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This restoration is on a “ZON“ bird cannon made by the B.M. Lawrence & Co. of San Francisco, CA, USA in the 1950s. This tool is also called an automatic scarecrow, carbide cannon, bird scarer, or orchard cannon and cost $60 USD in 1955 which is about $750 USD today. You can view the original patent here: The cannon works by the user mixing calcium carbide and water to create acetylene gas. Once the gas builds up to a certain amount, it is emptied into the explosion chamber and a flint is struck, igniting the gas and creating an extremely loud sound in hopes of scaring away birds and apparently human ears. This is the most dangerous tool I have restored thus far. The risk of creating shrapnel was present and real during every restoration decision. The main rubber diaphragm was completely rotten and needed replacing, but if I did not find rubber with equivalent thickness, strength, elasticity, and resistance to acetylene, I c
