My old wine barrel dolly??

I came across this thing several years abo in an old barn in Colorado. The ladies husband passed away and she was clearing things out. She sold it to me for $75.00 . All of the mechanical functions work on the piece. The tongs on the front can go narrow when you step on the small handle and go out almost 2 feet fro wider barrels. Its my understanding that it was used for boxes and maybe even large ice cubes. I thing Food Machinery Corporation does military ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FMC_Corporation ) type stuff now.
Please let me know if you know more about this. I've done my research and I have not figured out how old it actually is.