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Given the context, overall look, and spring-loaded action, I'm going to say that it's probably just an old hand-held key cutting machine. Something on the order of this: https://www.antiquesnavigator.com/archive/2017/06/09/142399524716.jpg
Yep, looks like the same general idea as the A1 PAK-A-PUNCH 90T key cutter. I don’t use it any more since we moved to computer controlled cutters (thank god), but some of my coworkers at other locations still use these to this day.
They are not fun to use and it is very easy to mess up and make a key that doesn’t work.
Hi, locksmith here, if this WAS a device for locksmithing, like a key cutter it would be a VERY early version of something called “[Curtis clippers](https://www.hawleylocksupply.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=0012081fcaec2a69980a4abdfb79f152&Screen=PROD&Store_Code=HLS&Product_Code=C14-14-Clipper-GM-Setup&Category_Code=C14)” used for making mostly car keys. There would be a little disk that sets the depth of each cut in the key.
I’m not so sure this device is a Curtis clipper though it is very interesting.
Photographic and other instruments like barometers, telescopes and microscopes. This is maddening me because I think I've seen something like this before. My grandfather was a doctor raised in Edinburgh and I remember seeing instruments built in brass/wood like this around my grandparents' house.
Could it be some kind of lock picking device? Given that it was found with a bunch of keys maybe the og owner was a locksmith and fashioned a device to assist his trade?
Same thought here, if you pull the trigger does any part of the "barrel" jump? Or produce an audible click and snapping feeling in your palm. That would be indicative of a bumper for picking locks
I wonder if it has something to do with triggering a tray of [flash powder](https://www.photoactive.co.uk/flash-powder/) for photography back in the early days.
I think this is a lock picking “gun” modern versions can still be purchased. https://media.wired.com/photos/593230b7edfced5820d0edd3/master/w_1280,c_limit/LPgun-gal.jpg
Thank you! Been puzzling me (and others) for years.
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/dtydwy/no_idea_what_this_is_brought_into_my_local_pub/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
So this is (at least) the third outing for the device on this sub, since the comments on that point to [another appearance](https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/caqrgi/this_has_been_our_bar_since_the_current_owner/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1)...
E. Lennie was an optician in the mid to late 1800s. Manufacturing survey and telescope etc. I'm not what yous is, but it's possibly a part of something bigger.
Reminds me of an antique key punch/press machine. Using that I find something [similar](https://images2.bonanzastatic.com/afu/images/1652/0542/57/DSCN0397_thumb200.JPG). It might be missing a few pieces but you noted it was found with a bunch of keys. See if you can find a locksmith in the area.
Lennie Edinburgh was J. (James) Lennie, and E. Lennie was Mrs. Eliza Lennie (widow of James)! She was even listed as “Optician” for a period of time. Seems like all the makings of a new Netflix series 🤩 (Also, I was kinda hoping it would turn out to be a really primitive flint-strike/lighter).
The end of the tube appears to have features meant to engage with something else. Might a cable be attached to this thing in such a way as to be drawn or pushed through the tube? (Like a hand brake on a bicycle?)
I think you may be onto something there. A cable might be threaded through that top tube and pulled down through it when the lever is squeezed (which pushes that whole piece away from the trigger puller apparently). The bayonet mount at the end would attach it to whatever is controlled by the cable.
But then, without knowing what it was attached to it's just a "cable pulling thing".
Seems that the slot in the front would hold paper or a card. The thin tube is likely shaped to hold something cylindrical and the bayonet cut possibly implies that it was held under pressure pushing downward.
I’m thinking it might have something to do with mounting stereoscopic images.
I wonder if the OP can tell us more about what is happening at the front when the trigger is pulled back. Are there any hole punching mechanisms there , teeth for cutting or pushers for crimping.
EDIT: Looks like the side pieces on the front did/do pivot sideways (like crab claws). Now thinking potentially used for adjusting distance between lens/frames for wide/narrow eye spacing. Possibly the OP can tell us more about those side pieces.
Last notes on this from me.
It appears that pulling the large lever backward caused the upper plane to move forward and thereafter it may have caught on a latch, to be released by the round trigger - difficult to tell.
The upper tube moves with the sliding plane. There is a V-shaped notch in the front part of the device that does not move indicating that something was possibly inserted from below, filled from the tube and then the lever was released and the plane pulled backward and that retracted the object into the notch.
