This small folding shelf was made by my great uncle Martin probably 100 years ago or so. It's small, measuring approximately 5 inches wide. The design is unique in a couple of ways. First, it is collapsible. The shelf folds up on a set of two hinges, then the supporting piece underneath folds over on one hinge.
The other aspect I find unique is what it depicts. Perhaps it's obvious to you at first glance but it took me a very long time to see this as more than just a random design. First I noticed the light bulb and its rays shining outward. Then I saw clearly the object arching above the light bulb: the horseshoe.
What the hell you ask? Indeed! I have no idea what Martin must have been thinking when he drew up the design for this shelf, if he drew it up at all. After mulling over the possibilities and then poking around on Google a bit, here are some ideas:
- Martin was from a generation of people who saw amazing changes in the world around them. They lived through the technological transition from horse power to the internal combustion engine and from candles and kerosine lamps to light bulbs -- especially for those who grew up and lived on farms as he did in northeastern Iowa. Perhaps the the horseshoe/light bulb juxtaposition symbolized for him those very mind-spinning changes -- a report from the dawn of a new era.
- Or not! Maybe he just happened to see a horseshoe and a lightbulb lying in that particular arangement on his work bench and was inspired by it. Or maybe he had been eating mornig glory seeds behind the barn one day and then held a horseshoe up to a light bulb and marveled....
- Ooooooor, perhaps he knew of horseshoe filament light bulbs like the kind Edison invented -- a real breakthrough at the time, this invention increased a bulb's lifespan from 40 hours to 100.
- Or maybe it's not a horseshoe. Maybe it's the Greek letter omega, the symbol for eletric resistance (ohms).
- I doubt it!
Whatever Martin's inspiration, it seems as though he was not the only one to be creatively motivated by these two objects. The image below shows a light bulb with an attached horseshoe, "invented" by a guy in Croatia named Vladimir Kulic.
Kulic is selling this baby for 500,000 euros. That's $635,899.77 folks. If you think that price is a bit steep, consider this: not only do you get the bulb/horseshoe combo itself but he will divulge to the purchaser the secret of how he did it. (possible Spoiler Alert and therefore possible Trigger Warning: uuuuum, glue?) He says he "came up with the idea after examining the fragile properties of the bulb's glass compared with the heavy iron horseshoe." Wow.
This merely confirms for me something I already knew: Uncle Martin's little shelf is priceless.
~ will
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