(Editor's note: Pardon the skewed font. Blogger is acting like a beast.)
Logged 65 miles from Dartmouth to Truro.
Traveled primarily on old Route 2 in sunny 80-degree temps.
Odd start to the morning as my route was the same as the EPIC triathlon.
People cheered as I passed and police officers stopped traffic so I could roll through red lights. This Nova Scotia really knows how to spoil a gal.
Came upon the Tin Shop Museum in a little burg called Shubenacadie.
The location used to be the home and shop of Watson Smith who was famous
for inventing the steel-bottom milk can.
I know what you're saying....
"Who could drive past this without having a look-see?"
There were so many original tools and characteristics of the shop that
remained, including the rope supply that came up through the floor. Holes were drilled in the floor so the rope stock could be stored in the level
below. Customers would choose their grade of rope and then pull it across the room to the cutter. There were markings on the floor that measured the length.
There was a table full of trivia. Old-time inventions that were no longer
in use. I needed to phone a friend on many of the contraptions, like a
metal rod where you loaded a pill in one end and then shoved it down a
horses throat. There was a stamp licker, a metal grabber to retrieve food
from a hot oven and there was....THIS. Any guesses? (See answer below.)
This was Smith's tin shop. The steel tools were hearty and built to last. Smith was also creative as he harvested an old railroad tie and used it as an anvil. He was organized with labeled boxes of nails and screws.
Smith's primary job was manufacturing milk cans, but he also installed cast iron wood-burning furnaces, made roof jacks and installed plumbing fixtures in bathrooms.
Answer to above "trivia" question: It's a chicken catcher!
You would hook the chicken's neck or foot and pull them in.
I'm sure they were available in the Montgomery Ward catalog.
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