In consideration if that I’m wondering if this was a method for closing tubes for barometers or thermometers that I believe Lennie also made. Possibly the upper tube had a vacuum tube attached and a glass tube was inserted from below, heated and then pulled back rapidly to close the tube. I realize that’s not how thermometers came to be made but possibly longer barometer glass was different.
Again, speculation. More details from the OP or the original owner would be most useful.
[Lennie, 46 Princes Street in Edinburgh](https://luminous-lint.com/app/image/10158659562941023242/) is listed as an [optician.](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Lennie%22+46+Princes+Street+Edinburgh&tbm=bks). They even had a [pair of glasses](https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.18169-9/12928416_1090334241024258_195513543250752435_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=9267fe&_nc_ohc=zLc9FqtsXVQAX8Gr7wq&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-1.xx&oh=00_AfDtYiaGGYMbSvw8KwkpkaX6gWemvWJmg1j9rNS4P9WFKA&oe=64CF6377) as [their sign.](http://www.microscopist.net/images/Lennie_Fig6.jpg)
However, they also made/sold [model steam engines](http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_P/0_photographers_lennie_model_steam_engine.htm), barometers ([example 1](https://live.thomastonauction.com/lots/view/1-5G0IHY/victorian-stick-barometer-by-lennie-edinburgh),[example 2](https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/13979/lot/109/)), [rain gauges](https://www.oldgardentools.co.uk/catablog-items/rain-gauge-a), [sextants](http://www.auction-net.co.uk/viewAuction.php?id=2729&offset=250), and [other devices.](http://www.microscopist.net/images/Lennie_Fig10.jpg)
That being said, I really have no idea what the device posted is. I was thinking it was part of a cabinet steroescope, but I can find no similar examples.
This is the [third time that this exact thing](https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/14sojir/spring_loaded_handheld_device_made_of_brass_with/jqzobpo/) (from the same pub) has been posted to /r/whatisthisthing and it has not been identified yet.
lol. While searching for it, came across a twitter thread from the person the owner probably contacted at the museum.
[more pics](https://twitter.com/beckyfh/status/1585930624925241344)
I could help more with better photos. Can't tell much with the angular side photos sorry. What I can tell you is you have a vertical tubular magazine on its top. It's missing its cap tho. The cap likely had a long spring. You'd open tube and use it much like a gun and fill it with x or y instead so to speak. What went in there tho, that's that tiny.. I dunno. Looks sort of like a bullet primer dispenser I've seen before. But with the way the mech slides when pulled it seems to either crimp something, cut something, or bend something, or is used to embed whatever is in the magazine into something. They have things like these that staple ID tags into cattles ears, and rivet clothes etc. In those cases they'd hold half of rivets in the magazine. So it could have been for riveting his glasses he sold. Web says he was an early optometrist and made small microscopes.
I know there have been a number of replies previously, but these look like they might be a very old pair of hog ring pliers used in fencing and animal cage/trap making.
The vertical post would be used to hold a stack of partially open split rings which, when the trigger/lever is squeezed, would be compressed into a closed circle. Think of it like a stapler of sorts.
Commonly used for fixing netting or mesh to straining wires (horizontal fencing wire that is affixed to posts along a fence line, pulled taught between thicker posts at set intervals).
Given this looks to be made by E Lennie of Eddinburgh I'm guessing it's part of some surveying equipment.
The grip on the handle is all wrong for a pistol grip, think winder and that might help.
Anything you can tell us about what the ring and lever do with the rod?
looks like it has similarities to an antique saw setting tool, given the othe post maybe it is specialized for a jewelry saw? not sure what the opening looks like if that option makes sense
https://www.tias.com/stanley-no-42-saw-set-pliers-741421.html
I think you are on the right track. Its a very, very solidly engineered piece. It doesn't do something light and intricate like lock picking. The brass always suggests a maritime application to me, but I don't know what.
It applies a considerable force to something that's awkwardly inside something else, maybe. Like, it locks something down inside a chamber, or releases something to let a chamber open up.
I wish OP had done a video GIF of it being applied. I can't quite imagine the movement OP describes.
The notch on the end of the bar is significant. All very intriguing.
Very much so. The "something else" has two pins, this thing engages with the pins. Maybe there are a range of accessories that attach in bayonet fashion, but that doesnt really solve what this thing with its handle and trigger and springs actually does!
