Hello from Hazard!
We received some guesses on Item No. 1251.
Ed Warren believes shoe cobblers used the item to make heels.
John Beatty thinks it’s an old tire patch vulcanizer or the top half of one. After placing the inner tube and patch between the halves and compressing them together, a burning liquid was placed in the cup and ignited, causing heat to travel down the cast “spikes” and vulcanize the patch to the tube.
Clark Colby agrees the item appears to be the heated-platen half of a vintage Adamson tire/inner-tube patch vulcanizer made in none other than New Palestine, Ohio. In use, the rubber patch is clamped over the offending nail, rodent or bullet hole and the platen supporting the patch area is heated from below with a gasoline-fueled blow torch or similar source of heat. The cast-in pins, visible in the cavity, assist in transferring and distributing the torch heat to the rubber patch, frying on the opposite side of the platen. Colby recalls these vulcanizers being sold at virtually every farm auction, looking well-used.
Will Kienzle, of Fairview Park, Ohio, found Item No. 1251 in a box of tools he bought at an estate sale. It is cast iron on the back side.
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Greg Marous, of Bainbridge Township, Ohio, submitted Item No. 1252 and Item No. 1253.
Do you know what the items are and how they were used? Let us know by emailing us at editorial@farmanddairy.com; or by mail to: Hazard a Guess, c/o Farm and Dairy, P.O. Box 38, Salem, OH 44460. We could use more items to keep this column going. Please submit items you would like identified to editorial@farmanddairy.com.
