Here is a good one for yall!!!

Ok. I don't even know what this thing is and I have been searching online for 20 mins or so forsomething like it and have not found anything! The writing on the top say Tape O'Graph and the at the bottom says Chicago, ILL. You can take those 2 wingnuts off and see the insides(I should have taken a picture) It has some sort of real simple gear system with a slot coming out of the bottom of it. I can't find any branding or date on it(probably cause of all the rust)

Just wondering if any of you all have any idea of what this is??

This is a total shot in the dark but it looks to me like it could possibly a part to a scale of some sort.

yea i was thinking something along those lines some sort of instrument used to do something! lol

As late as the mid-60s night watchmen and even beat cops used to have a device (much larger..maybe 6" in diameter by 3" thick) that they would take on their rounds. When they got to certain spots in the route they walked, they opened a little mailbox device attached to a building, took out the key (chained to the mailbox) and inserted it into their "time clock" which was a spring wound kind of clock.

The key had a dedicated shape I think particular to its mailbox spot. When the key was inserted it made an inmpression in a paper "tape". This process was repeated through many checkpoints and at the end of a shift I guess a supervisor could look at it and see that in fact the route was "walked", doorknobs "rattled" and the public (and businesses protected).

Could this be an earlier version of such a device ?

hmmm..dimensions on this thing are about 16in long, 8in wide, 2in deep it is pretty heavy!

Does it have any markings on the back?
Can we see a pic of the inside?

I wish I had snapped a picture of the inside, I don't have this piece on me right now or else I would. There is no sort of markings other than what I have noted, but it is heavily rusted. I imagine there has got to be some marking somewhere, will just have to wait till I clean it up a little to see if I can find something.

Did you ever find out what this is?

Drew.

Check this link out, it might be you find...
trademarkia.com/tapeograph-72405873.html

Wayne

Haven't found out really what it is, thanks for the link! I want to find some pictures!

It kind of looks like a chalk line or snap line.  But it seems kind of big to be that. 

Yea def took big and heavy for that