Has anyone seen anything like this?
A few weeks ago, I found the following brass-tin-white bronze oil-fired coffee maker in one of the Thrift Stores I haunt. Based on some other artifacts I've seen and handled, I suspect it's Kenyan-manufactured , post WWI or WWII from battlefield detrius.
It shouldn't take too much work to rehabilitate to working status, all it really needs is a 5" diameter hemispherical dome (brass, copper or glass) to sit on the boiler body.
There are no hallmarks or markings anywhere, yet the construction quality is very good.
Note the bulb-shaped shaft below the strainer, which is about the right shape and size of an elevating wheel handle from an artillery piece.
Several months ago, I saw an earlier version of the article below. If my suspicions are correct, it's just another case of plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
MEKELE, Ethiopia (Reuters) - In the shadows of his dingy workshop in a northern Ethiopian town, Azemeraw Zeleke stoops over a baffling array of cylinders, tubes and handles.
The 54-year-old inventor and repairman supplies Mekele, and indeed the whole of the hilly Tigray region, with coffee machines. But it is his choice of materials that makes Azemeraw's trade truly unique.
"The farmers bring me mortar shells from the old battlefield," he says, gesturing north where Ethiopia borders Eritrea and the two nations fought a 1998-2000 war.
"The empty tubes are perfect for the coffee machines. Look, the bronze does not rust. And the shape is ideal."
Photos of the Ethiopian ones can be found here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1443239220070315
A few weeks ago, I found the following brass-tin-white bronze oil-fired coffee maker in one of the Thrift Stores I haunt. Based on some other artifacts I've seen and handled, I suspect it's Kenyan-manufactured , post WWI or WWII from battlefield detrius.
It shouldn't take too much work to rehabilitate to working status, all it really needs is a 5" diameter hemispherical dome (brass, copper or glass) to sit on the boiler body.
There are no hallmarks or markings anywhere, yet the construction quality is very good.
Note the bulb-shaped shaft below the strainer, which is about the right shape and size of an elevating wheel handle from an artillery piece.
Several months ago, I saw an earlier version of the article below. If my suspicions are correct, it's just another case of plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose.
MEKELE, Ethiopia (Reuters) - In the shadows of his dingy workshop in a northern Ethiopian town, Azemeraw Zeleke stoops over a baffling array of cylinders, tubes and handles.
The 54-year-old inventor and repairman supplies Mekele, and indeed the whole of the hilly Tigray region, with coffee machines. But it is his choice of materials that makes Azemeraw's trade truly unique.
"The farmers bring me mortar shells from the old battlefield," he says, gesturing north where Ethiopia borders Eritrea and the two nations fought a 1998-2000 war.
"The empty tubes are perfect for the coffee machines. Look, the bronze does not rust. And the shape is ideal."
Photos of the Ethiopian ones can be found here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1443239220070315
