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  • I have a 1889 clinometer, also known

  • as an inclinometer, declinometer, pitch and roll

  • indicator, or tilt meter.

  • And various other terms.

  • - Or a level. - Or a level.

  • Yeah. You could say that.

  • [laughs]

  • I came to the pawn shop to sell my antique clinometer.

  • I got the clinometer at a flea market in Northern Illinois

  • and it's a very rare device.

  • I'm asking 3,500 for the clinometer,

  • but I will take 1,500.

  • If I get the $1,500, I'm going to go out and buy

  • some more really cool things.

  • It's an interesting carpenter's tool.

  • Instead of just being a level with a bubble in it,

  • you know, because your bubble basically tells you

  • whether you're flat or not, this will

  • tell you what your inclines are without the pen and paper

  • to do it.

  • And WLL was probably the carpenter that owned it.

  • Sure.

  • It was probably a tool used almost every damn day.

  • Yeah.

  • And this is your paper work with it?

  • Yeah, that's the original patent.

  • OK.

  • William B. Melick of St. Louis patented it in 1889.

  • This was a pretty amazing time.

  • You know, up until first 50 years of the Patent Office,

  • we did like 14,000 or 15,000 patents.

  • And then the second half of the 1800s, we did almost a million.

  • Yeah.

  • And this is one of those neat things where a guy was sitting

  • around saying, it'd be so much easier

  • if I could just put a level there

  • and it tells me the angle.

  • It's interesting.

  • What do you want for it?

  • I'm actually looking for $3,500.

  • And I'm basing that on I had an expert

  • tool person tell me about it.

  • OK.

  • And they said it was a very rare item, collectible.

  • He said it was worth that.

  • But he didn't offer to buy it though, did he?

  • No. He didn't offer to buy it.

  • - [laughs] - He said he'd never see one.

  • That sounds really astronomical for something

  • like this. - OK.

  • I've seen similar things before go

  • for like a couple hundred bucks.

  • And I'd give you, $150 for it.

  • Oh, I can't.

  • That'd be way too low.

  • I like it but we're worlds apart here, though.

  • OK.

  • Well, I appreciate you looking at it.

  • All right. No problem, man.

  • Yeah. All right.

  • Have a good one.

  • Thanks.

  • I'm passing on the offer of 150 because it's definitely

  • worth much more than that.

  • I'm going to keep the clinometer till I can find an offer

  • that's more on the right level.

I have a 1889 clinometer, also known

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