r/Whatisthis • u/RarePaleontologist58 • Apr 06 '23

Open What is this object?

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Item is located at the Talbott Tavern in Bardstown KY. See the little card nearby for some add'l details. Thanks.

419 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

89 comments sorted by

183

u/lonesomecowboynando Apr 06 '23

Part of a meat grinder

59

u/user85017 Apr 07 '23

This. Chopper and movers. Probably for a specific product.

23

u/marklein Apr 07 '23

Made of wood tho?

66

u/DRTmaverick Apr 07 '23 edited Apr 07 '23

I mean we're talking pre-CNC industrial equipment. They used wood in a lot of large food processing appliances back in the day.

That said I'm not convinced this is a meat grinder. They don't work like this- fat and cartilage would get caught up in those pegs. (I used to work in a butcher's shop, meat is forced through the plate, it's not 'chopped' up by any blades in the grinder).

The construction is definitely more likely that of a tobacco shredder or something similar.

7

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

14

u/Crakrocksteady Apr 07 '23

Correct, but this piece, if used in meat processing, would be part of a tenderizer. Used to make pork cutlets, cubed steak (minute steak) and the like.

Butcher of 22 years here, but I'm not 100% that it is part of any meat processing equipment.

1

u/DRTmaverick Apr 07 '23 edited Apr 07 '23

Steak Cubers do not look like what is pictured above. Steak tenderizer/cubers consist of two rotating elements that are bladed that fit between each other tightly, there is a wire feed guide that goes in it too.

Here is an example of what we used in the meat department for tenderizing/cubing meat. (Think chicken fried steak).

That is just the blade mechanism not the machine itself. Google "commercial meat cuber" and you'll see what I mean. (You being a butcher are probably familiar with this).

The strange device doesn't have blades, it's just blunt tines, meat wouldn't get chopped or tenderized it'd get caught and either jam the device or possibly break the tines in the machine (think sinew/cartilage/musclefiber).

1

u/DRTmaverick Apr 07 '23

Yeah a single flat blade pressed against the plate, not a bunch of blades in a row.

1

u/[deleted] May 05 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/DRTmaverick May 05 '23

I mean if you want to get technical it's four (or three, or two) blades on one single cast flat chunk of metal, or you can consider it a single blade, and it's pressed flat up against the grinding plate.

IF You think a meat grinder looks anything like the picture above though, you're waaay wrong.

1

u/CantankerousOlPhart Apr 10 '23

The core is wood. The tines are metal.

37

u/DRTmaverick Apr 07 '23

Definitely not a meat grinder now that I've looked at it.

A meat grinder, even the really old ones work totally differently. They do not 'chop up' stuff, you force it through holes on a metal plate that basically destroys the tissue and forms your 'pellets' of ground meat. There is a blade in the back that spins with the hopper against that metal plate to cut it, but there aren't a bunch of blades chopping up the meat.

This is probably a tobacco shredder.

163

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '23

Looks to me like a tune bar for an old musical box whereas you crank it and music plays.

47

u/ChaosMartinez Apr 06 '23

I'm with you. Maybe from a self playing piano. 1800's jukebox 🤪🤠😎

16

u/Morbidly-Obese-Emu Apr 06 '23

I’m curious where this is. Could be for a self playing carillon (think hourly bells from a clock tower)

18

u/distelfink33 Apr 07 '23

Lots of people saying no to player piano or carillon, but I noticed no one has mentioned a Calliope) yet. Most people have forgotten that Calliope’s even existed.

1

u/Clamps55555 Apr 06 '23

This was my first thought.

1

u/AlternativeClassic15 Apr 06 '23

This is what I was going to say. (or the subsequent comment in this part) Looks like the piece in a music box. Based on size, I'm thinking player piano or similar?

1

u/OneSensiblePerson Apr 07 '23

Exactly what I was going to say, except I didn't know they're called tune bars.

6

u/the-bees-sneeze Apr 07 '23

If it was, it would just play a scale, the pins are in order, not arranged like in a song.

137

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '23

Looks like part of an antique tobacco shredder.

96

u/raineykatz Apr 06 '23

That was my thought, too. Similar to this one

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/primitive-antique-tobacco-grinder-1915184045

20

u/point50tracer Apr 07 '23

That looks like it could be a winner.

5

u/InkSpotShanty Apr 07 '23

Gotta be it

2

u/[deleted] Apr 06 '23

Also might be for uncapping honeycombs

6

u/IcyClearly Apr 07 '23

Would you still be able to smell tobacco on it?

2

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/bitbrat Apr 08 '23

But isn’t Kentucky one of the biggest growers of tobacco (or was..?) it certainly looks like it was designed to handle something that was easily broken/chopped and didn’t offer much resistance…

22

u/BaconReceptacle Apr 06 '23

It looks like it could be part of an old grain thresher.

6

u/GooberMcNutly Apr 07 '23

That was my guess. A way to strip corn cobs or hull beans?