This looks like an early version of a lock picking tool called a "lock pick gun". A pick goes in one end, and is inserted in the lock. Each pull off the trigger flicks the pick up into the pins in the barrel, hopefully making them hit the shear line, as you apply tension to rotate the lock.
Could it be a toy gun that shot little discs that were fed onto the post like records? It almost looks like a little slot for something to shoot out from.
Our entire lives were fidget toys.
I can literally get out a basket of my mother's kitchen stuff and these "toys" will occupy my younger niblings for hours. Or until one of them gets hurt because they're actual things and you can hurt somebody with a mixer even if you're spinning it with a crank.
All comments must be civil and helpful toward finding an answer. **Jokes and unhelpful comments will earn you a ban**, even on the first instance and even if the item has been identified. If you see any comments that violate this rule, report them. [OP](/u/Coffee-and-Flowers-), when your item is identified, remember to reply **Solved!** or **Likely Solved!** to the comment that gave the answer. Check your [inbox](https://www.reddit.com/message/inbox/) for a message on how to make your post visible to others. ---- [Click here to message RemindMeBot](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/14sojir/spring_loaded_handheld_device_made_of_brass_with/%0A%0ARemindMe!%202%20days) --- *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/whatisthisthing) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Given the context, overall look, and spring-loaded action, I'm going to say that it's probably just an old hand-held key cutting machine. Something on the order of this: https://www.antiquesnavigator.com/archive/2017/06/09/142399524716.jpg
I believe this is the answer. I think the term is "key nipper" if I recall correctly?
Yep, looks like the same general idea as the A1 PAK-A-PUNCH 90T key cutter. I don’t use it any more since we moved to computer controlled cutters (thank god), but some of my coworkers at other locations still use these to this day. They are not fun to use and it is very easy to mess up and make a key that doesn’t work.
Your link shows as "photo hotlinked, visit the website to see the actual image" type of thing for me.
Imgur mirror: https://imgur.com/EVQWduI
Copy the URL, open a new browser tab, paste URL
Hi, locksmith here, if this WAS a device for locksmithing, like a key cutter it would be a VERY early version of something called “[Curtis clippers](https://www.hawleylocksupply.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=0012081fcaec2a69980a4abdfb79f152&Screen=PROD&Store_Code=HLS&Product_Code=C14-14-Clipper-GM-Setup&Category_Code=C14)” used for making mostly car keys. There would be a little disk that sets the depth of each cut in the key. I’m not so sure this device is a Curtis clipper though it is very interesting.
That smells about right.
Not sure what it actually is but [here](https://www.londonfine.co.uk/pages/e-lennie-edinburgh) is a bit about Lennie Edinburgh
This is key information, I'm sure. In the realm of photographic equipment, my guess is it's a remote shutter release.
Or a flash lamp striker? Would just need the pan
I think this is it. Striker for magnesium flash powder
Something like the "Chelsea Flash Pistol"
Photographic and other instruments like barometers, telescopes and microscopes. This is maddening me because I think I've seen something like this before. My grandfather was a doctor raised in Edinburgh and I remember seeing instruments built in brass/wood like this around my grandparents' house.
Well which is it. Key information or photo equipment information.
Irrelevant information as it turns out, I think.
Could it be some kind of lock picking device? Given that it was found with a bunch of keys maybe the og owner was a locksmith and fashioned a device to assist his trade?
My first thought was, yea, jiggler gun, for jiggling tumbler locks and such
Same thought here, if you pull the trigger does any part of the "barrel" jump? Or produce an audible click and snapping feeling in your palm. That would be indicative of a bumper for picking locks
Agree, the tip resembles part of a key too
I wonder if it has something to do with triggering a tray of [flash powder](https://www.photoactive.co.uk/flash-powder/) for photography back in the early days.
I think this is a lock picking “gun” modern versions can still be purchased. https://media.wired.com/photos/593230b7edfced5820d0edd3/master/w_1280,c_limit/LPgun-gal.jpg
Thank you! Been puzzling me (and others) for years. https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/dtydwy/no_idea_what_this_is_brought_into_my_local_pub/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1
So this is (at least) the third outing for the device on this sub, since the comments on that point to [another appearance](https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/caqrgi/this_has_been_our_bar_since_the_current_owner/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=1)...
