Back in the time of civil war in America, prostitutes would advertise their "Rates" by holding up these little signs. In some areas, competition was fierce and this led to the prostitutes engaging in "Rate wars" among themselves just to get business. This is where the band "Cheap Trick" got it's name
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Most people do not realize how the song " Do you know the way to San Jose ?"was what actually inspired Google to make maps that would get you there without having to stop and ask directions ( I know, a man was behind it) . They didn't have the I phone yet and the internet had not been invented by Al Gore so, they settled on printed maps. Due to the large crayon/pencil/pen shortage of the 1970's That is where these came in - people would have to put them on the map themselves in advance so they knew the distances between turns. This was very profitable to the printers as the maps were damaged from all the holes.
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The bones of the former soviet satellite "Sputnik"....
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It is a tool for lowering into an oil well . I believe it is a transponder/sonic device to examine the earth's geology from the drilled well hole. The springs keep it centered in the casing.

It's the latest piercing accessory, usually worn from the earlobe but other body parts have been used.
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Stork leg irons-keeps 'em from just flying away.
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This is a device used by the IRS to hang a person by their toes(or anything else) to get payment for taxes owed. (I don't get it, this is not an antique, it's still in use today).
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This was the first of the avon products for ladies to style their hair. It would be heated on the stove and the hair placed into the zig-zag section to make "crimped" hair styles. It quickly fell out of favor to the "flat iron" hairstyle look.
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This is a device used by linemen long ago to pull wire. It would be clamped to the top of a pole beam,and the wire laid thru the slot and pulled down to the next pole. These were temporary and would be removed after the line was secured to the insulator.
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Ronco pet rattlesnake cage

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This was the proof of concept for the upside down tomato grower. They got the cost of the unit down but shipping costs caused the abandonment of this version.

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It is a tool for repairing a (early type) automotive tire . It was used to spread the tire apart so that a patch could be applied.
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This is the first mechanical version of the "venus fly trap" plant. It was not a huge success due to the fact it took too long to capture an insect and it wasn't as gratifying as one creature eating another.

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This goes back to England in the middle 16th century,when it was considered a sign of wealth and status to have a catapault at your castle for defense and entertainment. To keep the catapault team in combat readyness, they practiced firing with bowling balls ( which did not have finger holes in them, those came much later) as regular stones were too expensive and frequently broke on impact let alone exhibited undesirable flight characteristics from the imperfect shape (caused them to dart off one way or another) it also came to happen that the bowling balls were used on more than one occasion against invading maruaders (after all the stones were used) and the owners of the castle liked the way the round bowling balls would knock down the groups of men charging the castle-this observation is what later led to the game of bowling and the invention of the ball return mechanism as the castle owners had to send a servant out to retrieve the ball. Anyway, the local peasants would notice all the dimple marks on the grounds outside the castle ( from the bowling balls) and decided that the way to be like the higher class was to invent a bucket such as pictured above and use it to make dimples in the ground around their own meager abodes-here again because bowling balls were only afforded by the upper class. Initially blacksmiths made the round bottom buckets but they came into commercial manufacturing and were even offered by Sears and Roebuck untill the early 1900's for milking cows.
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This was used by "Secret Squirrel" ( cartoon character) to climb buildings,a rope was tied to one end and tossed over a ledge which it then became a grappling hook. The disguise enabled him to wear it a ring.
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