Posted 3 years ago
hotairfan
(388 items)
This is a vintage spark plug cleaner from 1890. It was sold by Champion Spark Plug Co. of Toledo Ohio. The tool was originally sold in a wooden finger jointed box, of which I never owned. My friend also has one of these minute cleaners in his collection and he does have the original box, (to my envy). The "Minute Cleaner" used a series of abrading pins to abrade the carbon buildup from the walls of the plug.
I recently found an advertising of this neat automotive tool and I thought that I would copy it down to show you because the words are small and would be too hard to read from the ad. Here's what it reads:
- SO EASY TO CLEAN SPARK PLUGS -
Just half fill the tube of the Cleaner with gasoline, screw in the plug and shake. Little flying needles, loose in the tube, pick off the carbon which the gasoline serves to soften. And in a jiffy, without even soiling your hands, any spark plug may be cleaned much more thoroughly than in the old, laborious way. You don't even take the spark plug apart. The Champion Minute Spark Plug Cleaner comes in a neat wooden box that fits nicely into your tool case. It costs only 75 cents and is for sale by all garagemen and dealers in auto supplies.
Along with my spark plug collection, I demonstrate this tool at engine shows and it does remove any vestiges of carbon that are stuck on the wall of the spark plug, and this is without even using the gasoline that the manufacturer recommends.
Interesting piece, thanks for sharing. I'm the early 90s I worked in a shop..we had the little bench mounted sand blaster cleaner..worked good
And to think, we could have been cleaning our sparkplugs at the same time ! LOL !!
How cool -I agree with blmderbuss2 too!