Hello from Hazard!
Item No. 1252 and Item No. 1253 have had our readers stumped all month, but we’ve finally received some guesses.
Kurt Barbee wrote in to say since the items were made by FMC and were for beans they were probably used to set a seeder or some kind of processing equipment, possibly a bean sorter. The number would give the setting.
Paul and Kay Scott believe Item No. 1252 looks like a gauge for measuring steel round stock, bolts or drill bits. And Item 1253 is a gauge used to measure green and wax beans.
Bob Joseph thinks these items were used for green bean grading. He shared the following:
“As an OSU graduate student, Dr. John Mount, emeritus professor of food science at University of Tennessee, used the device on the left when evaluating green bean cultivars. All the beans were picked from the plants at once and evaluated with the gauge to measure how fast the beans produced pods. The size determined whether the beans would be cut and canned or smaller beans would be frozen. The devices could be used by USDA and packers to grade green beans.”
Greg Marous, of Bainbridge Township, Ohio, submitted these items.
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We’ve also received a new submission from Jim Petrosky. He came across Item No. 1254 at his great uncle’s estate. Can you help him crack the case?
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.
