Skills For "Living The Era"

[Tango Yankee]

** this is the type Pyrex pot that my grandparents always used.

That's what my parents used!

 

[PrettySquareGal]

I've been using a percolator for about seven years. I went through a couple of vintage models and finally bought a new one.

 

[1961MJS]

I've been using a percolator for about seven years. I went through a couple of vintage models and finally bought a new one.

Hi

My parents' percolator glass knob finally broke after roughly 50 years and I purchased them a replacement at Cabela's outdoor gear. Mom's been using it for more than 10 years now. My Dad's Mother had a weird looking vacuum coffee maker that had a carafe on the bottom and a boiler chamber of some sort on the top.

Later

 

[scotrace]

I still use the same old peculator that's been around here for years and years. One thing I do is to "recycle" the coffee. I will make a pot (same as the directions previously mentioned in other posts), and when we are through drinking coffee for the day just put it in the refrigerator pot and all (after it's cooled, of course). Next morning just add some more water and start perking away. When the coffee begins to get a little weak, just add a little extra coffee in the basket. I can stretch a pound of coffee a long way like this.

That is absolutely horrifying. Haha!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Hi

My parents' percolator glass knob finally broke after roughly 50 years and I purchased them a replacement at Cabela's outdoor gear. Mom's been using it for more than 10 years now. My Dad's Mother had a weird looking vacuum coffee maker that had a carafe on the bottom and a boiler chamber of some sort on the top.

Later

That sounds like a Silex, the granddaddy of drip coffee makers. They were the Next Big Thing c. 1938.

I don't drink coffee much, but if people insist on it, I have a "Dripolator," which is an aluminum pot with a coffee basket in it, topped by a chamber into which you pour boiling water. Let the water seep thru the basket into the bottom chamber, and there's your coffee. It's either that or Instant Sanka.

 

[vitanola]

That sounds like a Silex, the granddaddy of drip coffee makers. They were the Next Big Thing c. 1938.

I don't drink coffee much, but if people insist on it, I have a "Dripolator," which is an aluminum pot with a coffee basket in it, topped by a chamber into which you pour boiling water. Let the water seep thru the basket into the bottom chamber, and there's your coffee. It's either that or Instant Sanka.

The Silex is a really fine coffee maker. In blind tests it compares with the vaunted French Press.

The Percolator, however, does a pretty good job of disguising cheap Robusta coffee.

 

[Stanley Doble]

Those round glass pots with the funnel that went in the top were the standard diner and cafe coffee maker for years. You fill the pot with cold water, put the funnel on top with the coffee in it and put it on the heat. When the water gets hot most of it is forced up into the funnel by steam pressure. Let the steam boil for a few minutes, take it off the heat (or turn the heater down) and the coffee goes into the pot.

I used to have a 3 pot model in my kitchen, worked good but took too much time and effort not to mention it took up a lot of room.

By the way.... when I make a pot of coffee I pour myself a fresh cup and put the rest in a thermos right away. I have fresh hot coffee all day and it never goes stale like it does if you leave it on the coffee maker.

 

[tonyb]

The Silex is a really fine coffee maker. In blind tests it compares with the vaunted French Press.

The Percolator, however, does a pretty good job of disguising cheap Robusta coffee.

I'm cool with robusta brewed in a percolator, provided it's served fresh.

Robusta was all we ordinary people ever got back in the days before Starbucks et al. My dear old Ma was of the view that kids could have all the coffee they wanted, seeing how most kids would rather have none at all, and for those who did, such as her dimwitted third born, well, there are worse vices, and coffee was cheap.

So yeah, I've been drinking coffee, lots of it, for a long, long time. By the time I was in my teens and living on the West Coast I was thoroughly strung out on MJB ("There's Only Enough for the West!"), which I doubt contained any arabica at all. That was also about the time that the electric drip coffeemaker began displacing the percolator as the average American's caffeine-extraction system.

In more recent years I've overheard talk of a cup o' coffee's "fruity notes" and "mouth feel" and "finish," as though it were a glass of wine. I believe that the people who engage in such talk -- most of them, anyway -- really do know about these things, no matter how lost it all is on me.

My simple and unsophisticated but quite telling test is how coffee tastes cold. Good coffee tastes good cold. Less good coffee tastes less good cold. I've yet to find a robusta that's much good cold, no matter how it's brewed. But again, all but the lowest grade coffees taste fine to me when they're hot and fresh. And in my book, a percolator is every bit as good for that as a French press, or an auto-drip.

