SEPTEMBER 2001
ISSUE

 

 

Care to Guess.?
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This month’s mystery “Guess What” could be called “The Tale of Two Handles” or “The Long and Short of It.” You load the bowl and a releasing and plunging action takes place. The usual challenge: figure out the contents processed and the end result. Copper and brass, extremely well-designed with intricate alternating motions -- engineered for heavy-duty operation. (Dimensions: bowl diam - 7”; overall hgt - 21”; short handle length - 7 1/2”)

The fact that it’s French could be a slight clue, but on a generosity scale    --you know how stingy we can be. Allow us our usual misleading interpretations - with the correct answer blended into the mix:
1) Bird bath with water flushing feature
2) Shotgun shell loader
3) Wine bottle corker
4) Pistachio nut sheller
5) Molten lead casting apparatus
6) Leather worker’s rivet machine
7) Shoemakers eyelet punch
8) Campers portable drinking fountain or wild berry rinser
9) Turn of century dentist’s spit and rinse bowl
10) Olive pimiento stuffing machine.

Meet ya same place next month with the answer.*

  

    Answer to August 2001 Issue Guess What..?

When you have a blowout or flat tire and limp to the nearest rescue mission or service station, your car hobbles along on limp, lacerated rubber and a raw rim...klippity, klippity, klop. In a similar vein, what we have is the first automobile anti-theft device. Patented in 1914, the tires of that era were solid rubber on wood rims with spokes. The device would be locked around the wheel like an off-center bracelet, and any attempt to steal the car would result in an uneven thumpy get-away, courtesy of the pointed end.*

*Thanks to Mike Goodman’s inquisitive collection.