Here's a dual wheel, presented by Mead's Dextri-Maltose. It was copyrighted in 1924 and is made of some sort of celluloid plastic, I guess. It measures 2.5 by 4.5 inches and is in excellent condition.

This gives recipes for feeding babies with milk, water, and the aforementioned Dextri-Maltose. You dial the baby's age and the weight associated with the average baby is shown. On the back, in very tiny text, are instructions and formulas for very young infants. There's even advice about giving cod liver oil. My father, born in 1920, told me his mother used to give him and his brother cod liver oil. I wonder if she had this wheel?

One thing I love about the back of this wheel is the advice given in case of diarrhea: "Write for Literature No. 109".  AND FAST!

Well, it has been just over A WHOLE DANG YEAR since I posted anything here. It isn't because there are no new wheels to show or anything else. It's that I have to use the PC to do this site because the ipad app is so annoying. Actually, the PC is REALLY annoying, but this site works better with it.

Look! A new wheel! This one is in a little book. Dial Your Lucky Number! My lucky number is 9, as it turns out. According to the booklet, it "brings out artistic tendencies.' Okay, I'll buy it.

This book was written by Sydney Omarr, who, I guess, was enough known to merit an entry in Wikipedia. His real name was Sydney Kimmelman. I have to say, Omarr sounds a lot more exotic. You can look him up. I don't have a high opinion of astrologers.

This little book is 3.375 by 4.5 inches. It's in fair condition. The copyright date is 1949. It's a bit stained -- oily-looking. Let's look inside!

You've got your usual ultra-flattering descriptions of your personality. In the back, Omarr presents the Astro-Hand Chart. It's divination by hand shape, I guess. I've never heard of hand shape being a reliable indicator of one's birthday.

But why the wheel to dial your lucky number? It's just a gimic, like astrology itself.

Another wheel is in town! This time it's another Bake-O-Meter. I've shown you one of these before, but this one is from Roy Colca of Houston and, I guess, Lucky 7 Stores. Roy's the maker of Italian sausages all year round! 

This wheel measures 3.375 by 5.25 inches and is in pretty decent shape. Now I know how long I need to cook a heart (35 minutes per pound at 350 degrees). This wheel bears the copyright date of 1947. My father was living in Houston back then (no air conditioning!) and I wonder if he would have remembered ol' Roy?

Why did we spend $17.50 on this thing -- a duplicate? Well, we saw it for sale at an antique store in Burnet, Texas this past weekend. And, as John says, it's nice to find a wheel "in the wild". Plus, we like the sausage angle.

(For some reason, Weebly is importing some of my photos upside down. Sorry about that!)

You know, I think I may have forgotten to post these long ago. These are not new to our collection. Each one is a bit different, so let's dig in.

Like yesterday's Mr. Gazoogle wheel, these all have inner wheels equipped with little magnetic strips that activate the outside wheel. If you look carefully, you can just make out the strip on either side of the inside grommet. Not very baffling, I think. All but one of these measures 3.5 by 5.5 inches. The odd man out is the ad for First Aid Syrup ("Drink plenty, because it's a food!") It's 3.375 by 5.125 inches. It's really not in good shape. The copyright date are 1923 or 1924, if noted at all.

Each wheel is customized with questions and answers pertaining to the product or, in one case, to the City of Los Angeles. The folks at James H. Farley's clothing store had a bit of "humor" on their wheel: Where was the first donut made? In "Grease". Heh. Some of these have generic trivia in case your ad man can't think of enough product questions to keep the customer interested.

These aren't too bad as a freebie, I guess.

My favorite advertises Beardsley's Pure Food Products' Shredded Codfish and Shredded Codfish cakes, both in cans. I can't imagine the horror. The answer to "Is there more than one shredded codfish?" is "No - there is but one. The word 'SHREDDED' is copyrighted." Beardsley also made something called "Egg Preservative". If that isn't mystic, I don't know what is.

Here's an interesting little gimmick, most likely from the 1920s. This one (and I'm sure there are many from different suppliers) was provided by Red Chain Feeds. It's in fair shape and measures 3.5 by 5.5 inches. It was designed to help you pinpoint your live stocks' special days.

It works like this: You set the inside dial to day on which your swine were bred. Then, a powerful magnet goes to work and behold! As you close the cover, it snaps the metal arrow on the front to the date the piglets are due. It's magic! 

"After You Breed 'Em Right Then Feed 'Em Right"!

Here's another blank wheel, just waiting to have some grocery store put their label on it.

This one is quite a bit smaller than the one from the other day: just 3.5 by 2.25 inches. There is nothing printed on the back.

I think this would be a welcome little gift and would come in handy.

Here's something mildly interesting: a wheel without an advertisement. Evidently, you'd purchase a case of these wheels and stamp or affix your business information to it. What could be simpler? Why don't more businesses do this? What is WRONG with people?

This card measures 5.25 by 3.375 inches. There is no writing on the back. This is a really simple wheel. It would be fun to make one. I wouldn't choose such an ugly combination of colors, though. 

Another new wheel has made its way to us. It's an automotive illness diagnosis guide put out by the Ford Motor Company. It measures 5.75 inches across and is in reasonably good shape. I wonder if they still make these?

I can imagine a 1950s registered mechanic stepping aside to check his wheel. Maybe this would be good for the student as well. What I don't get is why the legend has A through K and then goes straight to W.  I would like to know what "excessive creeping" is.

This is yet another fine example of a wheel made by the talented folks at Perrygraf (still in the wheel business)! The copyright date is 1952.

Another wheel has come our way in the form of this 9-inch menu maker. Just dial the main course, and the wheel provides the accompaniments. If I wanted to have pickled tongue (and that's a big "if"), I might enjoy it more with rye crisp, parsley potatoes, spinach, perfection salad, and orange tapioca. The Menu-Maker does the thinking for you!

I like the strange little elfin Hotpoint mascot presenting the wheel in his long-Johns. The range has "5 heats" for every cooking need, along with "smart-looking switch buttons and handles of white Plaskon" and an "artistically styled glass lamp". 

It looks like Mrs. Law of 1413 Hampden Blvd., No Town, USA, owned this wheel. 

Charming beauty!

Hey, look - another wheel! In fact, we have FOUR of these all from the same seller. I don't know why she wanted to sell all four in a lot, but we have no complaints.

This is a nice stain remover wheel from the Central Scientific Company of Chicago. All four are in excellent condition.  The wheel measures 7 by 5.75 inches and is of a sturdy cardboard. The copyright date is 1915.

This is quite a list of chemicals, isn't it? It has everything from powdered chalk to potassium cyanide. You can get help removing "wagon grease" with this wheel. I wonder how often someone needs to remove tar from silk?