We’d never seen this month’s GUESS WHAT before discovering it several weeks ago at an upscale antiques show in Delmar, California. Bringing it front and center for your perusal is our obligation – and if we can inform and confuse you in the process, we feel we’ve done our job.

Guess What?
Resembling a giant handle from a twist open sardine can, it turns 360º and activates a set of matching, interlocking gears that are attached to the thigh bone, causing them to rotate and power the two small horizontal rods. they end in two small discs – one of which is ridged, the other with a thin honed edge. Intersecting at a tangent is a lever bar which can exert pressure when triggered. Being hand-held, dimensions seem superfluous.

Got the picture? Is it:
  1. A clock maker’s spring winder
  2. Picture framer’s corner edger
  3. Champagne bottle foil cutter
  4. Bookbinder’s leather cover gold leaf embossing tool
  5. Sardine can opener
  6. Burglar alarm activator and winder
  7. Upholsterers chair repair seam stitch cutter
  8. Marmalade citrus rind reamer and pulverizer
  9. Toy airplane rubber band propeller winder
  10. Weed pruner for tortoise terrarium.
Time's up - answer next month. Till then!*
* Available for acquisition

Answer to February's Guess What?

Guess What? Last month we tried our best to mislead you, but are sure most of you recognized the mechanical object as a factory manufacturing production counter, with the operator manually tallying the operation by continuously hitting the cushioned pad with his or her palm. The bell rang every hundred tabulations – and kept one from taking a Rip van Winkle.*

*Available for acquisition

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