Sunday, April 27, 2014

Vintage Dog Chain repurposed

My grandmother used to tell about Jimmy and Tippy were two pet dogs that were with the great grandfather's family in the 1920s and 30s.  It was in the house which he built in 1911 and the family stayed till 1950 before renting it out.  But in my time in that other house there has been no pet animal with us.  I moved back to that, now 102-year old house in 1998, where Jimmy-Tippy ran around and got chained at times.

Among vintage junk, I had found the rusty dog chain from those days.  There was an instant fondness for its snap hook.  Since there was no intention of having a dog, I wanted to find some other use for this strong chain.  

There was a need for my travel suitcase to be chained during the rail journeys - as they are done here - because of thefts happen at night esp. in normal sleeper bogies [not much in higher class compartments]. So passengers prefer to secure their important luggage with chains for which the Railways also have provided rings under the seats to lock them. 

I was using a cheap chain for my travel which was not strong.  Now this rusty dog chain was all set to be converted into my travel chain.  Neither the snap hook nor the T-handle at the other end were useful as a travel chain.  So I cut them off. I had my sturdy travel chain ready! 


It has traveled with me on several journeys since I made it ten years ago.

But what was to be done with my favourite snap hook?   It was just the perfect key-less locking arrangement on the inside latch of our main door.  Jimmy-Tippy hook is useful to this day, this way.


Picture of it with latch open. 

Close-up of snap hook:


1 comment:

  1. Such simple ideas that have a huge impact! You never disappoint, Dinu. After you die, they should retain your brain and do research to see what makes it work the way it does, just like they did with Einstein's brain!

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