Interesting finds at the old homeplace

[Big Man]

I went out to feed the goat and chickens this morning and noticed a small round white object sticking halfway out of the ground. I scratched it out and cleaned it up, but don't have any idea what it is or was used for.

It's a little over an inch and a half in diameter, made of porcelain (or white glass). One end has the number "15" in a circle and the number "8" (no circle and smaller) below that. The end (top? bottom?) without the numbers is a bit smaller and is concave. It appears to have groves that would suggest it was inserted in something and turned to "lock" it in place. These are just groves, not threads. The concave part is about the size of my thumb and only about a quarter inch deep. The entire thing is only about half an inch or so tall.

My guess, and it's only a guess, is it has some type of electrical use. Like everything else I dig up around the old homeplace, it's something old. How old, I don't have a clue.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[zebedee]

It's the end of a cot, chair-leg or a coaster for something, perhaps?

 

[1930artdeco]

Looks like it needs a rubber gasket as it is a twist top to something.

Mike

 

[AmateisGal]

This looks like it was part of an electric fence. We had these on our farm - still do, in fact. They put the wires around those. Let me see if I can find a picture.

 

[AmateisGal]

Porcelain insulators for an electric fence, I believe. There are lots of different kinds of these...so this is probably not an exact match.

 

[AmateisGal]

I could be wrong, though...it doesn't have a hole in the middle and all the ones I'm finding online do. So maybe that's not what it is!

 

[Big Man]

I've put up and used a lot of electric fence over the years. The thing I found definitely is not an insulator for an electric fence. Other than that the object just isn't an insulator (that I'm 99.9% positive about), there never has been any electric fencing here at the old house. No one except my grandparents and me have lived here (starting in 1917). Prior to my grandfather getting a car in 1922, they had a horse and it was kept in a barb wire and woven wire fence. Likewise for the family cow.

 

[AmateisGal]

Then I'm at a complete loss!

 

[Farace]

It looks to me like a shallow milk glass jar used for a salve or balm of some sort, perhaps something like Carmex, with a missing lid (probably rusted away) that might have screwed down with a quarter turn.

 

[Big Man]

At first I thought it was something to do with electrical (part of a fuse?), but now, after a lot of thought and input from others, I'm leaning to a container of something. The only thing is, the "container area" is so very shallow. The area where something could be held is only about the size of a teaspoon (like in a measuring teaspoon).