1800’s fire starter kit? Smoke kit?

[TrashMasterCCS]

This came from an 1860-1910-ish site. The kit has paper in it and had saw dust. The metal case had everything in it. Any ideas? It is made of brass. The paper has no writing I can see.


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[Wom 27]

Maybe you should repost this . That's got to be something !

 

[TrashMasterCCS]

Maybe you should repost this . That's got to be something !

It’s kinda cool huh? I was hoping I found another “coin taco”. Thought that was a purse clasp at first


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[flyguy784]

It is indeed very cool. Being brass or bronze, I don't think it'd be a fire starter kit. Can't spark bronze! The top "smashed" piece almost looks like a candle base. I wonder could it merely be a little candle holder? Maybe even a hand held oil lamp. Much like the whale oil lamps the Inuit used. No marks, words or anything like that anywhere on it or the case ???

 

[flyguy784]

It is indeed very cool. Being brass or bronze, I don't think it'd be a fire starter kit. Can't spark bronze! The top "smashed" piece almost looks like a candle base. I wonder could it merely be a little candle holder? Maybe even a hand held oil lamp. Much like the whale oil lamps the Inuit used. No marks, words or anything like that anywhere on it or the case ???

Maybe for mining. Spike end could be jammed into a crack in mine wall.

 

[TrashMasterCCS]

It is indeed very cool. Being brass or bronze, I don't think it'd be a fire starter kit. Can't spark bronze! The top "smashed" piece almost looks like a candle base. I wonder could it merely be a little candle holder? Maybe even a hand held oil lamp. Much like the whale oil lamps the Inuit used. No marks, words or anything like that anywhere on it or the case ???

No words of any kind. It looks like the whole thing is improvised. It is 100% brass. The “candle holder” doesn’t seem like it would be practical for that. Too small. But I could be wrong. And that doesn’t explain the paper and saw dust inside along with it


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[Dezertyote]

Well.... This may sound strange but here are my thoughts.

If I'm right you have been detecting where the gold rush took place.

During the gold rush days there was also a wide use of drugs along with alcohol.
Some of those drugs were in powder form same as today. There was opium, coke weed same as today.
Just a wild guess, but the papers could be pre cut papers for powder packets.
The saw dust was in there to keep the papers as dry as possible.

A lot of Orientals and their drug of choice I believe was opium at the time.

Just a thought...

Also didn't they weigh out gold dust and put the dust in packets???

 

[cellrdwellr]

It screams lighter to me...possibly gutted out to store stuff... Very interesting to say the least... Nice find!

 

[Perquimans]

Has anyone figured this out yet? Whatever it is --it's really cool

 

[Franz]

I thought maybe a pocket heater, but I don't know what the guts to one look like. What I can find in images doesn't resemble it.

 

[TrashMasterCCS]

It screams lighter to me...possibly gutted out to store stuff... Very interesting to say the least... Nice find!

I think you may have nailed it CD! Might be gutted and repurposed.


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[TrashMasterCCS]

Well.... This may sound strange but here are my thoughts.



If I'm right you have been detecting where the gold rush took place.



During the gold rush days there was also a wide use of drugs along with alcohol.

Some of those drugs were in powder form same as today. There was opium, coke weed same as today.

Just a wild guess, but the papers could be pre cut papers for powder packets.

The saw dust was in there to keep the papers as dry as possible.



A lot of Orientals and their drug of choice I believe was opium at the time.



Just a thought...



Also didn't they weigh out gold dust and put the dust in packets???

I have encountered a lot of opium tins and Chinese mining sites. They usually smoked opium out of pipes. This site had no signs of a Chinese presence. I don’t think this was drug related. Funny story. We have actually found opium tins with the stickers still on them and resin in the cans. Clay soil sometimes preserves very well [emoji16]


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[24kilo]

Pipe tamper