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 | TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley 
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2002-07-20 40536
I took the plunge and sent a small file to my ISP so I can use the picture link here.
What prompted me is the pic below that I hope works. Neither myself, my brother-in-law or a 70-year old neighbour who's worked most of his life with equipment and in the bush around here knows what it is.
My brother-in-law and I found it in the bush several feet from a used trail sometimes used by locals to a fishing spot on the Ottawa River near our camp at Bissett Creek. The Trans-Canada highway is nearby and a railroad runs a little further away. What ever it is was some feet above high water near the river and fairly close to one anchor of an old logging boom across the Creek.
I don't suppose anybody would find Bissett Creek on their maps. However, it's supposed to be in Ripley's—but that’s hard to believe. Reportedly it's one of the few spots where water, land, rail and air transportation converges. The creek was used to boom logs, and is still navigable by canoe although some logjams weren't cleared out very well after the last use of the creek. A highway bridge crosses the creek and a railroad bridge is stacked over the highway bridge. Reportedly a jet-way also runs over the spot.
And so, the hard to believe location of Bissett Creek produces a mystery object. I suppose I'll find out if I ask around a bit more but I thought I'd ask here first and try out the image link. A picture is supposed to save a thousand words, but that doesn’t seem to work in my case.
Picture Link
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 | Peters
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 3034 Northern AL
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2002-07-20 40538
It is still a mystery to me, Tom. I see no picture. ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2002-07-21 40548
Thanks for the note Peters. The link looked like it was working to me. Due to the file reference I used, the link was picking the pic from my C drive. I thought it was loading a little too fast. I have to figure out a file reference that works. ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2002-07-21 40557
I believe I've got it working now, and I'd appreciate any opinions about what it might be.
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| Peters
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 3034 Northern AL
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2002-07-21 40561
Works fine now Tom, but I don't know if I am any help. Could it be 1/2 a manical to hobble oxen? It is must be for some type of quick release action like a modern clip. I guess it could be a quick release for a boom chain, maybe the eye anchor for the line collecting boom.
They would just dump the logs in the river and then follow them down dislodging jams. There would be a heavy boom a cross the river to collect the logs, maybe it is some sort of quick release for this boom? ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2002-07-22 40569
Thanks for the comment. I'm guessing it had something to do with the log boom as well. However, I do have vague recollections of seeing something similar that I would interpret as sort of bearing retainers on old machinery with oak bearings.
I can't tell for certain if it was ‘hand smithed’ or not. Hand hammering might help place it in time, although special purpose parts probably are hand-made even today.
If it was part of the log boom, then it's probably no older than 50-years. The boom went across a bay on the river, and that bay wouldn't have been there until a dam was built 15-miles downstream around 50-years ago. Logs came down the creek into the bay and were prevented from entering the river by the boom. I don't know how much force logs would place on a boom cable and if the eye on the mystery part would be adequate, but part of the log boom is still my best guess.
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 | DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
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2002-07-22 40573
I think Peters is on to it. It looks like a handcuff. If it were used to sling loads then the weight would bear directly on the hinge pin, which is the second weakest feature of the design. The weakest feature seems to be the eye where a chain or rope would attach, definitely light duty. I believe the correct term for this device is a shackle. The rounded features on the interior surface would conform to a hock without chaffing. Some of you horse and cow guys out there might be able to estimate the size of the opening (or maybe Tom could measure it)and tell us if it would lay on the top of a hoof without slipping over it. ....
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| Charlie Iliff
Join Date: Posts: 1 
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2002-07-22 40574
I have used "pelican hooks" similar to that for attaching and detaching rigging without screw shackles, etc. They usually had the hinge off center, where the one in the picture has it in the center of the throat. It certainly could have been used in logging, or any other cable or chain activity neading easy attachment. ....
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| Charlie Iliff
Join Date: Posts: 1
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2002-07-22 40575
http://bosunsupplies.com/products2.cfm?product=S0180
a small modern version ....
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 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2002-07-22 40580
Tom, this is an almost exact match to what we still use on our farm when we use the horses for repetative tasks pulling something, usually logs. I have only ever known them as a 'safety clevis', although I have heard them called 'speed' or 'logger's' clevises. The style of use is that it gets attached to the drawbar on the horse's harness by the small eye. This leaves the large opening end facing the object to be pulled. The chains we use them with are called 'bucking chains' and are about 12' long with an eye at one end (for pulling from) and a snatch hook at the other. The arm of the clevis is passed through the eye of the chain and the ring slid down over it to lock it. We have many of these chains and so when you get to where the log is lying, someone has it already chained and waiting, at the other end you merely release the catch and go back for another log, leaving somebody to unchain it, sort it and pile it up neatly.
This is a superior way of hitching to a log for several reasons, first they are very fast to hitch & unhitch (the small eye at the end of the moveable arm is commonly used to lash them shut for a more secure hitch). Secondly, they have no openings facing forward which can snag as they drag along behind the horse(s). Thirdly, they can be unhitched even under load (which is why the load is pulled from the pivot) in the case of emergency or an impatient horse who doesn't like to stand still.
Hope this clears up the mystery. Best of luck. ....
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| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
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2002-07-23 40598
Good chance that's the explanation since there was plenty of log skidding done by horses around here. Thanks. There's still a guy down the highway who keeps horses for skidding. They work well for people who have small wood lots and don't want to tear up their bush with a bunch of trails for machine skidders. I guess it also makes sense to find something used in skidding near an old boom anchor. Then as now, I imagine there was some local distribution of boomed logs and the area would have been a good pick up point. Just retrieve a log from the boom with a pointer (large rowboat used for getting logs ‘pointed’ in the right direction) and pick up the log from shore. We inherited a set of pointer oars with one of our sheds.
My 70-year old neighbour worked as a timber marker rather than a logger and may not have recognized mystery iron. A friend at Bissett used a horse for skidding until some years ago. He is now dump superintendent and probably would have recognized it. Ironically, I was at the dump last Thursday, the clevis or shackle was in the 1/2-bed and I could have asked him.
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