Hazard A Guess: Week of July 22, 2004.

Hello from Hazard!

Three readers bailed us out on Item No. 716, which remained a mystery for several weeks.

Although none mirrored the others’ responses perfectly, each danced around the same idea, so that’s our story and we’re sticking to it.

All three readers indicated the item had something to do with a horse-drawn wagon of some sort.

Hugh Pallister of Willoughby, Ohio, guesses the iron was paced on a wagon near the driver, who could use it to hold the reins while not moving.

Larry Palmer of Rogers, Ohio, says it is a stay chain hook from a Conestoga wagon. Palmer says it bolts through the front axle and a short chain is fastened from the evener to the hook to assist in steering.

And Jim Hudkins of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, concurs, adding that it looks a lot like a a piece to fit into the end of a wooden singletree, to attach either the traces, or chain links attached to traces. Hudkins wonders if it might be what some would call a “pig tail.”

He enclosed a copy of a page from a WWI manual on the horse-drawn Vickers Machine Gun Cart, what shows a diagram of parts that included a piece that looks something like our Item No. 716.

Our thanks to these readers for their help.

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Farm and Dairy’s classified advertising manager Jeanene Wolf shares Item No. 717. Anyone know what it is?

Send your answers to: Hazard a Guess, P.O. Box 38, Salem, OH 44460; or via e-mail to: editorial@farmanddairy.com.