BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)

Subject: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 03:42 PM

I have this fascinating gadget I have no idea where I got it,,maybe in Mom's estate...some of YOU probably have one, too- or a close relative. It folds into a dozen or more clever configurations, and can carry/support hot dishes, steam veggies, trap loose canaries...and "things to numerous to mention".

I can play with it for hours.....but is there any semi-'official' name for it? In case I wanted to go buy one.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: SINSULL
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 03:45 PM

Definitely for transporting hot dishes to and from a table. But if you turn it over, it doubles as a foot stool.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: pdq
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 03:47 PM

It is probably used to hold jars while they are being boiled. It is part of the "canning" process which perhaps should be called "jarring" instead.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 03:48 PM

If you have tiny, delicate feet...as I'm SURE you do, Mary...

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 04:11 PM

It's part of the antigravity generator on an Arcturian spacecraft, Bill! It's just a structural frame that holds some other components in place on those generators, but it's still absolutely priceless. Perhaps your Mom was an abductee? Whatever you do, don't let the authorities know you have that thing or you will get a quick visit from some gentlemen in black suits and they will take it away and you'll never see it again.

Furthermore it could provide a link to you in their ongoing investigation to find the bastard who doesn't believe in King Arther (presently reincarnated as George Bush), and you DON'T want that to happen! Bush only has a few months left now to "smoke you out" and "git you". Play it safe. Lie low.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 04:18 PM

An all-purpose thingamabob?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: ClaireBear
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 04:23 PM

It's a vintage salad spinner, from the time before they were plastic, involved cranks & stuff, and took up half your kitchen.

You load your lettuce in, go outside and swing it around in huge circles (vertical circles, please) from over your head to down by your knees.

Also works great to spin-dry hand laundry.

Note: I know this sounds like a joke, but that's REALLY WHAT IT IS!!! Honest.

Claire (who used to use one regularly, before she married someone who [A] prefers to make all the salads himself and [B] has a dryer)

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 04:49 PM

It's a beer stein from the Temperance Movement. Quite old and quite rare.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: peregrina
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 05:09 PM

A lettuce dryer, a nice one of the old kind. Line it with a tea towel if you are using it indoors...

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 05:12 PM

We had one of those when I was a lad...it is simply a folding, gold plated, fruit basket (or whatever else you wanted it to be) from the 1960s.
Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 05:40 PM

It's either a paperclip for use in a nine-dimensional universe.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 05:47 PM

There's a seemingly unresolved "either" in my post above, but that's simply a characteristic of nine-dimensional universes. They and everything in them are always either. If you had to deal with nine dimensions you'd be either also, too, and as well.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Skivee
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 05:53 PM

It's the S-Band transceiver antenna from the Voyager 3 spacecraft.
This finally solves the mystery of why the craft was not heard from after launch.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 06:05 PM

Folding wire shopping basket? I had one of those, but not quite as complicated as this one, so maybe a lettuce spinner.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Rapparee
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 06:08 PM

I just realized: that's a stool, with a thigamajig sitting on it.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 06:20 PM

Georgiansilver has it right. It's just a "folding wire basket."

You may associate it with about any "usage" you wish, but most of the farm families in my area (all of whom had several) used them mostly for hanging in the back hallway, out in the feed shed, or elsewhere, full of fruits and/or veggies that were less prone to mildew with good air circulation. They were also well-adapted to easy carrying of loose things that needed "gatherin' up" around the homestead, and were used by several people as "egg-gatherin' baskets."

Most of the "utility grade" ones were made with zinc-coated wire, and few of the old ones survive 1.) because once the zinc wears off from use the iron wire rusts and the joints get stiff so they don't work well and 2.) because the idiot grandchildren (no offense, Bill) were always fascinated with them and managed to play with them 'till they broke.

I've seen them full of pears in the upstairs back bedroom¹, eggs in the pantry, and corncobs in the outhouse. Very versatile.

At least one of the local "Ace Hardware" shops in my area has had more modern (usually alumin(i)um wire) ones for sale within the last month or so. They're seen with reasonable frequency here at yard sales and in antique malls.

