Photo of the Week
by Freeman F. & Mary Daniels Brown
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.
Week of February 25, 2001
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An earlier Photo of the Week entry (number 27 in the archive album at Zing.com) showed the William Conner House at Conner Prairie, an museum, run by Earlham College, which uses original period buildings to recreate an Indiana village in the year 1836. Interpreters who dress in period costumes interact with visitors. This photo, taken during a 1998 visit to Conner Prairie, shows a simple and useful devise named a shave horse. A shave horse is three things in one: a seat, a work bench, and a foot operated vise. A pedal is attached to a vertical lever, the L-shaped head of which clamps firmly the item being worked on. Releasing the foot pressure allows quick and easy repositioning of the item. Perhaps the piece of wood being held in this picture will become the handle of a hammer, the leg of a stool, or a peg to be put into a beam.