In 2005 I took The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery’s aviation archaeology course at College Park Airport, Md., the oldest continuously-operating airport in the world and where the Wright brothers taught the U.S. Army to fly their first planes.
One of the items recovered has us stumped. Some think it’s part of a military uniform or web gear, others think it belongs to an early 1900s car. It is a clip, or stud, of ferrous metal, possibly brass, about 1-inch long and high. The top part can turn to the side, as if to lock something, and the bottom T-shaped part has a hole at each end, perhaps to fasten it to something.
It is a fastener to attach a tarp to a vehicle. I remember them from the neighbor’s boat when I was growing up (not too far from College Park). The canvas had a oval-shaped grommet through which the fastener is placed. The rotating part of the fastener is then turned to catch the grommet and secure the canvas. The two holes on either side are for wood screws to attach the fastener to the surface. The fasteners were placed every 12 to 18 inches, on the boat they were around the coaming on the aft deck. It kept the weather out of the cockpit and the honest people honest.
I’ll bet it is brass or bronze, perhaps with a chrome finish. The chrome would pit and corrode in the salt of the Chesapeake but the brass/bronze would not
The item is probably not military. It was probably on a truck - to secure the tarp covering the bed; or on a boat stored inside the perimeter of the airport fenceline.
Ditto, it’s an old fashioned tarp fastener, popular before they perfected the snap lock style you see today. Those were the days when a fastener like that kept most people out. The one you show is probably from the 1960s.
I remember we had some of these on older trucks like Dueces when I was in the Army, and they always worked fine…the snaps would fail or just come unsapped going down the road.
I wasn’t sold on the idea that it was purely military in origin, but figured with the vast amount of knowledge on the forums, it never hurts to ask. Thanks for all the replies to date.
