I wonder if it is a wire tentioner for supporting chain link fencing.I have used one many years ago and it has some similarity ,but that one had a lever instead of handle.

Frank

Kind of neat idea. I wonder if it was the one sample made for marketing or patent application. Has teh look of something sold by small ads in car magazines in the fifties.

BT ENGINEERINGused similar devices not with chain but wire rope and had portable tripods from which it was centrally hung. I think it was for large carriageway/ footway cover lifting

It looks like a small bomb hoist. Used for loading munitions into aircraft. fixed hook goes in loop on aircraft, chain to lug on bomb. Extended neck is needed to cler the body of the munition
Newer ones tend to be cable with within a tubular neck.

Robert G8rRPI

Robert is spot on, I would think.

Only “plausible”? Check out how its done even nowadays! Plenty of examples on the net showing armaments being fitted to war planes.

It is unfortunate there is confusion between wench and winch. One is associated with pleasure and the other with work.

I wondered if it's for pulling a telephone line or power cable up to the crossbar on top of a pole. Possibly, with the long chain attached to the cable in the ground, the linesman braced the squared edge of the winch against the crossbar and hauled the heavy cable up. The ratchet allows him to gather breath!

If a lineman's tool, it dates back to men doing everything with ladders. The chaps repairing overhead power cables in the village recently used a cherry picker.

Dave

This looks very similar to a gadget that our platoon WO2 invented in the sixties.

A major problem back then was that the Centurion tank engine needed to be tilted before it could be lifted out by one of our gibbed half track recovery vehicles. Until then the job involved a lot of time, crow bars, brute force, sweat, bad language and more than a degree of luck.

Jim's tilting solution saved all that but more importantly, the engine change was done much quicker. He deserved the award the army gave him.

Rik

Certainly not telephone, a sash line was used to haul stuff up poles and the tool that tensioned open copper wires was bare steel and looked nothing like that.

Wasn't all forces kit marked WD /I GPO tools were all stamped with the Rate Book number back then.

That sort of supports the small bomb winch or similar applcation lifting something up into position. The winch handle allows single person control of the exact position of the load while lifting.

I agree that the construction doe not look mass produced. It may have been built for a similar application but influenced by experience with a bomb winch.
Aitcraft tend to have things installed from below. It might have been for engine accesories like a generator or starter motor.

Robert G8RPI.