What is it?

So, what is it?

One similar was found on display in one of the cabins at The Lincoln Pioneer Village in Rockport, Indiana. 

Early on in my marketing career, I read Harvard marketing professor Theodore Levitt's famous quote: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill. They want a quarter-inch hole.” A lesson on selling the benefits, not the features.

I guess in the 1860s, a company realized people really wanted ruffles.
In the 1860s, when this one was invented, hundreds of thousands of households "needed" this. 
It's a Geneva Hand Fluter. The iron hand-fluter allowed users to quickly press fluted ruffles into cuffs, collars, and other trims.  Truly an important labor-saving device.

It has me thinking of all the "labor-saving" devices that I've purchased over the years that I just had to have -- needed!  It's an interesting study of luxury vs. necessity. 

Most are gone or boxed up now.  Perhaps, someday, my kids and grandkids will make a few bucks on eBay will all the stuff I believed I needed. 

Carpe diem Life,
David Kuhn