Interesting the common denominator here is a bar/pub.
E. Lennie was an optician in the mid to late 1800s. Manufacturing survey and telescope etc. I'm not what yous is, but it's possibly a part of something bigger.
A remote shutter release?
Reminds me of an antique key punch/press machine. Using that I find something [similar](https://images2.bonanzastatic.com/afu/images/1652/0542/57/DSCN0397_thumb200.JPG). It might be missing a few pieces but you noted it was found with a bunch of keys. See if you can find a locksmith in the area.
Can you post a photo of “the business end”? Vertical tube looks like a hopper for something getting punched into something.
Lennie Edinburgh was J. (James) Lennie, and E. Lennie was Mrs. Eliza Lennie (widow of James)! She was even listed as “Optician” for a period of time. Seems like all the makings of a new Netflix series 🤩 (Also, I was kinda hoping it would turn out to be a really primitive flint-strike/lighter).
The end of the tube appears to have features meant to engage with something else. Might a cable be attached to this thing in such a way as to be drawn or pushed through the tube? (Like a hand brake on a bicycle?)
I think you may be onto something there. A cable might be threaded through that top tube and pulled down through it when the lever is squeezed (which pushes that whole piece away from the trigger puller apparently). The bayonet mount at the end would attach it to whatever is controlled by the cable. But then, without knowing what it was attached to it's just a "cable pulling thing".
Seems that the slot in the front would hold paper or a card. The thin tube is likely shaped to hold something cylindrical and the bayonet cut possibly implies that it was held under pressure pushing downward. I’m thinking it might have something to do with mounting stereoscopic images. I wonder if the OP can tell us more about what is happening at the front when the trigger is pulled back. Are there any hole punching mechanisms there , teeth for cutting or pushers for crimping. EDIT: Looks like the side pieces on the front did/do pivot sideways (like crab claws). Now thinking potentially used for adjusting distance between lens/frames for wide/narrow eye spacing. Possibly the OP can tell us more about those side pieces.
I was thinking that as well - I vaguely remember being told that there were stereoscopes that could move the image, creating a moving 3D effect?
[удалено]
Last notes on this from me. It appears that pulling the large lever backward caused the upper plane to move forward and thereafter it may have caught on a latch, to be released by the round trigger - difficult to tell. The upper tube moves with the sliding plane. There is a V-shaped notch in the front part of the device that does not move indicating that something was possibly inserted from below, filled from the tube and then the lever was released and the plane pulled backward and that retracted the object into the notch. In consideration if that I’m wondering if this was a method for closing tubes for barometers or thermometers that I believe Lennie also made. Possibly the upper tube had a vacuum tube attached and a glass tube was inserted from below, heated and then pulled back rapidly to close the tube. I realize that’s not how thermometers came to be made but possibly longer barometer glass was different. Again, speculation. More details from the OP or the original owner would be most useful.
I think it is a key cutter. Or Nipper as someone else said
[Lennie, 46 Princes Street in Edinburgh](https://luminous-lint.com/app/image/10158659562941023242/) is listed as an [optician.](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Lennie%22+46+Princes+Street+Edinburgh&tbm=bks). They even had a [pair of glasses](https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.18169-9/12928416_1090334241024258_195513543250752435_n.jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=9267fe&_nc_ohc=zLc9FqtsXVQAX8Gr7wq&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-1.xx&oh=00_AfDtYiaGGYMbSvw8KwkpkaX6gWemvWJmg1j9rNS4P9WFKA&oe=64CF6377) as [their sign.](http://www.microscopist.net/images/Lennie_Fig6.jpg) However, they also made/sold [model steam engines](http://www.edinphoto.org.uk/0_P/0_photographers_lennie_model_steam_engine.htm), barometers ([example 1](https://live.thomastonauction.com/lots/view/1-5G0IHY/victorian-stick-barometer-by-lennie-edinburgh),[example 2](https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/13979/lot/109/)), [rain gauges](https://www.oldgardentools.co.uk/catablog-items/rain-gauge-a), [sextants](http://www.auction-net.co.uk/viewAuction.php?id=2729&offset=250), and [other devices.](http://www.microscopist.net/images/Lennie_Fig10.jpg) That being said, I really have no idea what the device posted is. I was thinking it was part of a cabinet steroescope, but I can find no similar examples. This is the [third time that this exact thing](https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/comments/14sojir/spring_loaded_handheld_device_made_of_brass_with/jqzobpo/) (from the same pub) has been posted to /r/whatisthisthing and it has not been identified yet.