 

[tonyb]

Those round glass pots with the funnel that went in the top were the standard diner and cafe coffee maker for years. You fill the pot with cold water, put the funnel on top with the coffee in it and put it on the heat. When the water gets hot most of it is forced up into the funnel by steam pressure. Let the steam boil for a few minutes, take it off the heat (or turn the heater down) and the coffee goes into the pot.

I used to have a 3 pot model in my kitchen, worked good but took too much time and effort not to mention it took up a lot of room.

By the way.... when I make a pot of coffee I pour myself a fresh cup and put the rest in a thermos right away. I have fresh hot coffee all day and it never goes stale like it does if you leave it on the coffee maker.

Those vacuum pots have been around for quite some time. (Anyone happen to know just how far back they go?) I had an all-glass one at one time. I found that it made a better fashion statement than a pot of coffee. And, like you, I found it too much work.

Putting the coffee directly into the thermos after you brew it is the right way to go. Coffee left on a heat source gets to tasting "off" in pretty short order.

 

[Shangas]

HOW TO UNJAM TYPEWRITER KEYS

A good number of members on this forum own and use typewriters. One of the MOST COMMON ISSUES with vintage typewriters is jammed up keys and typebars. This is a tutorial about how to fix this.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

- One typewriter with jammed typebars.
- One roll of Paper-towels.
- One SOFT-BRISTLED BRUSH (small paintbrush, or similar).
- One bottle methylated spirits/denatured alcohol. A large bottle, please. At least 1 liter (two pints).
- Bright light (best that this operation is done in daylight).
- Small bowl or cup.
- 2-4 sheets of typing-paper.
- Sturdy work-surface.

METHOD:

1. Scroll paper into the typewriter.

2. Remove ribbon and spools. If necessary, photograph beforehand, so that you know how to replace the ribbon. If you already know, then skip the photography bit.

3. Decant spirits/alcohol into glass or bowl.

4. Lift up typewriter and place on sturdy work-surface.

5. Tilt typewriter back. Remove bottom plate or case-base, if it has one.

6. Take 2-3 sheets of paper-towel. Fold along perforations to create thick square of paper.

7. Slide underneath typewriter.

8. Fiddle with keys to I.D. problem keys which jam.

9. Dip soft brush into bowl or glass of spirits.

10. Brush spirits generously through the typebasket, where the typebars enter the machine (along the "smile" directly below the ribbon-vibrator).

Act as if you're brushing teeth. Scrub up, scrub down, side to side, all along the smile.

11. Dip and repeat several times.

12. Lift up typewriter and examine paper-towels. If you're doing it correctly, your paper-towels will now look like you just cleaned a fireplace with them. This is all the dust, grime and gunk, dried ink and other crap inside the typebasket, which the spirits have washed out, through the typewriter, onto the paper-towels.

13. Re-orientate the paper-towel as necessary, so that a new, dry part of the towel is under the typebasket.

14. Repeat steps 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, as necessary, combined with smatterings of step 8.

15. Replace the paper-towels as necessary during the cleaning-process, as they become too loaded with excess spirits or gunk.

16. Hold the paper-towels up to the light and marvel at how much crud is stored up inside your typewriter. This is easier to see if you clean a typewriter using natural sunlight, so it's better to do this during the day, near a sunny window.

This could take a couple of hours.

It could take a couple of days.

it depends on how dirty your typewriter is, and how much gunk has to be washed out of it.

You will have done a successful typebasket-flush when you can hit ANY key on the typewriter several times in quick succession, without it jamming. AT ALL. If it still jams, keep washing.

It is beneficial to apply spirits to other, easily-accessible linkage-points in the typing-mechanism, and to let it sit there for a while, before wiping it away with tissues or paper-towels, to remove even more gunk. This will make the machine's mechanism move even more easily.

When you are done, your typewriter will smell like a speakeasy at happy hour, but you will be able to type as fast and as long as you like, without ever having to stop and pick out keys again (unless you accidentally hit two keys at once).

DONE!

P.S.: If, after successfully cleaning the typebasket, some of the typebars squeak during use, the application of a DROP of sewing-machine oil on each affected area, will be sufficient to silence all mechanical protestations.

 

[vitanola]

Those vacuum pots have been around for quite some time. (Anyone happen to know just how far back they go?) I had an all-glass one at one time. I found that it made a better fashion statement than a pot of coffee. And, like you, I found it too much work.

Putting the coffee directly into the thermos after you brew it is the right way to go. Coffee left on a heat source gets to tasting "off" in pretty short order.

We always used our local Van Roy "Hotel Blend" which was about 50-50 Robusta/Arabica. American coffee was generally an Arabica/Robusta belnd until the immediate post-war period, when the mass market manufacturers needed to increase margin. During the 1950's the proportion of Arabica beans in canned coffees like Hills Brothers and Maxwell House dwindled. Savarin went years, until the 197o's, I think, with their old blend, but they too succumbed to commercial pressures.

