Working Scale Model Demonstrates Jaeger Concrete Mixer

Learn how the Jaeger Machine Co. used a scale model to promote the company’s concrete mixers at trade shows and fairs.

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by Raymond Scholl
A 1/3-scale, factory-built Jaeger 3-1/2 L-ST mixer. The sample is one of 10 built in 1927 at Jaeger Machine Co., Columbus, Ohio.

Jaeger Machine Co. used a scale model to promote the company’s concrete mixers at trade shows and fairs. The scale models were also loaned to dealerships that sold Jaeger machinery. Prospective buyers were given an on-the-spot demonstration showing how the Jaeger concrete mixers were superior to those produced by the competition.

In demonstrations, the salesman actually used the 1/3-scale mixer to mix a batch of concrete. The skip was lowered and sand, gravel and powdered cement were added. The skip lever was engaged, raised and automatically stopped, dumping its contents into the mixing drum (the skip even vibrated to release the contents). The water was turned on and a precise, preset amount was added. When the contents had mixed long enough, the operator lowered the skip and dumped the fresh batch of concrete, while at the same time adding more sand, gravel and powdered cement to the lowered skip.

These scale-model mixers were powered by electric motors. The full-size 3-1/2 L-ST concrete mixers were powered by Hercules hit-and-miss engines manufactured in Evansville, Indiana. Jaeger engines were painted blue with gold lettering and pinstriping accented by a Hercules decal.

My dad, Marvin L. Scholl, purchased this 1/3-scale Jaeger concrete mixer in Plain City, Ohio, on Memorial Day in 1966. We were in the process of relocating from Hilliard, Ohio, to Blowing Rock, North Carolina. We loaded the little mixer into the freight trailer and moved to our new home in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

That summer, at age 17, I restored the model. The little mixer became part of the M.L. Scholl & Sons collection and remained on display at Frontier Village 1966-1972. Dad, my brother Donald and I collected gas engines together from 1964 to 1973. Dad is now 95, my mom is 93, my brother is 71, I am 70 and my sister is 63.

Dad sold his Jaeger concrete mixer at auction in 1991 to Paul Russell, Apex, North Carolina. Twenty-one years later, Mr. and Mrs. Russell Underwood of Sanford, North Carolina, made it possible for this treasure to be returned to Scholl ownership. Today, it is owned by Kristina Scholl Miller and her dad, Raymond Scholl. FC


Raymond Scholl lives in Sugar Grove, North Carolina. Email him at ray@schollengineshop.com.

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