We found this last week snooping around the circa 1913 Wimer Ranch at the location of the remains of the Tumalo Post Office. See [msg]208753[/msg] for background.
There was a lot of the rusted detritus you’d expect to find in such a place– old evaporated milk cans, broken glass, rusted wash basins shot full of holes, and then we found these, in the following order-
Artifact 1-
The jiffy pop prototype frame:
Artifact 2 -
The sliding rectangle thing with the moving circle. The rectangle is made of two wires that slide along each other to increase or decrease the size of the rectangle. The circle thing is attached to the rectangle with loops that slide it from left to right along the rectangle:
Artifact 3 -
A can lid with a dead center hole. 
The can lid fits perfectly into the moving circle:
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All these items could fit together as shown below. Or perhaps they aren’t related at all. They were all within about 15 feet of each other, as was a lot of other rusty old junk.
If the rectangle is closed all the way, the clothes hanger-type hook of the Jiffy Pop prototype will indeed hook over the end of the rectangle, but I didn't take a photo of that configuration.
Bread toaster
Looks like an old time canning setup. Put the jar w/lid into the circle portion and use the handles to lower everything into boiling water or a steam bath. The circular hook handle is used to pull the other setup out of the boiling tub.
You could also use that setup to heat up canned food in a hot water bath. That would explain the hole in the lid you found. Punch a hole in the can lid with a nail to prevent a surprise when you open the hot can.
new to site
cool stuff looks like homemade fur traps
> Looks like an old time canning setup.
I'm thinking you're on the right track cptdent. Seems to make sense, especially with this being an old homestead.
I LOVE mysteries like this.
I don't see anything that would grip a canning jar or allow it to be lowered into a pot of boiling water.
Seems way too elaborate for canning. I mean after all, canning only involves inserting a jar in boiling water, then retrieving it while it's hot. Simple lifting tongs or basket would suffice.
A wild guess that is difficult to describe...it's part of a mess kit...used for camping....set two rocks together and build a fire in between, set the rectangle over the rocks and put some rocks over the ends of the rectangles to hold it securely. The rectangle is adjustable to fit whatever fire ring you find. The circle in the middle is to support a small cooking pot that would fit within the circle, but be supported by the pot's taper.
The circle is adjustable so you could move the pot over the heat of the coals. The coat hanger looking thing goes over the top of the pot, when you want to adjust the pot over the coals, you simply push/pull either direction. If the fire is too hot, you simple pull the pot away from the coals.
The lid with the hole, is so you can use the device to work with smaller cans that would not be supported by their rim.
The coat hanger thingy has that bent lip on the end opposite of the handle so that when packing it into your saddle bags, the whole thing would "collapse" and be held together in a single "bundle" secured with a thin leather strap.
Wow – I don’t know if that’s what this thing was or not, but I definitely want what you described for our camp box. None of these parts look charred from campfire use, but then again maybe they were dutifully cleaned after each use or the patina of campfire usage has diminished in the last 100 years of rain, snow, sun and rust.
Obviously all the components are homemade – there’s no brand name or patent numbers… so some clever individual cobbled this together to make their life easier for... camping? Canning? Other? Sure wish old man Wimer, owner of the ranch in 1913 was still around. Bet he’d know.
> ...Sure wish old man Wimer, owner of the ranch in 1913 was still around. Bet he’d know.
Have you looked up his children? Grandchildren? Great grandchildren?
:snarky:
Dugger
No Doug, the entire clan apparently left for the SW portion of the state once the ranch was sold. A friend is going to see if he can track them down to see if any photos of the ranch survive. Using the 1913 survey mentioned in the previous post, overlaid on a modern aerial photo, we've found the location of all the buildings. Not much remains (abandoned homesteads were often cannibalized by neighbors for expensive luxuries like sawn lumber, window glass, etc.). It'd be nice to have some photos of the place and the people for the historical society's records. Copies of letters or journals would be a huge bonus.
That's what I would use it for.
Camping was quite the fad in the teens, especially when automobiles became common place.
In the 30's people made ALL of their own stuff and they utilized whatever they could recycle.
I'll pass the photos on to my father and see what he comes up with.
