I find old egg beater designs fascinating. I found this one at a yard sale this weekend. On this one, the gears are simply metal stampings. Cheap to manufacture, it still works perfectly today. It has a U.S. patent date of October 9, 1923. There were actually 2 patents assigned on that day: 1,470,169 and 1,470,170, both to Charles E. Kail of Binghamton, New York, and both assigned to the A&J Manufacturing Company of the same city.
As for A&J, see my previous post. Interestingly, on google patents you can find various 1930's patents for egg beaters are assigned either to the A&J Manufacturing Co. of Binghampton, NY or to the A&J Kitchen Tool Co. of Chicago, Illinois. Was this the same company? In any event, A&J Manufacturing was bought by Ekco in 1929. Ekco was founded by Edward Kaztinger, an Austrian ex-patriate in Chicago in 1888. It is now arguably the largest kitchen tool supplier in the U.S.
3 comments:
My Great Grand Father on my mother's side is Charles E Kail. It was nice to read you blog about just one of many things he created.
TY for commenting. It wasn't too long ago yet so long ago compared to technology today. I hope many of his creations can be preserved in a museum somewhere, we can never forget him.
I just picked up an identical A&J mixer as the one in your photos. I bought it for $5 at an antique store in Front Royal, Virginia. I was just curious about the age of our egg beaters. If the naming changed when A&J was purchased by Ekco, then these mixers of ours should/could be about 90-100 years old? I do wonder if Ekco continued to use the same machining and stamping of A&J after they purchased the company. I imagine the machining - yes.. the stamping.. NO?
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