We recently had a table at the 2013 Lycoming County Fair. To increase traffic around our table, we invited visitors to guess what the depicted artifact might be.
Ralph Kepner correctly identified this object as an apparatus to stretch shoes to accommodate a painful bunion on your foot. It was created by the Enterprise Company, and patented in 1897!
A number of people receive congratulatory congratulations for getting it right (but sorry, no prize)! They are: Ray Carter, Olivia, Charlotte & Craig Dudek, Jason Horn, Rod Houseknecht, Paul E. Jacobs, Marlyn Kepner, Steve Loveland, Cindy Newcomer, Eric Newcomer, Steve Pfaff. Christine Preston, Deb Steransky, Janet Tilley, Joseph Whitteker, and Helen Yoas.
And there were a number of interesting (and very inventive) answers:
- Candle Snuffer
- Leather Punch (close, but doesn’t actually pierce the leather)
- Leather working tool/stretcher (we needed a little more specific knowledge)
- Leather press for harness (close, very close!)
- “the tool to bring out hot metal to pound it”
- Hole punch
- Metal punch/tool to put a divot in a piece of metal
- Train tool
- Forceps
- Welding or for picking up Horse shoes that are hot
- Used to hold oxen for shoeing by pinching in nose
- To put bull ring in nose
- A tool to put a patch in a bullet
- A bottle opener
- A tool to make spoons
- A rivet tool
- Used to heat up rivets to build bridges
- To crack nuts
- Where you put the tags in the ear of livestock
- Hardness test for steel
- Tire Repair tool
- Bottle capper
- A bottle capper for root beer, ketchup, or grape juice (homemade)
- Something used for logging, like a clamp to drag the trees out of the woods
- To Lead a Bull By the Nose
- Ice Grabber/Tongs
- Ice thong (Ooohhh!!!)
- Handcuffs
- Bull Castrator
- A tool to push gun powder into a shell
- Snoot Pliers
- Twitch (put in horse nose to get their attention)
- A Brand Marker
- Medical instrument for an animal
- Saddles press, conchos
- Belt hole maker
- Something to take a horse shoe and put on and off
- Bullet Stuffer
- Create the head of a glass bottle, where the cork or cap goes on
- A Cork press for wine/whiskey bottles
- Bottle opener
- Bottle/cork closer
- To make bottle caps
- Tool used to nail in nails on the railroad
- Tool to remove railroad spikes
- Tool to remove hot metals from the stoves
- Pick up Logs
- Blacksmith tool for holding hot iron
- Pig intestine cleaner
- Chain link maker
- Something to get a hot pot off of a stove or from a fire
- Grommet crimping tool