Posted 4 days ago
dav2no1
(874 items)
Enterprise Tobacco Cutter no. 4
Approximately 18" wide x 7" tall
Enterprise Manufacturing Co
No. 4 "good cheer"
Being a collector and a reseller is difficult for me because I want to keep everything! Sometimes I can only keep items for a short time. This is a super cool tobacco cutter. I love the pinstripes and styling. This is the more expensive nickel plated model.
One side says:
S.W. Venable Tobacco Co.
Other says:
Chew Uncle John
Bottom:
Enterprise Mfg Co. Philadelphia, PA
Pat. July 25, 1871 April 13 1875
Jan 20, 1885
The Venable Tobacco Co.
Appears it was established in Durham,NC somewhere between 1905 & 1907.
**This info is incorrect and they were established much earlier than my research suggested**
THE WHAT NOW?
A few new words I learned..
PRIZERY: a place (as a room) adjacent to a market where recently purchased tobaccos are assembled and prized in hogsheads for shipment to redrying plants
HOGSHEADS: a large cask.
a measure of capacity for wine, equal to 63 gallons (238.7 liters).
symbol: hhd
a measure of capacity for beer, equal to 64 gallons (245.5 liters).
CHEW UNCLE JOHN
Have not found any information on this company so far.
PLUG IT IN
Chewing tobacco was very popular in the early days. "In 1880, 55 percent of tobacco produced in the country was plug tobacco, a form of chewing tobacco. While plug tobacco's percentage of total production fell after 1880, gross production continued to rise until 1917, when it reached its all-time peak of 206 million pounds."
HOW WOOD YOU COME UP WITH THIS?
"Plug tobacco was said to originate with early settlers in Kentucky or Missouri who placed cut tobacco, sweetened with honey, in holes drilled in green maple or hickory logs. Wooden plugs driven into the holes compressed the tobacco, and the drying wood absorbed the excess moisture from the tobacco. The log was then split, and the plugs of tobacco could then be consumed."
Some links to more information..
https://www.opendurham.org/buildings/venable-tobacco-company
https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/chewing-tobacco
Kera found a few more interesting links..thanks Kera..
https://patents.google.com/patent/US117365
https://hsmcpa.org/enterprise-manufacturing-company/
https://patents.google.com/patent/US124426
dav2no1, You're welcome.
My patent mojo ain't been workin' too good lately :-(
I have yet to find that middle patent (April 13 1875), but the other two (July 25 1871 and January 20 1885) yielded after a struggle.
You already posted a link to the July 25 1871 patent, but just for drill, here it is:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US117365/en
Here's the January 20 1885 patent:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US311053A/en
Thanks Kera! Great work as usual.
A'ight.
*snip*
This business of the missing plug tobacco cutter patent make me feel like Mark Twain's companion from his prospector days, Judge Oliver:
*snip*
"Oliver was sitting alone in this dismal den, one night, by a sage-brush fire, writing poetry; he was very fond of digging poetry out of himself -- or blasting it out when it came hard."
*snip*
https://twain.lib.virginia.edu/innocent/text/inn27.html
Anyway, I found two patents, both assigned to Enterprise Mfg. Co, both invented by the prolific John G. [Gulick] Baker, both granted on April 13 1875:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US162007A/en
https://patents.google.com/patent/US162008A/en
At a glance, the drawings in the first look familiar, but wait. It turns out that Enterprise also made a small coffee grinder that has that patent date on it:
https://supernovaantiques.com/product/late-1800s-enterprise-coffee-grinder-presentation-block/
So I leave it up to you. I'm tired.