People on the internet banded together to figure out what this device actually was

Many people contributed pieces of knowledge — “I remember seeing a tool like this in my grandmother’s kitchen.”

Others searched databases, old catalogs, vintage classifieds, or hobby forums for similar tools.

Eventually someone (or a few) located an image of the exact device described in a nineteenth-century household appliance catalogue: it was a meat mincer (formerly called a meat grinder or “mincer & mixer”) used in the UK for mincing raw or cooked meat, fish, vegetables, etc.
Newsner English

✅ The Reveal: What It Was

The consensus: the device was a hand-crank meat mincer. Historically, these apparatuses were used to push meat through a perforated plate to grind it, often for sausages or mixed dishes. The functionality evolved over time to electric versions, but the classic manual version remained widespread in households in earlier eras.
Newsner English

📚 Why It Resonated

Continue reading…