This part was found under an old barn and as the old saying goes curiosity got the best of the cat.
Anyone know what it might be???
That´s a thing people used to use to draw, write, even to rewind cassettes according to the legend. The other rusty thing I have no idea…
With that amount of corrosion/encrustation, it is not possible to be absolutely sure, but I believe it to be the bezel for an auto medallion/emblem. In the center there would likely have been a porcelain piece–in color–with the marque’s name, along with its logo.
I am going to go out on a limb and guess that it might be the bezel for the hood emblem on a Hudson, circa early '50s.
I have no idea but I did find a nice website for looking at old automotive emblems. Here it is: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/hood-ornament-identifiaction-guide.html
May have nothing to do with a car, unless the barn was used for car storage. More likely something related to farming, I’d think.
I think its some type of a hanger, clamp, gate hardware, or something. Never spent much time on a farm though.
Okay, now I’ll show you how a REAL nut thinks!
It appears that the two straight sides have threaded ends with thumbwheels on them. It would seem logical that as the thumbwheels are turned on the threads, the acute angle between the side grows less acute and the arc radius in the center grows smaller. It may be a device to duplicate with some modicum of precision arc radii (diameter, or whatever). I suspect it’s a tool whose use became obsolete many generations ago… perhaps even a few centuries ago.
Wonder if it was part of harness rigging on a horse drawn farm implement?
After looking up pictures of vintage horse tack, I think the mystery item was a type of adjustable horse bit.
And just to keep this car related, I will mention that car engines are rated in horsepower. 
It could be a part of a wagons running gear, or hardware from a wagon, but it is definitely not an adjustable bit for a horse or any other part of the harness.
From the looks of it the surface appears much like something that was through a fire. Many times old wooden items were just burned in a fire and the hardware was the only thing remaining.
I think that what is on the threaded ends is just two of the old four sides square nuts, with a lot of corrosion.
I would like to know if the center (between the two nuts) is an articulated joint…maybe with a rivet. Though why would it articulate two stationary ends??? That would be a useless joint!!!
I presume it is some part from some old machinery used on the farm many years ago. From the size, it cannot be anything that took a lot of abuse. Farm stuff is pretty beefy, and it looks like it may have been a bracket of some sort.
Find a really old farmer and he may be able to identify it.
Yosemite
I agree. Yosemite’s theory that it’s only a part of something rather than a complete something in and of itself is the most logical explanation I’ve heard so far. Much more rational than my own far-out theory.
We have a local outdoor living history museum near here, Old World Wisconsin.
When they first opened the place, once a week they would post a picture of an item in the news paper and asked people to call or write if they could help identify it. Then a few weeks later they would update the readers.
It was interesting and many things were identified that way for the museum.
Maybe some poster here will happen to show the picture to someone. Heck, it could be a part that came from anywhere.
Yosemite
I don’t think the part shown is the complete assembly. It’s not all there, it’s broken. I think there should be something that it was attached to at the location of what would be a circular portion to the right side of the picture if it were complete. I think the nuts were adjusted to provide tension, support, or balance to whatever round thing went through that circle. Perhaps there were two, four, six or eight of these tensioners. How many would it take to complete the circle?