For sale is a 1915 BRASS DIAMETER GAUGE from H.E. Hessler Company, Syracuse, New York. This unusual brass metal plate is inscribed “H.E. Hessler – Lorain O. 1915.” Each corner is inscribed a different measurement: 15/16, 1 1/2, 7/8, 1 1/8. Given that H.E. Hessler was a prominent hardware store and manufacturer, I believe this plate was used to measure different diameters. However, I cannot find any references of the company having a branch in Lorain, Ohio but it seems plausible. A great industrial collectible.
Alternate theories regarding the function of this metal plate are welcome. The plate was sold to me as a WWI era artillery shim. It seems plausible that a U.S. company during WWI would manufacture items to support the war effort.
In 1894, Holister E. Halister operated a hardware store in Syracuse, New York. The company prospered by manufacturing the “Hessler Rural Mail Box” and the McGuire Adjustable Roof Flange, a standard piece of hardware on homes of the period. The original mailbox created by Hessler was 20-inches long, rounded at the bottom and had a lid that flipped up. The government changed the design of rural mailboxes in the early 1900s to the conventional boxes we see today. The company marketed one style of rural mailbox as “The Hessler.” In an unusual advertising move, the company included a poem to its mailbox as the base of one of its ads.
The Hessler Rural Mail Box
Is one the folks all like;
The handiest of the handy,
The prettiest on the pike.
The height of mail invention
That stands the U.S. test;
The Box that is the safest
The Box that is the Best.
