Colorado hasn't had such a record breaking ups and down weather this past month. However, 98.3% of state is in drought and the remaining 1.7% being Abnormally Dry.
We had contributions with pictures from a few of our members, so let's get to them
Dianne
Dianne tells of a couple of items she has acquired recently and some history behind them.
In the past month two antique sewing-related items have been added to my collection. The first is a thread counter, a common enough item, but in excellent condition in its original case with snapping lid.. The counter bears the name ‘Alfred Suter New York’ and also ‘Bausch & Lomb Rochester NY’ These were both key anufacturers, with Bausch & Lomb well known for its microscopes and related optical instruments. This thread counter is hefty and well designed, as it continues to work perfectly and has an easily read scale in fractions of inches. Alfred Suter came to the US from Switzerland, called himself a Testile Engineer, and had offices at 200 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY. He died in 1947. Suter apparently also made a device for measuring the twist in thread and yarn, which would be interesting to locate. There is information about the history of thread counters, also called linen testers, at: https://www.microscope-antiques.com/linen.html
The second instrument is named "The Eureka Thread Tester, for testing the strength of silk, linen and cotton threads." It is a sturdy and weighty device, which is hung from a nail or hook. A thread is looped over the knob at the bottom, wound around a finger, and then pulled evenly until it breaks. The needle will stay at whatever the high reading on the scale indicates, which is in pounds. A way to test a single thickness of thread is also possible when the doubled thread exceeds the rating on the scale. It seems to work, but I need to explore it more using various threads. Inside the original cardboard box are the instructions printed on both sides of a single sheet, still in good condition, and the box bottom is stamped with the date Feb 8, 1917. A serial number of 949 is under the dial. Eureka was a commonly used term and it is difficult to sort out founding and dissolution dates for this company, but the instructions place The Eureka Silk Mfg. Co at 118 - 122 East 16th Street in New York. An emblem for the company is a thread spool on its side, saying Eureka Silk on the end and Eureka spool warranted on the side. There was a Eureka Silk Mill in Massachusetts, that name given in 1881 to a much older silk mill which underwent several changes of ownership, having been first built in 1839.
There seems to be lots of trade cards for Eureka on ebay. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw...from=R40&rt=nc
... to be continued