|
Post by mach12 on Jul 14, 2018 0:09:27 GMT -5
I've been researching some stuff on Chambers company history and came across quite a few ads. This first one is of particular interest because it indicates that as of the time of this article (December 10, 1951) the first Chambers that John Chambers built (the one in a wooden cabinet) had survived and was in a collection in Louisiana, New Orleans I think. Apparently the company, Walther Bros. Co. Inc., collected first models of a number of U.S. made appliances. There may be hope Pooka!
Here's another one, this one highlighting the Thermobaker:
And they go back quite a ways too. Here's one from 1924 and I found another from before that but haven't uploaded it yet.
|
|
|
Post by pooka on Jul 16, 2018 0:34:38 GMT -5
That's cool. There is hope indeed. If I understand correctly, John Chambers sold the company in 1950. Perhaps the original prototype was sold off by the Flato Brothers as they were going through the company assets figuring what to do with what they'd bought. The old plant must have seemed like a rabbit warren, haphazardly added onto many times over the years. Goodness knows what all had been squirreled away in cubbyholes & disused attics & workrooms.
I've found a few newspaper ads doing general searches, but the websites that have cashes of old newspaper records generally require a subscription to get more that a low resolution preview. Do you have higher resolution of these? I can't read much more the the bigger type on them.
I hope that original prototype hasn't been forgotten in some dank, dark corners & ravaged by termites or other gnawing critters, or worse, like hurricanes or flooding. The only images of it I've seen of it come from sales material for the model C. They'd tout 40 Years in the Making, or something like that. I believe I've read the prototype was from 1910. The company didn't get started till 1912. The original prototype would be a real prize to get it preserved either in the Grover Museum in Shelbyville, IN at the very least, or in the Smithsonian if they'd want it.
|
|
|
Post by mach12 on Jul 16, 2018 1:21:49 GMT -5
I've been doing genealogy research for several years and one of the site I use, genealogybank.com, specializes in ads and newspaper articles. It's really handy for getting details, like when I found some documentation indicating one of my relatives might have done prison time at the Iowa State Prison at Fort Madison around the time of the civil war. Turns out, after researching news article, he worked there as an administrator and photographer. About a week ago I started wondering where all Chambers had dealers and it occurred to me that maybe I could find some info on the genealogy sites so did some searches and got a stack of hits. About 1700 on Alma Chambers but some of those are a man named Alma Chambers who was an elected treasurer somewhere. I decided to do another search using Chambers for the last name and Ranges for the first name and that came back with over a thousand too. I've barely made a dent in going through them. There was one where they interviewed Alma and asked her how she got into doing the cooking schools and she told how a salesman set it all up without telling her. He had made reservations for a hall, shipped stoves there to be set up for her to demonstrate with and so on and she said that by the time she was told it was too late to back out. It went so well that she decided to keep doing it.
The articles are a bit difficult to read as posted so I download them and then can zoom in when I open the downloaded copy. Most of them are decent resolution but not all. I can read the print just fine on most of them but some of the illustrations and photos aren't very good.
I've been doing some searches to see whether I can find any additional info on the first Chambers but no luck yet. Since it went to a collector there's at least some kind of a chance that it's still in a collection somewhere. It would really be great to be able to go visit it if it were in a collection.
|
|
|
Post by Beulah on Feb 3, 2024 13:12:13 GMT -5
This info is worth everyone's attention. When can I find out more? edenerotica.com
|
|