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Antiques! => Antique Questions Forum => Topic started by: greenacres on December 16, 2010, 08:46:20 AM

Title: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 16, 2010, 08:46:20 AM
WE pulled this from a landfill from the 1800's. I'm not sure if it was for wagons or early cars?
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: Dean Perdue on December 16, 2010, 09:52:34 AM
lol on your title.
Can I ask you why you call it that?
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: waywardangler on December 16, 2010, 10:22:23 AM
The size of the open end and closed end would determine if it was used on wagons or cars.  In its' present condition, there is minimal value to it.  Due to the amount of rust, any name cast/stamped in the shaft is probably not discernible.  My hunch is it was used on cars or farm implements but not specifically for either.  It is not a wagon wheel wrench unless the size is VERY large.

Was this used to whack a donkey in order to get it moving and thus the name?
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 16, 2010, 10:34:00 AM
It was a joke that day when it was found because we thought it was for a wagon. I just like it because it old and funny story behind it. I'm not thinking of selling it. I just wanted to know the time period. We always laugh when we look at it. It good for humor.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: olecanalantiques on December 16, 2010, 11:12:31 AM
Looks like a wrench for a car to me..
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: Dean Perdue on December 16, 2010, 12:10:45 PM
Great item to find and wonder about its age and who used it for what.To me thats what makes antiques fun.I love wondering about a items history.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 16, 2010, 01:04:18 PM
For me it's a thrill like treasure hunting. That landfill we found made me feel tied to the past. All the reading and investigating about people and the time periods, and their lives with war and the first F.B.I. and C.I.A. Thru bottles and embossing, I learned the history of our country. Did you know that "Black Beard the Pirate" liked to party on the outskirts of Phila.. This is an area clled Manyunk. This a rare blown bottle. It's not even straight. It says "Dr. W. H. Long's, Prairie Flower, One Dollar" This must have been something good if it cost a dollar.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: talesofthesevenseas on December 16, 2010, 03:32:25 PM
Your bottle once contained patent medicine. Here's the info on it and about "doctor" Long, aka "Diamond Jack" LOL! It's about 3/4 of the way down the page.

http://www.antiquemedicines.com/MedicineNexus/L/L.htm (http://www.antiquemedicines.com/MedicineNexus/L/L.htm)

Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: talesofthesevenseas on December 16, 2010, 03:44:23 PM
I thought I'd add that patent medicines are a really interesting thing to study and some made pretty outrageous claims. Some were hugely popular, like Lydia Pinkham's Vegetable Compound and some were full of alcohol or opiates. Here is a terrific online exhibit on patent medicines.
http://www.hagley.lib.de.us/library/exhibits/patentmed/history/history.html (http://www.hagley.lib.de.us/library/exhibits/patentmed/history/history.html)
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 16, 2010, 03:51:32 PM
I was always curious as to which type a flower they were talking about. I thought this had to do with the indians. I thought it sounded like a form of Marijuana., lol
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: KC on December 16, 2010, 05:43:16 PM
Kinda like how Coca Cola got started!

Talesof....there are still some pretty outrageous claims out there today for vitamins, weight reduction items, etc....They will laugh at us in the future!
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: talesofthesevenseas on December 16, 2010, 05:59:57 PM
My understanding is that we have Utah Senator Orrin Hatch to thank for that. He led the charge for the dietary "supplements" to be exempt from regulation by the FDA. That's why they can get away with these ridiculous claims. It amazes me sometimes how trusting we humans are and how willing to self-medicate without any professional guidence. 
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: waywardangler on December 16, 2010, 07:34:19 PM
Oh yes, KC, Coca-Cola in the original recipe form.  Must have been a drink for only the high and mighty!
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: KC on December 17, 2010, 11:17:27 AM
Talesof I agree.  Being virtually unmonitored, people can make claims and not get held accountable.  Starting with the first documented health food in 1829.....the Graham Cracker!  (Sylvester Graham was a Presbyterian minister and avid vegetarian, who promoted the use of unsifted and coarsely ground wheat flour for its high fiber content. The flour was nicknamed "graham flour" after Minister Graham, the main ingredient in Graham Crackers.  He believed that "physical lust was the cause of maladies, from biggies, like consumption, spinal disease, epilepsy and insanity, to everyday indispositions such as headaches and indigestion" and his “cure” was to suppress carnal urges, for which he prescribed a strict vegetarian diet and the avoidance of alcohol, tobacco and refined white flour.") Imagine packing those facts on graham cracker packages today! :)

