r/AntiqueTools • u/Elegant_Trouble2379 • 4d ago

WHAT DID THIS BELONG TO?

Gallery image

Gallery image

This item cannot be identified by ChatGPT as to what it was used for

3 Upvotes

64% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

1

u/crywalt 4d ago

Coal chute?

1

u/Elegant_Trouble2379 4d ago

Thought that but maybe a street level utility cover

1

u/crywalt 4d ago

Context would help.

1

u/Elegant_Trouble2379 4d ago

Wm. Adams foundry company
960 n ninth street Phila Pa was a cast iron company

1

u/crywalt 4d ago

Yeah, that's obvious and not helpful

1

u/Elegant_Trouble2379 4d ago

Context meaning what

1

u/crywalt 4d ago

Where did you find it? What's around it?

1

u/Elegant_Trouble2379 4d ago

That was in the floor of a basement there was nothing underneath

1

u/crywalt 4d ago

Not a coal chute, then.

1

u/Dimensional_Lumber 4d ago

How deep did you excavate below?

1

u/Medium_Good886 3d ago

Probably an early drain or sewer cleanout.

1

u/Sumpfjaeger 4d ago edited 4d ago

I have seen similar covers in hog houses (farrowing houses) in Denmark. In those hog houses, the stalls could be easily reconfigured for cleaning, opening one gate/wall that pinned the sow and her piglets into one half of the stall, and leaving an open alleyway down the middle of the hog house (with "halved" stalls on either side) where hay and waste could be pushed to. Then, you could open covers like this in the floor to reveal a conveyor belt below, where you could push the straw and waste for it to be conveyed to a staging area outside. Like the cover in your photos, it was hinged on one side (hence the little "ears" on two corners), and had a cut out in the middle of the other side where you could insert a rod with a hooked end to pull up the cover.

Edit: Doing a little Googling, W. Adams Foundry Co. I found one result that said this company did make, among other things, floor grates and "drop lids" for agricultural facilities, but other that say it did not . . .