What is this?

[BigV]

Originally Posted by Gravdigr

Camping with a "she".

Niiiiice.

You've no idea... well, you might. But then you need to multiply it by about twelve.

[BigV]

What is this?

[glatt]

I have no idea. At first glace it looks like an electrical box for home wiring, but then when you look at it closer, you see nothing to back that theory up other than the color and general shape.

I'm imagining a spring wound spool in the center with two strings or cables coming off of it, and a lever action button on top to release/lock the spool. It looks like the two strings/cables would come out where those notches on the bottom are. But they are fully retracted right now.

What is it? I have no idea. What retracts? Some sort of double action retractable clothes line?

Edit: Actually if I go with my clothes line theory, the the cables make a 90 degree turn and come out the front.

[BigV]

Originally Posted by glatt

I have no idea. At first glace it looks like an electrical box for home wiring, but then when you look at it closer, you see nothing to back that theory up other than the color and general shape.

I'm imagining a spring wound spool in the center with two strings or cables coming off of it, and a lever action button on top to release/lock the spool. It looks like the two strings/cables would come out where those notches on the bottom are. But they are fully retracted right now.

What is it? I have no idea. What retracts? Some sort of double action retractable clothes line?

dwellars take note:

this is how glatt thinks.

"I have no idea"

This is a good start and fair because I deliberately presented a good puzzle of a picture. It's not obvious.

"an electrical box?"

An idea at last (or at first). You have to start somewhere. But...

"just the color and shape suggest this, nothing else"

So, no electrical box.

"I imagine a spring wound spool in the center..."

I've gone back to this picture after reading that phrase and I don't see what suggests spring wound spool, but no biggie, we're just thinking out loud here...

"two strings/cables coming off of it, and a lever action button on top to release/lock the spool"

You *can* see a lever at the top and for the observant (and imaginative) there is the suggestion of a latch of some kind where the sides of the end of the lever are not parallel. *spoiler* it's a knob action lever to release the spool, but we're getting ahead of ourselves

"with the strings coming out of the notches on the bottom"

well, um. yeah. right.

"but they are fully retracted right now"

see above. with your freakin x-ray vision.

"What is it? I have no idea. What retracts? Some sort of double action retractable clothes line? "

Here is glatt's only mistake. No, not mistake, but he misspeaks. "I have no idea" Like hell he doesn't we've just walked through his idea. Then, naturally, he names it.

It is a double action retractable clothesline.

Here's the front.

[HungLikeJesus]

Fire extinguisher.

Or maybe a door bell.

[Carruthers]

Wall mounted kitchen scales?

[Gravdigr]

Still had fun though.

[glatt]

Can you post a picture of the top? It really looks like there is a big flat "button" that's actually a lever. The front looks little like I imagined.
But I'll take it.

[BigV]

Sorry, no more callers, please. We already have a winner.

The little clothesline came with the house, actually. It's mounted on one of the main supporting posts in the basement and the line pulls out and hooks over a couple cup hooks on the next post about eight feet away. The knob/lever locks the spool from unwinding any further under the weight of the wet clothes and when they're dry and taken away, you twist the knob and the lever lifts up and the spring winds the string back in zzZZZZZIIIIIIPPPP! This fun was done at fullspeed too many times and eventually caused a snarl on the takeup reel. I unmounted the unit and took it apart, unsnarled the line, rewound it and reassembled it. While it was in my hand, I thought of this little thread.

glatt is the winner again!!

[BigV]

Ok.

As you look at the front, the spool unwinds clockwise. The line extends as the top edge of the disc where the pawl engages moves left to right. If you look at the pawl, it has a side (the left side) that is vertical-ish, it makes a connection with the teeth on the spool that keeps it from rotating clockwise. This is what keeps the line taut when under load. When you want to release it and retract it, you have to put a little slack in it and then it can clickclickclick counter clockwise under spring power and the pawl/lever goes kdunkkdunkkdunk over each tooth until the line's all wound back in.

See?

[glatt]

Thanks for posting that top picture. That lever is exactly what I pictured, but I had no idea what the front looked like.

In fact, I started doing a frantic Google image search after I posted my guess in the hopes I would find something that would look like the image in my head. I found nothing, but I guess that's because this thing is now decades old.

I really enjoyed this installment of the game. It was a challenge. Thank you, sir.

[BigV]

You're most welcome! I like this game too. Man... .you're good.

[Griff]

Seriously, as far as I knew, that thing didn't even exist before glatt nailed it.

[glatt]

Once in a hotel, I saw a round chrome hockey puck thing attached to the bathroom wall. There was a little button thing in the center. I wondered what the hell it was, so I pulled on the button, and this long line came out. It stretched all the way across to the opposite wall where there was a bracket to accept the button. Instant clothes line. I was impressed and remembered that. I've seen them in some hotels since then. So I knew such a thing existed, but never saw one like BigV's

[Clodfobble]

I have that exact thing (glatt's picture, not BigV's) in my laundry room. Less than $10 off Amazon. Works great for that occasional thing that can't go in the dryer.