The supplement industry makes over 60 BILLION a year.  The only true monitoring is for packaging, manufacture, storage, dispersion.....

Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: talesofthesevenseas on December 17, 2010, 11:29:44 AM
I find the whole "male enhancement" industry particularly frightening, when it is being target marketed at young, healthly men for what amounts to almost recreational use and preys upon young men's self-esteem.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: waywardangler on December 17, 2010, 12:06:13 PM
 ;D  I probably get 300-400 emails a week that go directly to spam on that subject, Tales.  Strangers are sure concerned about parts of me my wife is not concerned about.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: KC on December 17, 2010, 01:14:52 PM
I find it awkward and embarrassing when those commercials come on in front of my kids and mixed company!

Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 17, 2010, 01:19:59 PM
The vitamins of today are also questionable products. If you eat a healthy diet you do not need vitamins. They are an exspensive pee, as my Dr. says. There's vitiamin water even. That must be our mineral water of yersteryear!
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: talesofthesevenseas on December 17, 2010, 02:03:42 PM
I grew up just below Alum Rock Park which was famous for the healthful properties of it's mineral waters in the Victorian era. As late as the 1970's I can remember meeting an elderly man there whose son had brought him to the park so that he could collect the mineral water to drink, and he still believed it would cure his ails. The natural springs were enclosed in rock alcoves where you could fill your jugs. Here's an example:

(http://tom-mcgee.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/outside_mineral_spring.jpg)

This gazebo has been there since the late 1800's and appears on a lot of the old postcards. It was originally a place to wait for the train that came up from downtown San Jose. When I was a kid, the rock thing in the center featured piped in fountains of all the different types of mineral waters from the various springs. It was fun to go around and taste them all. The sulpher water was particularly nasty and smelly! Now I think it's just a standard drinking fountain if I remember correctly. I used to board my horse here and spent my youth/teenage years practically living in this park. I remember having races with the other horsemen on the lawn you see behind it at night!

(http://i941.photobucket.com/albums/ad257/Pahavit/FieldTrips/AlumRockPark101030/30gazebo.jpg)

Here's an old postcards showing the same gazebo:

(http://i.ebayimg.com/07/!BtotqMQBWk~$(KGrHqYH-E!EvmukCW2IBL8)P0q(b!~~_3.JPG)

(http://i.ebayimg.com/24/!B63MlwwBWk~$(KGrHqF,!hcEyryC+nV-BMyho(WodQ~~-1_12.JPG)

One of the many old stone bridges from the old Victorian "spa" days

(http://v-o-cal.org/photos/alum1.jpg)

Old bath house photo:

(http://freepages.history.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~gtusa/photos/ca/arpvinbathhouse.jpg)

Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: KC on December 17, 2010, 02:32:37 PM
We have gone up to Hot Springs Arkansas and enjoyed the spa/springs there - it is run by the state I believe now.  Was used for the ill/mentally ill/etc.  I remember heating our eldest son's baby bottle in the spring/water when we were out walking around it was SOOOO hot.  There were originally 8 bathhouses and a theraputic hospital (that is still in operation). Only 1 bathhouse run by the state is still in operation.
"Steeped in the amazing healing thermal waters, history, scientific/geological experiences, beautiful architecture, hiking, camping and just plain enjoyment - Hot Springs National Park is just plain fun.
Hot Springs National Park. Hot Springs is the smallest and oldest of the parks in the National Park System, dating back to 1832, when Congress established - 40 years ahead of Yellowstone - the first federally protected area in the nation's history. Hot Springs Reservation - which was renamed Hot Springs National Park in 1921 - originally was created by Congress to protect the 47 naturally flowing thermal springs on the southwestern slope of Hot Springs Mountain."
(http://www.helenefischman.com/images/Sauna1.gif)  (http://forum.casebook.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=2676&d=1216692562)
(http://www.sexmovieposters.com/buyproduct.php?id=5058661)

(http://www.hotsprings.org/images/content_photos/hs_photo_people_park.jpg)
Shows a manifold that regulates the water before it is used in the bathhouse so it doesn't boil people to death.
(http://www.mitzenmacher.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/2006/08/Hot%20Springs,%20AR_008.jpg)
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: regularjoe2 on December 17, 2010, 06:03:52 PM
Been to the springs in Arkansas many times too , KC .

The 'main' bathhouse-row/center/area of the 'springs district' have seen better days , but are by no means in as bad of condition (mostly) as when they were left in disrepair for years .

I'm glad that I missed that era of 'healthcare' , especially the iced-coffee enemas .

Don't get me wrong though , I love hot springs , including those here in Washington state !


Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 17, 2010, 07:58:53 PM
They also refilled the bottles , and who knows how clean they were. It could have been ale, and then it could be soda in the bottle when they refilled it. I have to check and see what the laws were in those days, or how they cleaned their bottles. The people in Elfreth's Alley died from Yellow Fever, due to the privies and unclean practices. I assume they just rinsed them with water. I rather hop in a spring than drink out of a bottle.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: KC on December 17, 2010, 09:48:11 PM
regjoe...I laughed out so-o-o-o loud that my family had to run and see when i read about the iced coffee enemas!  Now that one is a new one for me to hear of! (They don't offer that at Starbucks or Seattle's Best!  LOL)

Yep, the Health Dept wasn't very healthful back then....did the best they could on what they knew.  We are living on other people's sorrows from those days.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: cogar on December 18, 2010, 05:41:30 AM
When I first moved to Upstate NY, the Mohawk Valley, I wonder why so many towns and villages were named “Springs”, ….. like Saratoga Springs, Sharon Springs, Richfield Springs, etc.

I eventually learned why and this is one of the reasons it all got started, to wit:

Quote
In 1767, Sir William Johnson, British soldier and a hero of the French and Indian Wars, was brought about ten miles (16 km) west of the village, to what would become the city of Saratoga Springs, by Native American friends, to treat war wounds at a spring thought to have medicinal properties. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratoga_Springs,_New_York (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratoga_Springs,_New_York)


And evolved into this, to wit:

Quote
They Came to New York for the Waters - Upstate New York is hardly known as a center of mineral springs. But in the 19th century, the golden age of mineral-water spas, at least 50 New York towns, scattered from Long Island to Lake Ontario, had resorts or sanitariums drawing on water emerging from rocky places underground and laced with elements like magnesium, calcium, potassium, iron and sulfur. “There were more mineral baths available in New York than in any other state,” said Charlotte Wytias, the program manager at the Clifton Springs Hospital’s spa.
http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/travel/escapes/09Mineral.html? (http://travel.nytimes.com/2008/05/09/travel/escapes/09Mineral.html?)
pagewanted=print
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: KC on December 18, 2010, 09:47:23 AM
Wow!

