 U Of Michigan, With Hotel Room Locking System (8836)
This is definitely one of my favorates. I like that its Michigan with all the names of his senior class. I went to the other place, yet I appreciate the historical quality of the school. I also like the creativity he took to design a cane handle like no other. All nickle plated brass with a silver dollar in the top for 1878, the year he had the handle made. A year after graduation. When screwing the handle off the first thing thats noticed is the handle was sand cast. See the ruff texture on the underside.
It would be impossible to make that today with the untouched patena. The entire cane and coin is near mint, it didn't get much use. A lot of gadget canes I see didn't get much use, as a lot of them weren't practical. The complex mechanism in this handle fits in slots so they won't rattle. It took me years to find out what the mechanism did. It was a factory made set by the eagle lock Co. to keep burgalers from braking into a hotel room. It even has the original key. There are holes in a bar that is adjustable to the thickness of the door. One of these mechanisms is put 2'from the top of the door, and another two feet from the bottom. After closing the door a cross piece is put into place along with a lock. The door then can't be opened until the mechanism is removed. The keys in hotel doors were skeleton keys that were easy to obtain, bringing about lots of robberies. This person obviously traveled a lot and wanted to protect himself from being robbed. You can reverse the mechanism to also keep people out of your room, but the locks are so small, they would do no more than to let you know you had been broken into. University of Michigan a strong tradition of autographed canes, they even had a cane day. Catherine Dike in canes of the United States, shows a picture of the graduation class of 1879, with their top hats and canes. In 1858 a speech by an abolitionist caused protest. They restrained the crowd by raising their canes, which is suggested as to how cane day got its start. In 1861 seniors were drilling on the grass, but there were no arms, so they each carried a cane. Cane days were still celibrated in 1935, almost 80 years after it began. By the 1920's they had silver inlay with the year of their graduation put about half way down the shaft, but no autographs. The lose of favor of canes brought about the end of cane day. The shaft is made, from a natural branch with its bark, from hickory. I could see just collecting autographed college canes, they put a lot of work into them, yet they don't seem to cost a lot.
Category: Gadget
Sub Category: City - Manufactured
Listed: 2006-12-05 19:44:55
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