"Geneva Hand Fluter"
date: label: date made
content: 1866
notes: label: Description
content: Two-piece hand fluter consisting of a wire handled, convex rocker or presser with the place made, product name and patent information cast in across its grip and the top side of its corrugated plate, and a matching, flat, rectangular, corrugated bed fixed to an iron base with "HEAT / THIS" and "PAT'D / 1866" cast in its underside; a rectangular slot for lifting is at one end of base. Rocker handle has a horizontally seamed, hexagonal block grip and S-curve or gooseneck sides individually attached to bases or sockets in the plate. Both corrugated plates are cast.
label: Description
content: Maker is W. H. Howell Co. of Geneva, IL; Eben Danford and William H. Howell established the foundry in 1862 and Howell continued the business in 1866. Contemporary reference books cite Charles A. Sterling of New York, NY, who received U.S. Patent No. 57,403 for his "improvement in fluting-machines" on August 21, 1866, as the inventor of the "Geneva Hand Fluter". However, Illinois histories published in the 1870s credit Walter D. Turner (an employee or partner of Howell).
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States: Illinois, Geneva
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Domestic Life
label: See more items in
content: Domestic Furnishings
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mrs. Mary Vaill Long
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: DL.318024.0001
label: catalog number
content: 318024.0001
label: accession number
content: 318024
objectType: label: Object Name
content: iron, fluting
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: metal, cast (rocker plate, bed plate material)
label: Physical Description
content: iron, cast (rocker handle, bed plate base material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 3/4 in x 6 in x 3 3/8 in; 12.065 cm x 15.24 cm x 8.5725 cm