I know in Florida they Corp of Engineers still keeps up with all the springs - because I was from the area that these Cold Water springs were at.  Just north of Orlando, the area around Sanford, Lake Mary, Alta Monte Springs, etc.  They are all over the area.
These are the ones that are founded as state parks http://www.dep.state.fl.us/springs/locations.htm (http://www.dep.state.fl.us/springs/locations.htm)
and these are some that are on private property...//www.waymarking.com/cat/details.aspx?f=1&guid=29f22874-256f-4fcc-a6b8-dbf4983cf230&lat=28.888383&lon=-82.58895&t=6&gid=3[/url]
But there are literally hundreds & hundreds that are small and are great swimming holes!!!!! 
There is a guy who documents them all for treasure hunters.  They have springs that were known for healing properties and ones that believed helped in early baptisms. 
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: talesofthesevenseas on December 18, 2010, 01:41:44 PM
I have only been to a hot springs once, in a tiny town near Lake Tahoe called Markleeville. At that place the spring water is so hot that they have to cool the water down so that it isn't scalding hot and they pipe it into a large swimming pool, where you paddle around and soak with a bunch of other folks. (Everyone is in swimming suits if anyone is wondering, LOL!) I remember that it did make your skin feel absolutely tingly and wonderful afterward!
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 18, 2010, 07:00:56 PM
My son was staying in Jackson Hole, and they rented snowmobiles and went to the hot springs. It sounds beautiful, but cold aftrewards.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: KC on December 18, 2010, 08:00:48 PM
Going back to an earlier conversation in this thread....Moxie Soda was original touted as Moxie Nerve Tonic until the 1906 Pure Food & Drug Act was passed.
http://www.retroplanet.com/blog/retro-memories/remember-when/moxie-soda/ (http://www.retroplanet.com/blog/retro-memories/remember-when/moxie-soda/)
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 18, 2010, 11:05:34 PM
The first picture are 3 bottles two are Charles E. Hires and the other Heinle's Root Beer. You mixed it with water. I also have Bireley's which I think is a form of Moxie, but the second pictures is a Philadelphia soda. It's name is "Franks". I have every size and shape. I think this is one of the oldest bottles of it. The thrid picture is of the base with the initials J.F.& S Sorry about the stuff in the background.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: KC on December 19, 2010, 11:02:06 AM
Gotta admit I have never seen a Beatles matryoshka doll! A first for me!  LOL

FYI - If initial(s) embossed on the base of a bottle match a firm name (other than a glass factory) on the front, the basemark will more than likely not be a glass manufacturer's mark. This is very frequently the case, especially with soda, mineral water, beer and other bottles of the 1880-1930 period, in which the initial(s) of the "end user" (such as the bottler, brewery, drug manufacturer, or other firm for which the bottle was made) appear embossed on the base.

The only thing I can find that they made were Hutchinson Soda Bottles and Hutchinson was out of Old Forge, Pennsylvania .


Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: mariok54 on December 19, 2010, 12:44:05 PM
Gotta admit I have never seen a Beatles matryoshka doll! A first for me!  LOL

I think it's even a Sargent Pepper's one!!  I have seen them before... and you get some really weird ones .. somewhere we have several USSR leaders as babushkas!! 


Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 19, 2010, 12:50:39 PM
Got it for my husband, lol I got it in Florida
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 19, 2010, 01:28:03 PM
The first picture has 4 bottles one is a Franks. It needs work.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 19, 2010, 01:42:20 PM
This bottle I really like.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: mariok54 on December 19, 2010, 02:10:36 PM
I like your bottles...We have a few, quite a few found at the bottom of our garden (there was a thread a while back where these were discussed) ... what interests me is trying to find whether the breweries still survive, and it's oh so sad that not one of where ours originated still exist  :(  There must have been thousands of micro breweries in the 1800s and into the early 1900s here in the UK, and even though they are making a revival of some sorts so very many just disappeared.
Title: Re: We call this the Donkey starter ?
Post by: greenacres on December 19, 2010, 03:26:52 PM
I bought "The 1916 History of Schuylkill County, Pa. Beers indexed Volume 1 &2 This lists the families and there beers and companies. I called the "Historic Society". Call your local or Historic Society your interested in and see if there are books available.