October 2011 Item A
Champagne bottle tool with brush, seal cutter and corkscrew. Photo submitted by R.C. Haufler, Comfort, Texas.
October 2011 Item B
Mainframe and treadle bar for an 1895 Mehring treadle milking machine manufactured in York Road, Md., identified by Mike Gleason, Herkimer, N.Y. Photo submitted by Pioneer Village Museum, Barron County (Minn.) Historical Society.
October 2011 Item C
Bread cutter. Photo submitted by Gordon Hadley, Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Canada. See patent 72,709 for a similar piece.
October 2011 Mystery Tool D
We received several answers for this piece. Among them: Cargo hook, says Mike Intlekofer, Bellevue, Wash. Other theories: Chain “slip” hook, available in two sizes for different sizes of chain, used to vary chain length; “banjo” hook probably used with a three- or four-leg chain sling to lift steel plates at a factory; rope hook for a hay barn rope used to operate or tie off a hay trolley and fork pulley or sling. Photo submitted by John Crofoot, New Era, Mich.