What Is It? Game 78

Yay! It's time for our collaboration with What is it? Blog - can you guess what this strange contraption is for?

Place your guess in the comment section. No prize this week, so you're playing for bragging rights only.

For more guessing fun, check out the What is it? blog. Good luck!

Update 10/17/08 - Here's the answer:

A rack lifter, this winch was powered by horses and was used to elevate a wagon box or rack of hay up to the second floor of a barn, where it was forked to the storage area. Patent number 379,693 has some drawings of a similar device.

Congrats to utron who got it right first!