Slight variations in shape were made for "special purposes" such as boiling canning jars and such; but the picture looks like a prettied up general use one, possibly used in the mid 40s to display the plastic flowers and/or other kitsch that were popular "decorating bits" next to the velvet painting over the mantle (i.e. a slightly later model than the classic ones). I have seen a very few really old "brass wire" ones, but I'd guess the one shown is a late '40s or early '50s one. [Hard to tell just from the picture.]

¹ Pears usually are picked "green" and require extended "chill" to ripen with full flavor, so the unheated upstairs bedroom was where my gramps "cured" the pears. A few "special select" ones might go in the baskets, but most were just spread out on newspapers on the floor. Weekly "turning" and removing any that started to spoil was a regular "kid chore."

Nomenclature: Folding wire basket

Usage: Any d$@#! thing you can think of

John

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: artbrooks
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 06:21 PM

Herself says it's a vegetable steamer. Personally. I think LH has the right idea.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: pdq
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 06:25 PM

In California it's called a chingadera. A close relative of the chingaso.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 06:41 PM

This is what Google shows me for a chingadera. I'm afraid I don't see the resemblance to Bill's thingy.

(Actually, Google showed me a lot of unrelated things; but I didn't get past that one.)

John

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Zen
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 06:46 PM

It's clearly a prototype version of Professor Colin Pillinger's UK Beagle Mars probe.

Zen

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: pdq
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:00 PM

Must say that JohnInKansas has found a much more interesting chingadera.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:25 PM

"Salad spinner" hmmppff.

this may be a salad spinner. (it das no rigid parts and must be hung to have a shape)

But this wonderful gadget..(new view) is WAY beyond a lettuce scruncher. (Right now it is serving as a stand for my digital camera)

I am suspecting that some of you may have something in identifying it as an alien artifact. ....Still, if anyone can supply a name that I can find similar items by, I might not try to call ET's home with it.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:30 PM

There are things similar to 'hanging black gadget' to be found under a search for "wire fruit basket", but nothing as fancy as my whatchamacallit.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Amos
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:33 PM

It is used for holding things while deep-frying them, such as chicken parts. When the handles are brought together, the retaining sides move in and grip the substance.

Or, it may be a prehistoric mind-map.



A

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:42 PM

John, Google has it dead right. That girl in the picture is a typical chingadera, and without people like her the underground economy in places like Tijuana and El Escucho would plunge into the worst depression ever seen. Be grateful for the chingaderas, they keep the wheels of commerce turning.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:42 PM

BILL...that black thing looks more like a bait basket....geeze. Just go ask for a folding wire basket.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:49 PM

I was initially puzzled too, because I thought that the stool which the alien artifact is resting on was part of the entire object being discussed...and what a bizarre object that appeared to be! Eventually I figured out that it was just a stool, though, with the object of discussion sitting on it. Then I realized what I was really looking at was an Arcturian device of the kind I have already described.

You should try selling it on Ebay, Bill, but wait until after Bush is no longer president.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:52 PM

"go"?? right...if I knew where to go,I'd recognize one if I saw it.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:57 PM

If I owned that clever looking wire basket I would probably use it to blanch quantities of fruit like peaches to peel before canning, but I wouldn't leave it in boiling water for a long time.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Sorcha
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 08:27 PM

Bill, Home Depot, Lowes, Pier 1 Imports, maybe even Wal Mart or Target!
Probably Pier 1 first tho.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 10:38 PM

You don't have to scan far down the page to find something comparable.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 10:42 PM

The little black things in the pictures are plastic, and form major 'hinges' helping control the way it all works...unlike the other joints which are regular bent wire. I'd be hesitant to put the thing in hot water, and it would be easy to get food caught in the plastic parts...I guess it would best be used as SINSULL says, to carry hot bowls & such ans serve as an adjustable trivet of sorts.

I'd sure like to see how one of the things is assembled...and for laughs, video of early attempts.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Alice
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 10:55 PM

found one like it at an antiques web site
labeled antique egg basket

http://images.goantiques.com/thumbnails/HJV4255/HJV4255eggme1.jpg

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 11:09 PM

I think it's a thing for transporting a hot casserole to a chuch potluck.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Alice
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 11:19 PM

Bill, do the handles come together and does it kind of fold in on itself like the photo I linked to?

