Need some help - artifact identification

I had the priveledge last year of doing an archaelogical dig at College Park, Md., the oldest continuously operating airport in the world. Among the many little “bits” of stuff we found were some curious things that look like short pieces of non-metallic wire encased in a carbon or graphite. Click on the link for a photo:

http://home.earthlink.net/~mffowler/cpartifact.jpg

The current technical name for these, of which we found more than 20, is “thingies.” I’m hoping that someone familiar with 1900-1930s technology can help us narrow that down a bit!

It looks like a “cigarette” which was a piece that was inserted between ignition leads and sparkplugs

on an aircraft’s radial engine…

Ray

Most likely part of the magneto and spark plug system. Probably worthless trash, as these are still made and look to be heavily corroded. Would be good for a “things we found” display, find anything else cool? Oh, and these were probably made from 1920 onward, or whenever planes started to have batteries.

Yeah, I figured they weren’t parts from a Wright Military Flyer, but you can always hope. If these “thingies” came in a common size, it would be impossible to figure out which airplane or engine they’re for, but if they were specific to specific engines, we have good info about the types if airplanes that flew out of College Park in the early days, and might be able to narrow it down that way.

And thanks for the info, Ray - I’m going to forward it on to the guy actually doing the final report.

Don’t know what that is, but I have to say I am JEALOUS. That was the aircraft archaeology training class, right? I so wanted to go to that, but just could not work out my schedule…

Yep, gator, the one put on by TIGHAR. After all those years of drooling over it, I finally got to go to one! That it rained almost the entire time - didn’t matter. That the passing Metro rail cars made conversation impossible most of the time - didn’t matter. That we did not find Orville Wright’s mechanical pencil - didn’t matter. I learned a lot and had a great time and got to do something that not too many other people have, dig for history at one of aviation’s truly historic sites.