the teeth are broken. But I haven't the foggist.

Found this Screenshot_2014-06-07-18-48-46.jpg doing a Google image search on "old crusher farm".

And this (and I don't know what it is either) Screenshot_2014-06-07-18-50-55.jpg makes me wonder if there was not a shallow funnel attached to it at one point, possibly made out of wood.


Screenshot_2014-06-07-21-04-36.jpg

The crank might be to tether a beast of burden.

[ray hampton]

maybe a machine to remove the kernels of corn from the ear of corn

[Jim Tobias]

It did have a place for a 2 x 4 to be attached and cranked.
Lots of ideas so far....just hoping someone says this is absolutely a ________!!!
Thanks for the input so far, I was wondering (with absolutely no knowledge of the process) if something like this was used to crush oyster shells and other shells for use in "tabby" that was used in construction along coastal regions??
Jim

[Mel Fulks]

I just hope it isn't a land mine.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I'm just guessing here, but it looks like a mill that would have turned something fist sized and fairly soft into smaller ground things. Corn shellers usually have a different method, a wheel with teeth that grinds against the cob, so the cob remains intact. This would have ground the cob up too, which is sometimes done for feed. Sugar beets weren't really grown here extensively at that point, and would have required a bigger tool. Ag in that area probably produces corn, wheat, tobacco and veggies. It would have taken some fertilizers too, and some of those in the 19th century would have needed processed to be usable, like bones. My guess is that this was in a mill for a variety of odd ball things, like feed production or fertilizer processing. Rice thrashing uses spike tooth surfaces to, but I don't think it was grown that far north.

[Tai Fu]

That would be a pretty big land mine... more like against ships.

[John Downey]

It is nothing to do with drilling or crushing rock - way too delicate for that and I've yet to see decorative feet on even vintage mining/milling equipment.

I would guess it is something in the Ag line - grinding up some kind of plant matter.

[Ronald Blue]

It definitely isn't a corn sheller. As Steve said they have A wheel with teeth that dislodges the kernels of corn from the cob. That's true of every one I ever saw from a fence top model to a stationary barn unit. Whatever it was intended for it grinds it up pretty thoroughly because there are matching teeth on the bars that support the top. But I don't have a clue as to what it's purpose was. Definitely unique to that area.