I saw this machine lying abandoned (in fact, it's been lying on the same spot for at least a year now...) and was reminded of Masters' poem "Abel Melveny" from the Spoon River anthology:
I bought every kind of machine that’s known—
Grinders, shellers, planters, mowers,
Mills and rakes and ploughs and threshers—
And all of them stood in the rain and sun,
Getting rusted, warped and battered,
For I had no sheds to store them in,
And no use for most of them.
And toward the last, when I thought it over,
There by my window, growing clearer
About myself, as my pulse slowed down,
And looked at one of the mills I bought—
Which I didn’t have the slightest need of,
As things turned out, and I never ran—
A fine machine, once brightly varnished,
And eager to do its work,
Now with its paint washed off—
I saw myself as a good machine
That Life had never used.
A special prize for anyone who guesses what this forlorn little machine is(was) meant to do?
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4 comments:
i guess it's the machine to sharpen knives...just a guess...
nyways blogrollin ya...
Bwa-ha-ha! No.
But thanks, sinner, for blogrolling me.
Looking closely at the machine, I can see it is petroleum (or derivative thereof) driven and, the the base seems to be a catcher /holder of the waste product.
Further examination indicates that there are 2 chutes - one for the waste and one for the product (which is aimed towards the far left ie. closest to the operator).
As it's on wheels, it's meant to be taken from location to location (farm to farm ?).
The wheels at the top (left) to me, indicate that the product going into the machine can be varying sizes, so it's not likely to be a liquid product that is being fed into or out of the machine. But, as it's in Shimla, it could be to do with apple cider production.
In saying all of the above, I'm guessing it's something to do with food production - wheat or grain or crushing of apples for the making of apple wine (cider).
Am I even close ???
Cheers
Zoltan
Good heavens! You're so close, you almost nailed it, Zoltan.
Thoroughly impressed with your analytical skills: this machine is used for making sugar-cane juice.
As for your prize... I need to think of something appropriate!
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