Fanning Mill Fans?

Some time back Rick Owens of Bennett, North Carolina, acquired a barn. Among the relics he found inside was some sort of wooden farm device, seen here:

Photo by Rick Owens

Attempting to identify the object he began an internet search, eventually ending up in the Crooked Lake Review blog at a Winter 2003 article by Dick Palmer entitled “Remember the Old Fanning Mill”.  In the article Palmer wrote, “At least a few years ago, it could be found sitting forlornly in back of the barn, long since forgotten by the present generation”. The article included a drawing of a fanning mill, used to separate grain.

Now Rick writes he would like to : “. . . identify the mill we have. I’ve looked at a whole lot of mills and simply cannot find a duplicate. If it’s really a find, I’d like to donate it to a museum. If it’s not, I’d like to sell it to someone who would appreciate it. It’s just going to sit in our barn and rot otherwise”.

Rick can be reached at:

680 Hicks Lane

Bennett, NC 27208

901-482-2275

Technology in Western New York

The University at Buffalo Libraries are pleased to announce a new exhibit:

History of Technology in Western New York

2nd Floor, Oscar A. Silverman Library, Capen Hall

University at Buffalo / North Campus

Researched and written by Nancy Schiller, Engineering Librarian, and

produced by Rose Orcutt, Architecture & Planning Librarian, History of Technology in Western New York offers a fascinating and informative glimpse into Western New York’s rich industrial heritage. The exhibit pays homage to Buffalo’s iconic grain elevators, to Pierce-Arrow and its sleek automobiles and even sleeker advertising, to the region’s contributions to early aviation, and to the massive steel mills in Lackawanna, and the men and women who labored in them.

Photographs, text and images featured in the exhibit recall an era

when 50 percent of Buffalo’s population was engaged in industrial

endeavors of one sort or another, and factories, grain elevators,

blast furnaces and steel refineries dotted the local landscape.

Inspiration for the exhibit came from a recent UB Honors Seminar

taught by Professor John Van Benschoten, Department of Civil,

Structural, and Environmental Engineering. The course explored the

role of Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Western New York in our nation’s

history, and provided students with an opportunity to consider the

history of Western New York and its future through an understanding of technology, and the benefits and costs that come with it.

The exhibit is open during regular library hours and runs through May 31, 2012.

What the . . . ! ? ! ? ! ?

Received a query recently from the lair of (Mad) Marrock of New Jersey, a self-styled Freelance Mad Scientist (his blog is at TheBlackBaron.blogspot.com/).

“I have some pictures of an item I spotted in an antique store in Troy NY and neither the shop owner or I could figure out what exactly it is or what it was meant to be used for, it was on a table among a collection of various handmade wooden items for both the workshop and the kitchen.

It was labeled simply as a wooden press.

I'm looking to neither buy or sell it, I'm just very curious about what it is and what it could possibly be used for.”

If anyone has any ideas for the Black Baron send them along to me

dminor@eznet.net

and we’ll post them.

David