While not lathe style parers, the "M. S. Ault" and similar Yankee Paring and Slicing Machine are placed among the lathes in Apple Parers (Thornton 1997, p. 21). The machines use a pivot mechanism to switch between paring and slicing the apple. A lathe sold as the "Genuine Yankee Machine for Paring and Slicing Apples" was manufactured by J. D. Seagrave. Seagrave's design also utilizes a pivot mechanism to switch between paring and slicing mode. The basic slicing mechanism for all three parers is the same. Seagrave's parer design relies on Whittemore's lathe patent of February 17, 1857, while the "M. S. Ault" and similar Yankee Paring and Slicing Machine are based upon Levi Van Hoesen's December 4, 1855 patent (Whittemore, 1857; Van Hoesen, 1855).
I believe that the "M. S. Ault" is misidentified. I think the parer was actually manufacutred by M. Sault of New Haven Connecticut. First, if one looks carefully at the markings there is no period at the end of S. Second, Matthew Sault (1818-1900) is listed as a machinist in New Haven city directories as early as 1849. In 1863, the city directory indicates that Thomas Sault (1829-1912) was added to the business name, listed as M & T Sault. The buisness would eventually become Yale Iron Works by the 1870's (Joslin, 2011).
The Yankee Paring and Slicing Machine was manufactured by
D. F. Randall of Chicopee Massachusetts. Interestingly, another identical parer carries a paper label identifying it as the Yankee Apple Paring Machine manufactured by Tenney and French of Orange, Massachusetts.
The Yankee and similar parer marked M. SAULT are geared machines with a hand-guided paring knife. One could make the argument that most primitives with hand-guided paring knives are returns since the paring knife on most must be manually reversed to the starting position.
The operator of the Yankee and M. SAULT cranks the gears while using a hand-guided paring arm to peel the apple. Once the apple is pared a spring lever is used to release the fork mechanism which can be rotated clockwise 90 degrees so as to position the fork and apple next to the slicer. The left hand can be used to rotate the small fork gear while the right hand cranks the wooden handle to slice the apple.
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