With a really cheap coffee, like the $2.50/lb Great Value or Clover Valley stuff I perk, but with a reasonably nice blend, like Van Roy (a local Cleveland blend) prefer to use a Silex or a Sunbeam Coffeemaster. The fully automatic Coffeemaster makes splendid coffee, far better than either Mr. Coffee type drip (which uses water not sufficiently hot to fully extract alll of the flavor in the grounds) or a percolator, which can burn the coffee, making it a bit overly acidic, and the coffeemanster is easy to set up and to clean. A simple Drip-O-Lator as described by miss Maine can also make absolutely perfect coffee when managed properly, filled with REALLY HOT water.

thefirst vacuum pots were made in the late 1850's or early 1860's, but this method did not become popular here in the 'States until the early 1930's.

 

[tonyb]

I recall reading some decades ago that the right water temperature for drip coffee is just below boiling, so somewhere between, say, 205 degrees Fahrenheit and 210. How reliable that information is, I couldn't say, but I ran with it back when the most used item in my kitchen (next to the bottle opener) was a Melitta filter holder over a thrift-store glass carafe. Put the water on the boil, remove it from the heat for a few seconds and pour it over the ground coffee. Close enough for me.

The dewy-eyed bride, who is my junior by more than a couple of years, came of coffee-drinking age after the arabica-cation of this coffee-drinking nation. So it's espresso-based drinks for her, which gets quite costly if you make a habit of buying it prepared commercially. (The key to Starbucks' success: sell higher-quality, and higher-priced, variations on an addictive product.) That $500 ($400 on sale) espresso machine I presented to her more than five years ago has paid for itself many times over.

I've considered getting one of those lever-action manual espresso machines. The older ones in particular have a steam-punk sort of appeal to them, but I've heard that they're temperamental and require a fairly high level of maintenance, so that idea got nixed.

As to robusta ... I understand that some Italian espresso roasters are incorporating robusta in their blends for its flavor. Me, I don't know enough to comment on that either way, but I imagine that robusta might have some favorable characteristics that arabica doesn't.

Vacuum pots are still available, but they are far from ubiquitous in the home kitchens of America. But from what I gather from old photos and what I recall from my earliest years, it seems that their heyday must have been fairly short-lived. As you inform me, they didn't really catch on until the 1930s, and by the time I was a kid old enough to pay attention to such things, the percolator was a much more common sight.

 

[vitanola]

Robusta has about twice the caffeine content by volume as Arabica. It really does have its place in a traditional coffee blend, but commercial American coffee blends were seldom if ever 100% Robusta until well after the War.

The Silex Vacuum Coffee Maker was introduced in this country right about the time of the Great War for Civilization, but it was a niche product until the 1930's. By the early years of the decade, no fashionable young housewife was without their Silex or Corey coffee maker. Sunebeam introduced their first automatic coffee maker, the "Maxwelton Braes" in 1933, a sleek, Art Moderne thing of chromium plated copper. the great heyday of vacuum coffee making was the period between 1938 and 1947. The robust, easy-to-use and easy-to-clean Sunbeam "Coffee Master" exploded in popularity just after the War, but by the early 1950's the percoaltor was retuning to popularity, as it was cheaper and it better handled the new commercial coffee blends being mass marketed. Real coffee afficianados continued to use their old Silices, and French Drip pots. IN the 1970's the Mr. Coffee drip coffee maker drove all before it. Great in principle, it did not produce the best coffee, as the "hot" water used for brewing was not hot enough to fully develop the coffee's flavor. With the blends commonly available in the 1970's this was probably a good thing! Robusta coffee, as I mentioned above contains much more caffeine than Arabica. It also better bears boiling. The traditional pre-War American blends, which were generally 50-50 or 60/40 Robusta/Arabica produce some really fine coffee even when brewed carelessly. The post-war mass market blends, not so much!

 

[tonyb]

... Robusta coffee, as I mentioned above contains much more caffeine than Arabica. It also better bears boiling. The traditional pre-War American blends, which were generally 50-50 or 60/40 Robusta/Arabica produce some really fine coffee even when brewed carelessly. The post-war mass market blends, not so much!

That "it bears boiling" part goes some way toward explaining why coarsely ground robusta from a percolator tastes not bad. But, again, provided it's hot and fresh.

There's a small coffee roaster near here (this is kinda like a Minnesotan saying he lives near a lake) which I walk by almost daily. The smell emanating from that place when they're roasting makes me consider giving up my devilish ways, because Heaven surely smells like that roasting plant. But even that doesn't top the smell of percolating coffee in a steamy kitchen on a cold winter morning.

