LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
VINTAGE CLUE POT MASQUERADING AS WAX MELTER
Editors note: The "wax melter pictured in the January 2001 issue of Farm Collector sparked much comment. Here is just one of the letters we received:
About that "wax melter" on page 4 of the January 2001 issue of Farm Collector. I bet it would work fine for that, if you're into candles or any kind of wax works, only I think it's a glue pot. I used, one like it, right down to the copper-colored jacket and the bar', across the top to rest your brash on, in a woodworking shop in the early 1940s. An old "Sligo Iron Store" catalogue from about 1930 lists a similar one, made by Black and Decker: capacity two quarts; temperature, 150 degrees; 110 or 220 volts; price, $27.
That kind of hot glue, known as 'animal glue' or 'hide glue', was state-of-the-art from the beginning of time until about World War II. Most all antique furniture and the like were put together with it. Noah didn't use it on the ark, because it isn't very waterproof.
On the same page again, Mr. Hutsell appears to be right about the wrench pictured in the November 2000 issue of Farm Collector. It does seem to be a well-drill wrench. That is, he's right, unless you can pick the thing up with one hand, in which case, it would be too small for what we are thinking. Although then it might be for the wood or metal sucker rod pumps used in water wells, all of which bring up this suggestion: when taking a picture to be used for identification, always include something (pencil, yardstick, someone's hand, a dead cow, anything) to give us an idea of the size of the thing.
Bob Good, 11572 Hwy,43 S., Harrison, AR 72601
HI WAY MOWER MANUFACTURER FOUND
An article in the February issue of Farm Collector on the Topeka Hi Way Mower jogged a memory for a Kansas man. Dean Fechter, Belleville, says his cousin, 'Shorty' Meinhardt, built 30 or 40 such mowers in the late 1930s.
"The first one they built, he took it out on the highway and mowed with it, and it tipped over and he broke his back," he recalls.
"That was the first mower blade that would stick straight up like that, for mowing banks," he says. "He also built oil well pumps, and a big break to bend heavy iron."
The builder died in 1998 at age 96, but his business lives on: Meinholt Machine and Welding is now run by Shorty's grandson in Topeka, Kan., and a great-grandson works at the shop.