A simple mechanical device

[mtbc]

I occasionally wonder about a simple but strange machine that was in my childhood home. I am probably quite wrong about the dimensions but the machine took the form of a hollow metal tube maybe a foot long, a couple of inches in diameter and plated with chromium or somesuch. It had a metal plate closing each end and stood horizontally on those plates, maybe an inch above the tabletop. Along the top of the tube but toward one end of it was a button atop a short lever: one could press the button down some; the lever would move a short distance perhaps around a hinge I barely recall. In the center of the bottom of the tube was a small, shallow, conical protrusion with a tiny hole in its tip: pushing the top button made a small metal spike protude maybe but a couple of millimeters downward out of that hole. There must have been a spring somewhere inside the tube: releasing the button returned the machine to its prior state. I have no idea what the use of this device was.