785 - Really intrigued me with its diminutive size, so I
mucked around till I found the most likely patent number. I
think it is 435,590 "Grappling Hook". It was claimed to be
used for retrieving objects from water wells. i.e. dippers,
buckets, anything that had been dropped in that would stop
the well from functioning properly. See:

http://www.pat2pdf.org/patents/pat435590.pdf


It does work in a similar manner, maybe the same person got a couple of
patents on the same day for two different hooks or he got this patent and
then modified the tool and kept the same date. I'm guessing that the one on
my site isn't spring loaded, but I'll ask the owner of it, though he's out
of town for a couple of days so it will be a while until I get an answer.
Thanks for finding that.


Rob