r/whatisit • u/Hangry-24-7 • 1d ago

New, what is it? Uncle holding something

Post image

Picture of my wife’s uncle as a boy 7 or 8 yrs old. Grew up on a farm in western NY. This picture dates back to around 1947 or 1948. What is the boy holding? Is it a toy? Or some sort of farm tool?

Update — yes this photo was enhanced using ai to take the graininess out of the original picture. My wife is giving a copy of the image to her cousin for an 80th birthday gift along with other photos.

The AI bashing on this post is unbelievable! How come nobody is bashing the fact that I used a scanner to create a jpeg of the image as opposed to creating a duplicate from a photo negative in a dark room and sending out 250 copies thru the postal service?

1.0k Upvotes

68% Upvoted

502 comments sorted by

View all comments

686

u/GroundbreakingTip64 1d ago

Looks like an old blue print case. Any architects?

166

u/Ok_Principle1016 1d ago edited 1d ago

That’s what it looks like to me: my mom became an architect at 40, and her dad gifted her a vintage blueprint case for her graduation. Looked just like this.

(Even if there aren’t any architects in the family, homeowners often got the original blueprint of the house upon purchase. Could just be they built/bought a home, and the blueprints came with it 🤷‍♀️)

99

u/thexidris 1d ago

I am so dumb, I was like "How did they know it was blue? 🤔"

29

u/netsurf916 1d ago

I hear they still had color back then, but nobody can produce any evidence, so... 🤷‍♂️

1

u/Nice_Anybody2983 4h ago

That's just another lie the government ist spreading. Proof: The "Red sea" and "Black sea" are actually blue, and they had no idea. 

20

u/Marco_McFly 1d ago edited 1d ago

Technically your thought was actually correct, as it should be “blueprint”, not “blue print”…unless it’s meant to be “a print that's blue”.

Edit:
…or unless we were talking about a “blue case for prints”. ;D

5

u/The-Tarman 1d ago

Which they were. Blue, that is.

10

u/Marco_McFly 1d ago

Well…that's also correct. Technically, a blueprint is also a blue print. But not every blue print is a blueprint. ̄_(ツ)_/ ̄

2

u/Miserable-Session-35 1d ago

And printed

5

u/BeneficialLeave7359 21h ago

Not really. The original drawing is done on a translucent media which is put on top of a piece of UV sensitive paper, that is yellow to start. This combo is the then run under a UV light source which “burns off” the yellow parts that weren’t masked off by the lines and writing on the original. The blueprint paper alone is then run through an ammonia vapor bath which then fixes the lines and turns them blue.

Source: I’m an old as fuck draftsman

3

u/Past_Negotiation8290 9h ago

You’re referring to diazo blueprints which started being used in large numbers in the 1940s. The make blue lines or black or brown lines on a white background. Developed with ammonia and water vapor. The OG blueprints were actually cyanotypes invented in the 1820s.

Cyanotype prints have white lines on a blue background and need to get fully submerged in water like other photographic prints, so making large numbers was time consuming and messy.

However back to the original post, though that does look like a storage tube for drawings, the emblem on the side doesn’t look correct. Someone else suggested it is a telescope and has one just like it. I tend to agree.

Even older blue print shop owner here.

3

u/buckfordfitchenstein 11h ago

Fuckin ell. That was my first job a very long time ago

2

u/buckfordfitchenstein 11h ago

The ammonia! Phew

1

u/Marco_McFly 21h ago

Interesting, I didn’t know that yet. Thank you for sharing this! Always appreciate new information.

22

u/Nandor_the_reletless 1d ago

Looks like the garage is under construction back there.

16

u/RiotGrrr1 1d ago

Looks like a baby to me

15

u/Flaky-Ambassador467 22h ago

It looks like a telescope. You can see where it would connect to the tripod & there is a cap on one end where it would retract the eye piece. They were very popular with children back then

10

u/OlivineStuffer 1d ago

Could definitely be a blueprint tube, especially with those metal caps, but I'm curious what else it could be. 

12

u/More-Flan1369 1d ago

I worked in an engineering office. The rolled plans were kept in cardboard tubes. Blueprints were laid flat in large metal drawers.

9

u/Ok_Principle1016 1d ago edited 1d ago

But we’re talking about how blueprints were stored 80 years ago, not now. Especially IMPORTANT blueprints got metal cases for storage- as they were the final draft of the overall building, and how it was built. People (if they wanted to renovate/add on to the structure in the future) would need this information, and it (being hand drawn) was usually the only copy…so, metal tube for protection was the standard at that time.

4

u/More-Flan1369 18h ago

Your assuming that I was talking about modern times. The office I worked in was The City Engineers office for the City of Haverhill, MA. We had some pretty old, rather ancient, maps, prints, plot plans, etc.

1

u/More-Flan1369 18h ago

Cool photo, I must say.

2

u/Gecko23 16h ago

I think you have to consider that there's more than one way to store and transport a large sheet of paper. The very first drafting supply hit on google sells these tubes, for this purpose. Which would be silly if no-one used them.

2

u/AioliTurbulent1928 1d ago

I can see that, it really does look like an old blueprint case. Curious if anyone who worked in architecture back then can confirm it.