Creating a cuspidor and other local products

Ed Shannon, Between the Corn Rows

Published Friday, September 4, 2009

It’s time once again to feature some of the results of the excellent research being done by Kevin Savick. And for this column we’ll be featuring some of the products of the past created by local entrepreneurs.

One of those products was a special cuspidor or spittoon. That last word really helps to better define this rather disgusting receptacle. Anyway, about a century ago the cuspidor was an alleged necessity of life.

In 1901 the Wulff Manufacturing Co., 327 W. Main St., was making and selling the Bruyn Patent Cuspidor. I have no idea as to the identification of Mr. Bruyn. However, a newspaper ad for this product said there was “no soiling of the hands while cleaning; no spilling on the floor or carpet if tipped over; no breakage. Can be properly cleaned inside as well as outside. Can be had in either 8-inch or 10-inch, enameled or porcelain, and of a fine finish. You will admit you are getting your money’s worth when you pay 85 cents or $1.25. They are the finest on the market and everyone using cuspidors should have one.”

Seeing that Wulff name reminded me of another product from this firm. About a century ago Wulff was also making the Scorcher bicycle and I wrote an article, plus took a photo of what was then called the ”steel steed” for the July 23, 2006, issue of the Tribune. There’s a Scorcher bike at the Freeborn County Historical Museum, but no fancy Bruyn Patent Cuspidor that I’m aware of.

Another article Kevin found featured a product reportedly invented by a local resident and made by an Albert Lea firm. It was an interior clothes dryer.

In the era before electric clothes dryers, folks had just two practical choices to remove moisture from just washed garments. One was a solar clothes dryer (outside rack or posts with wire or rope lines to hang garments during better weather conditions), and the other was indoor racks and/or lines.

A news report in the May 27, 1947, issue of the Tribune said William H. Buhl, then living at 1014 James Ave., had invented a clothes dryer he called the “Foldrier.” The Tribune report didn’t indicate if he had a patent on this handy product. However, the article reported it was “made of wood. It provides arms which fold against the wall when not in use. Extended, each provides 15 feet of space on which to hang dish towels or garments.”

Buhl’s folding clothes dryer was being made by the Albert Lea Wood Products Co., 602 Commercial St.

I’m not sure as to the degree of success Buhl had with the sales of his clothes dryer product. I did a little more research and found out he died in October 1954 at a local rest home.

Now, let’s close off with what could be the oddest item ever created in Albert Lea.

On the evening of July 11, 1947, Erwin Stanton drove his vehicle into the driveway of his home on North Eighth Avenue. At that time the headlights indicated there was a small flying saucer directly ahead on the grass.

Despite traveling through millions of miles of space, the device had made a soft landing and was clearly undamaged, Stanton picked up the alleged saucer and took it into his home.

Right at this time, flying saucers was the major news topic. For example, there was an incident near Roswell, N.M., which is still somewhat unexplained, plus an encounter between an airliner and a saucer out in Washington state, The Tribune said the nation was “saucer-happy.”

The next morning Stanton took the strange device to the Tribune, then located at the corner of South Broadway Avenue and West College Street.

This saucer looked like two kettle covers stuck together . On the top were two red light bulbs and a radio tube,.

Despite some apprehension by several Tribune staff members that this thing could be a bomb, Stanton was given the honor of opening up the saucer. Right then a mousetrap snapped shut. Inside this device with the mousetrap were two batteries, a steel clip and a key for opening canned meat containers..

Stanton was quoted as saying several of his neighbors must have “put a lot of time and thought” into creating this alleged space craft.

In fact, a photo of Stanton and the city’s only flying saucer or UFO appeared in the July 14, 1947, edition of the Tribune.

Ed Shannon’s column has been appearing in the Tribune every Friday since December 1984.

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