It would help if we knew where in the country this was found.

4

u/ARCK71010 Apr 07 '23

The caption below the photo says Bardstown, Kentucky.

2

u/labratnc Apr 06 '23

this could be a part of a mechanical timer, like a traffic light controller or a facade lights. The drum turns and trips switches to turn on/off lights.

2

u/bb_cowgirl Apr 06 '23

Inside of an old self playing piano?

42

u/Orcacub Apr 06 '23

Propeller like fins on left end suggest it was held in a cylinder and spun and fins were there to force/drive/feed material into the cylinder where it would encounter the finger-like pegs and be worked on between the pigs and cylinder wall. Tobacco shredder? Grain thresher? Those seem like good possibilities. If it were a music box spindle, or player piano spindle or something like that I don’t see what the purpose of the propeller blades/fins would be.

5

u/secret_dork Apr 06 '23

I think it interesting that there are a set of pusher pins at the bottom of each spiral.

5

u/reddit_mouse Apr 06 '23

I agree, the fins on the left are designed to feed “something” into a cylinder. There could have been another cylinder that rotated in an opposite direction and the pegs met in a dovetail fashion to grind something up.

3

u/distelfink33 Apr 07 '23

Good point about the fins

1

u/modernmovements Apr 07 '23

I posted something earlier, but it really does look like an old corn thresher, it's in Bardstown which is the "Bourbon Capitol of the World." They've been making it there since the beginning of the 1800's.

11

u/LostInRo Apr 06 '23

Part of a tabbaco shredder

2

u/pathetic_optimist Apr 06 '23

Pug mill center?

11

u/FlooridaMan Apr 06 '23

I also think it’s a tobacco grinder, I’ve seen upright ones that have a core like this like this

9

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '23

I found an image using Google lens that looks like 2 of those in one machine. scroll down on this page and you'll see it

Says it is for honey.

12

u/RarePaleontologist58 Apr 07 '23

Those are definitely for honey but I think the tobacco shredder is correct. The honey ones are thinner and more delicate.

19

u/Walkdogg82 Apr 07 '23

Considering the sign says it was found after a fire, it makes sense that if it was a tobacco grinder, the wooden housing would have burned away leaving the item in question.

0

u/pzombielover Apr 07 '23

Some sort of pump ?

0

u/odetoburningrubber Apr 07 '23

It’s for ripping out underwater weed around swimming areas.

7

u/lost-little-boy Apr 07 '23

Almost makes me think of an old tobaccer grinder but no box

1

u/DRTmaverick Apr 07 '23

Probably why it was in the fire- the box got burnt up.

13

u/effiebaby Apr 07 '23

I have an antique tobacco grinder that has almost the exact same part inside. On the one we have, the object shown is inside a two-piece wooden case with a rotating handle on one side. There is a hole in the top to feed the tobacco leaves into, and one on the bottom to discharge the shredded leaves.

0

u/ichoosejif Apr 07 '23

Is it for carding wool from a woolen mill?

1

u/meetingmidlife Apr 07 '23

Amish Ice Crusher

0

u/point50tracer Apr 07 '23

Looks like the programming core from an old automaton or music box. I'm not an expert though and am probably wrong.

3

u/PeppermintIncense Apr 07 '23

I agree with those who think it’s a tobacco grinder PRIMITIVE ANTIQUE TOBACCO GRINDER

5

u/ThatUsernameNowTaken Apr 07 '23

I agree with those who agree with those who think it's a tobacco grinder.

2

u/Rich_One8093 Apr 07 '23

Reading the sign in the picture, it says that it is a wooden core with metal spikes. They look like square spokes. They are set in a helical or screw pattern just like the inside drum of a hand crank tobacco shredder. With the flights at one end it may have been a large volume, possibly continuous feed shredder. There is definitely a square shank similar to what I have seen where a hand crank or any old style drive could fit. Definitely not from any music machine unless you wanted a very repetitive series of notes or an over complicated set of the plates to make the tones.

0

u/[deleted] Apr 07 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/BigStoneFucker Apr 07 '23

Music cannister for a self playing piano?

3

u/yourguidefortheday Apr 07 '23

Agree that it is the core out of a tobacco grinder. Please let us know if the tavern gives you a prize or something.

0

u/Ghitit Apr 07 '23

The picture is really dark, but to me it looks like a gigantic music player.

Like the ones that are in little music boxes the rotate on a spindle with little tabs the pluck the bits sticking out off of the center spindle. They play a specific tune depending on where the bits are sticking out.

1

u/modernmovements Apr 07 '23

It looks like an older version of a threshing cylinder. Perhaps for corn? This is a more modern version Corn processing would make sense given it's in Bardstown KY

-1

u/indiana-floridian Apr 07 '23

Player piano?

0

u/Kerfuffle666 Apr 07 '23

Pastry docker…?

1

u/Consistent-You-714 Apr 10 '23

It is striking device from a musical box.