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: DMcG
Date: 19 Jul 08 - 03:00 AM

I know we got something very similar when we bought a pressure cooker - it was inside the box and was supposed to be used to keep bowls etc raised off the base so that they were heated by the steam, not directly by whatever was heating the pressure cooker.

They never did give a good name, though. I think they referred to it as 'Insert A' or somesuch, but don't try asking for that in a hardware shop!

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: gnu
Date: 19 Jul 08 - 03:39 AM

That there chingadera must have sommat to do with salad. Looks like she ain't had no real food in a long while. Somebody feed that poor waif!

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity
Date: 19 Jul 08 - 04:47 AM

My wife has one, uses it for fruit, on the counter, but it can also be used to insert an a pot with a little bit of water to steam vegetables, and lift them out, by the handles. She also lines it with a 'kitchen towel' and brings rolls, wrapped up, to the table. Me, I think its a condom for stupid elephants.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Jul 08 - 09:57 AM

Alice...yes, the handles will come together in various configurations. The whole thing can be a closed basket, or wide open. It does look a lot like the one you found.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Alice
Date: 19 Jul 08 - 10:09 AM

well, they called it an egg carrier, so maybe that is what it is!

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Amos
Date: 19 Jul 08 - 10:34 AM

Just the thing when gathering in the eggs of a morning.


A

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 19 Jul 08 - 02:24 PM

umm-hmmm...since I have not eaten any part of an identifiable egg since I was 1½ years old, I think it will remain a "flexible trivet with delusions of centrifugal saladness".

It's STILL fun to play with...

whaddya mean I need to get out more?

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 19 Jul 08 - 06:32 PM

No, no, you need to stay in more, Bill. Bush is still on your trail, don't forget.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 01:43 PM

Bush is staying in himself lately.That video of him waving to two guys who refused to show any interest has made 'a certain point' for him....The only evidence of where to find ME is buried in hints & images in this forum that I don't think he is capable of unraveling.

...and if he starts up 16th Street in my direction, I have this old bowling ball that will meet him halfway.

I can play with my FTwDoCS (see above) right on the front lawn in perfect safety.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 02:03 PM

I did mention some long while back that we had one of these when I was a kid...It was bought as a 'Fruit Basket".....only one person seemed to agree........I promise you that is what they were sold as. Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 02:10 PM

That link of Alice's is tiny, but I think this will go to a larger image. That site won't let you link from it's photos (can't get the specs easily). This isn't the same, but similar to the earlier link.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 02:36 PM

Yes indeed, Maggie! That is obviously an early version of what I have. It doesn't 'seem' to have quite as many flexible positions, nor the 'rigidity' on the bottom that mine has. (They show it only as a basket). I can see not only gathering eggs in it, but being able to wash them and hold them while cooking. It would be interesting to see if it (the 'antique' version) could also mold to the shape of serving dishes as mine can.

Thanks for the clever find!

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 06:11 PM

I recognized it too, Claire!

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 07:08 PM

As shown in Stilly's last link, the basket is "collapsed" down to the half-height configuration. Picked up by the handles, it should open up to about twice as tall. Once you've filled it with lettuce leaves (to keep it from collapsing when you let go of the handles) you should be able to fold the handles in across the top to make a flat top - so you can stack the next basket on top of it in the donkey cart.

It's probably prettier in the shape shown - or upside down as Bill's shots were - if you just want a few things on the table for decoration.

John

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Jul 08 - 11:45 PM

Truth be told, making these baskets is a skill brought over from the Old Country. You know how surnames often take on the characteristics of the artisan, a black smith might have the name Smith, a tailor the name Taylor, a farmer named Farmer, a butcher the name Bush Butcher, etc.

I'm sure this must be something in my family heritage, but there is one link missing--I don't know of any family members named Barbara. That would tell you for sure. Is there a mark or anything on that basket that might give a clue? "Made by Barb Dwyer," perhaps?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Jul 08 - 02:06 AM

I can see not only gathering eggs in it, but being able to wash them and hold them while cooking.

