On Thursday, December 10, 2015 at 3:49:44 PM UTC-8, jmcquown wrote:
> Does this thing remind anyone else of Robbie the Robot? It's a vintage
> nut chopper. It belonged to my grandmother. An interesting little bit
> of family cooking history.
>
> http://i66.tinypic.com/20gickj.jpg
>
> I have posted grandma's recipe for date nut coconut candy before.
> That's the gadget she used to chop the walnuts. Circa 1950 or so. The
> glass base is stamped Federal Tool Corp. Chicago. The top is actually a
> plastic measuring cup that pops off. It has a built-in shaker on the
> top for sprinkling the chopped or ground nuts on something. The blades
> seem to be still good and sharp.
>

I had never heard of the Federal Tool Company of Chicago, but apparently
it was incorporated in 1916 and lasted until the 1980s, according to
an obituary of its last plant manager, one Daniel P. Phillips of
Evanston. It was involved with a patent suit over its spring syrup
pitcher -- one of those with a sliding metal strip cutting off the drip.