 

[tonyb]

Tip for using an old human-powered lawn mower ...

SHARPEN THE BLADES first

... it'll make the job a whole heckuva lot easier.

 

[Kathleen'sMeg43]

This thread is great! I've read through the whole thing and learned so much!

DO NOT ALLOW SMALL CHILDREN TO PLAY AROUND THE MACHINE WHEN IN OPERATION. DO NOT LEAVE SMALL CHILDREN UNSUPERVISED WHEN MACHINE IS OPERATING -- if you have to take a phone call while the machine is running and children are present, unplug the power first.

I know this was a long way back but I just thought I'd add about the washing machine that my dad broke his arm in 5 places when he was little. He stuck his hand in and seems like some item of clothing grabbed it and wrapped it around the agitator...

Course this makes me sound like a pessimistic modern person who screams "All is unsafe!" So I'll add that I really want one now!

I have a reproduction "James" washer. Hand agitate and wring... I used it on multiple occasions and loved it, but I can see how the electric models would have been a serious step up! Agitating for hours on end can be gruesome

 

[St. Louis]

I had a conversation with a very helpful lady at Freestylephotos.biz (I have no relationship with them other than as satisfied customer) who told me that the best film to use for the Kodak Brownie 2, in her opinion, was the Arista EDU Ultra Black & White 400 iso. This is size 120, as Lizzie mentioned in a previous post.

I have the film and the camera, but haven't had time to try them together. It seems to me, now that I've studied Lizzie's explanation, that my camera lens needs to be cleaned. I can't really see much through the view finder. I'll work on that & will report back.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The viewfinder on a No. 2 Brownie is a small mirror that will often get glazed or dusty. You can pull the front plate of the camera right off -- look at the edges of it and you should see some little indented nubs in the metal where it just clips into place. Just pull straight forward and the whole panel should come off revealing the shutter mechanism. You'll see the windows for the viewfinders and the little mirrors mounted at an angle underneat them. Swab these off with a cotton swab dipped in Windex and you'll be fine.

Check the action of the camera while you have the front plate off, and if the shutter seems balky or stiff, give it a little squirt of Ronsonol lighter fluid to free it up. (Use only RONSONOL brand -- no other. Ronsonol is pure naphtha, which evaporates quickly without leaving residue. Don't use any lubricating oil on the shutter.)

Once you've finished, just press the front plate back into place until you feel the nubs snap back into position, and you're all set.

 

[Shangas]

Tip for using an old human-powered lawn mower ...

SHARPEN THE BLADES first

... it'll make the job a whole heckuva lot easier.

HUMAN-powered?? What the hell is that??

Getting an old Sewing Machine Running

Vintage sewing-machines are beautiful, elegant, tough and very useful. But sometimes, you can buy a vintage machine that is jammed up because the oil dried up and froze the mechanism in place, and it hasn't moved in 10, 20, 30, 50 years.

To get the machine going, disassemble it as far as you can, using screwdrivers, pliers (if necessary) and your fingers.

Clean the machine thoroughly with polishing-paste, tweezers, a bulb-puffer, tissues and paper-towels.

It is important to clean the machine THOROUGHLY before proceeding to the next step, which is OILING the machine.

This is easily done with a bottle of high-grade machine-oil, such as Superlube, or Singer-brand sewing-machine oil (or other suitable, high-quality oil).

To be honest, it's quite fun. If a bit messy...

Pour oil onto all the moving parts and work the machine by hand to get as much oil into as many places as possible. DO NOT BE AFRAID of using a bit of force. These machines could sew through denim, leather and even human body-parts (I have this on first-hand account from a friend), so you jiggling the handle a bit is unlikely to break the machine.

Once the machine is running smoothly (add more oil to stop squeaks etc. Don't worry about adding too much oil, such thing is not possible), you can start sewing on it. On most vintage sewing machines, needles are threaded from left to right, unlike most modern machines which generally thread front-to-back.

 

[St. Louis]

Thanks for the info on cleaning the lenses. I'll do that and will report.

Back to the coffee topic for a second: here's my percolator. I don't know this for a fact, but I believe that it was intended to be used with an electric base. I use it on top of my gas stove with a heat diffuser, or trivet (whatever you call those things) shown here. I think my percolator is from the late 1930s, my favorite era. The heat thingie is probably about the same age. Together, they make excellent coffee, particularly if I'm making decaf. Perking decaf seems to make it taste more robust somehow. Also, my wooden coffee grinder is great for perked coffee, since you need a coarser grind for that anyway.