Posted 11 years ago
mcheconi
(41 items)
Here is a small (5" long) cylindrical desk calendar that I was unable to identify.
It is marked
Made by
The Borland M'F'G CO.
1808 Borland Block
Chicago
Pat Pend
There's no information on this company anywhere, except for a patent of a wrench issued in 1913 for John Archie Borland, in this site:
http://brevets-patents.ic.gc.ca/opic-cipo/cpd/eng/patent/145976/summary.html
It is all metal, nickel plated body, brass fittings and odd lion paws. I have no idea of the age of this piece and would appreciate any help. Thanks!
I remember similar ones in the 50's
I've searched through patents for this but have had no luck, but it has me intrigued!
Does it still function?
Do the inner dark bands move to correct the date sequence?
What do the first three numbers represent?
That's interesting, but could be patented? The wheel, dates, knobs etc.? They were common, as said, in the 50's & all that I remember seeing had advertisements on them. This has 2 more slots than I remember seeing, but they were common & the 1's I remember were well made. (things were then). Don't remember any warning labels such as "MADE IN CHINA".
Walksoftly...the first three slots are for the year (!!!)...it goes up to 2499...these guys were true optimists.
It apparently works...you have to hold one band while rolling the next one at its right to have it set. Then, when you roll the last one in the right, which is the weekday, the day of the month will roll with it. Oddly there's no saturdays on it (???)
blunderbuss...these are definitely not made in china. It is a sturdy object, all metal and heavy for its size (or more probably we are not used with objects made of metal anymore and something this small being heavy seems strange).
That all makes more sense now, it's the only one that I came across that had the year included. They were very optimistic & how strange no Saturday, was the inventor a member of one of seventh-day denominations?
Walksoftly...the company that made it is a mystery by itself...from the few mentions I could find about it, it seemed to be a large enterprise with many different divisions. This "Borland Block" thing...I can't tell if it was a building, a street...everything vanished. I could not find any other product made by them.
Thanks a lot Phil...I believe it to be the one below the caption. But the Borland Manufacturing Company is still a mystery, as well as this calendar. I will try asking around in this forum. Maybe someone knows something about it.
We need AmberRose to go to the Library, or the Chicago History Museum.
Walks, "We" need Amber to go to St. Maarten.
interesting! a perpetual calendar with NO saturdays!