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I went to my storage unit last week to pick some things up and there was this family cleaning out their unit. When coming down on the elevator I noticed this item and asked them about it. They said they had purchased it at a garage sale years ago for $100. I’ve removed or blurred the label and company logo to keep it from being too easy.
It was invented circa 1895 or earlier but eventually became obsolete. There were at least two companies making this device in 1895.
To make a guess, click on the “Leave/Read A Comment” link below and read other guesses and enter your own. This one is probably to hard so take a shot at being creative, ‘reverse engineer’ the question and create a use for such a contraption, create a history and description of instructions for its use. Someone will probably get closest to the correct answer this way.
Click here for the answer and to see the unblurred pictures.
4 comments:
I am torn between a coffee grinder and a butter churn/mixer.
I am torn between a coffee grinder and a butter churn/mixer.
Here are some of the guesses: Butter Churn,Corn Meal Ginder, cornmeal gritter, Wine Grape Ginder, Coffee grinder and butter churn mixer.
All wrong, its a knife cleaner:
The owner told me that it was a knife sharpener but actually its a “knife cleaner”: Apparently before the use of stainless steel to make knifes cleaning table and carving knifes was quite a chore, especially for servants in upper class homes in England.
“1895 Spong and Co were still manufacturing the ‘Original Sausage and General Mincing Machine’, plus a further four mincing machines that had been developed over the intervening years. Two coffee and/or spice mills were also developed. Knife cleaning machines included, the ‘Non-XL Knife Cleaners’, cleaning between three and ten knives at a time made as a table top or free standing machine, and the ‘Servants Friend’ and ‘Lady’s Knife Cleaner’ that cleaned between one and three knives at a time - both used the friction of leather pads and emery powder to clean the knife blades.” made by Spong and Company of London
There was also another company in England making this device which appears to have an older claim to its invention:
“…it was used to clean knifes back in the day before they were stainless steel. …made by George Kent of High Holborn, London. Knives are placed in the slots at the top of the rotary oak box. Inside are roller sharpeners, and felt buffers and bristles which clean and polish both sides of the knife at the same time. An abrasive powder is poured through the chute. The rotary action constantly raises the polishing powder from the supply chute.”
It's a car station switch. It controls the up and down direction of an older model elevator/ freight car.
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