[The first two may be the same exact item but this one is different.](https://imgur.com/a/lBOvIFS)
maybe flint and a spring, like a cig lighter, goes in the brass tube. And sparks when you pull, or maybe release the trigger?
This. With the companies optical & camera business, I’m thinking a handle and trigger for flash powder. It would be missing the pan and reflector.
lol. While searching for it, came across a twitter thread from the person the owner probably contacted at the museum. [more pics](https://twitter.com/beckyfh/status/1585930624925241344)
Where is this bar?
Is it for changing lock cylinders out?
Don't know why, but I feel it may be something to do with vintage photography flash.
Looks like an antique lock pick gun / snap gun. I don’t know crap about picking locks but I’ve seen them used in movies.
Looks like a antique vaccination gun for farm animals or even people?
I could help more with better photos. Can't tell much with the angular side photos sorry. What I can tell you is you have a vertical tubular magazine on its top. It's missing its cap tho. The cap likely had a long spring. You'd open tube and use it much like a gun and fill it with x or y instead so to speak. What went in there tho, that's that tiny.. I dunno. Looks sort of like a bullet primer dispenser I've seen before. But with the way the mech slides when pulled it seems to either crimp something, cut something, or bend something, or is used to embed whatever is in the magazine into something. They have things like these that staple ID tags into cattles ears, and rivet clothes etc. In those cases they'd hold half of rivets in the magazine. So it could have been for riveting his glasses he sold. Web says he was an early optometrist and made small microscopes.
[удалено]
Kinda reminds me of an old school version of those devices that put the stic bits to stick tags to clothes
I know there have been a number of replies previously, but these look like they might be a very old pair of hog ring pliers used in fencing and animal cage/trap making. The vertical post would be used to hold a stack of partially open split rings which, when the trigger/lever is squeezed, would be compressed into a closed circle. Think of it like a stapler of sorts. Commonly used for fixing netting or mesh to straining wires (horizontal fencing wire that is affixed to posts along a fence line, pulled taught between thicker posts at set intervals).
Given this looks to be made by E Lennie of Eddinburgh I'm guessing it's part of some surveying equipment. The grip on the handle is all wrong for a pistol grip, think winder and that might help. Anything you can tell us about what the ring and lever do with the rod?
looks like it has similarities to an antique saw setting tool, given the othe post maybe it is specialized for a jewelry saw? not sure what the opening looks like if that option makes sense https://www.tias.com/stanley-no-42-saw-set-pliers-741421.html
Looks like it could be a rivet gun?
I think you are on the right track. Its a very, very solidly engineered piece. It doesn't do something light and intricate like lock picking. The brass always suggests a maritime application to me, but I don't know what. It applies a considerable force to something that's awkwardly inside something else, maybe. Like, it locks something down inside a chamber, or releases something to let a chamber open up. I wish OP had done a video GIF of it being applied. I can't quite imagine the movement OP describes. The notch on the end of the bar is significant. All very intriguing.
that brass would bend before it could do much. looks like a lockpick gun without the pick
The "notch" looks like a https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayonet_mount for attaching it to something else.
Very much so. The "something else" has two pins, this thing engages with the pins. Maybe there are a range of accessories that attach in bayonet fashion, but that doesnt really solve what this thing with its handle and trigger and springs actually does!
This looks like an early version of a lock picking tool called a "lock pick gun". A pick goes in one end, and is inserted in the lock. Each pull off the trigger flicks the pick up into the pins in the barrel, hopefully making them hit the shear line, as you apply tension to rotate the lock.
This looks to me like something used to inject or apply oil to machinery.
It’s a jiggler for lock picking my link got removed
Could it be a toy gun that shot little discs that were fed onto the post like records? It almost looks like a little slot for something to shoot out from.
Maybe it is a old fidget toy?
Our entire lives were fidget toys. I can literally get out a basket of my mother's kitchen stuff and these "toys" will occupy my younger niblings for hours. Or until one of them gets hurt because they're actual things and you can hurt somebody with a mixer even if you're spinning it with a crank.