A great old C. S. Bell multipurpose cast iron grinder, referred to as a burr mill. Three sizes were made, #1, #2, & #3, this being a number 1. Note the makers mark, (lazy IC) in the first photo.
Charles Singleton Bell went into the foundry business in 1858 in Hillsboro Ohio manufacturing what Americans needed most around the house at that time. Over the next 75 years The C. S. Bell Company helped The American Family transition from grinding edible grains with stones to grinding with cast iron hand operated mechanical burr & grist mills. The kitchen would never be the same. Hundreds of thousands of C. S. Bell hand operated burr mills were shipped all over the world, primarily throughout North & South America.
The grinding burrs in the mills were made of the same secret formula Chrystal Metal that made C S Bell bells renowned the world over.
The photos are of a hand operated #1 mill believed to have been cast between 1880 and the 1920s. The catalog pages and hand bills are undated.