Vintage versions were generally made from iron wire with hot-dip galvanizing. Quite frequently the "galvanizing" had rather high lead content (to make it stick to the wire better). This construction makes them unsuitable for any cooking use due to lead toxicity.

More recent ones have been "electoplated" or aluminum wire, which perhaps reduces any risk of metal poisoning, but I never knew of anyone (rational) using the device in question for cooking. The easy manipulation from one shape to another makes them completely unsuitable for dipping, cooking, or carrying anything hot enough to be painful in case of spilling.

The decorative version Bill has likely would not remain bright and shiny if boiled.

There are much better devices for any "cooking" use.

Eggs should NEVER BE WASHED, unless it's done immediately before cracking the shell. The mucous coating normally present inhibits air transfer through the shell, which is quite porous, and a "washed egg" will spoil very much more rapidly.

When gathering of eggs for market on family farms was common, a small pad of steel wool was a permissible method for removing "bits of chicken stuff" from the eggs when gathered, but even that was used only to remove the "big chunks" that might keep the eggs from standing up (small end down¹) in the crate.

Sometime ca. late '40s to very early '50s, it was common for market buyers to recommend dipping fresh eggs in "water glass" (sodium/potassium silicate) to form a true "air tight" coating on the shell to permit longer storage life; but that material has since been listed as "toxic" in food use and is no longer easy to obtain. Commercial "egg factories" quite probably use some replacement coating; but I've been unable to find out what - if any - "sealer" is now used.

A washed egg is a rotten egg - or will be in a couple of days.

¹ A "traditional egg" has one end that's a little more "pointy" than the other. The egg contains an "air sac" in the round end. If stored with the pointy end up, the bouyancy of the air sac makes it mix more quickly with the "eggy stuff" and promotes more rapid "spoilage." Commercial egg buyers were very insistent that the eggs be brought in "points down."

"Modern chickens" have been selectively bred to lay "round eggs" that will roll down wire collection tracks into the box, so it's often very difficult, for the eggs found in retail markets now, to tell which end the air is in without candling the egg. It's possible that better refrigeration makes it less important now(?).

I understand they're working on hens that lay square eggs for more compact shipping; but thus far the hens object.

John

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Bill D
Date: 21 Jul 08 - 11:20 AM

("Henry the Fiddler" used to do a routine (perhaps you saw it at Winfield when I did, John) where he'd play "Listen to the Mockingbird", and end up by imitating various birds on the fiddle...the last two were 'hen laying an egg'...and, with raucous scraping of the bow, 'hen laying a square egg'.)

...well, obviously I know very little about gathering, preserving, washing..or not.., and cooking of eggs. I didn't even mean to suggest that my 'basket' could be used to cook eggs in...but only to store and contain eggs for easy access during OTHER cooking procedures.

(gee, that was hard to explain properly...I had visions of this basket, folded to be a container, sitting on the counter partially filled with eggs as someone occasionally retrieved an egg or two for some recipe.)

I now know more than I ever imagined about possible uses & names for my gadget. The Mudcat Encyclopedia grows ever larger.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jul 08 - 07:44 PM

definatly an egg basket

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 21 Jul 08 - 09:36 PM

GUEST meant "defiantly an egg basket" (?).

Isn't there a song about "the bold egg basket?"

If not, who's gonna write it?

Was it the famous Sue Fley who was going to write about The Great Egg Uprising? - - - Until it fell flat when someone opened the oven door.?

John (almost hate to put the name on that)

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: SharonA
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 04:56 AM

It's a robin's-egg-blue oven with a whatchamergis on a stool in front of it.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 08:37 AM

Definitely, unequivocally, certainly, without doubt, sold in the 1950s as fruit baskets.

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: skipy
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 04:41 PM

I think it's an oven, a piece of lino & a table cloth
Skipy

Subject: RE: BS: What is this thing? (Image provided)
From: LilyFestre
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 07:56 PM

We have one of those, used it for collecting eggs when we had just a small flock.

Michelle