Does anyone know what this was used for or what it's called?

[KC]

Found another idea....crimpers were used for clothing in 19th Century....

http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/small/item/GTJ31051/

[talesofthesevenseas]

Oh that's interesting KC! It looks a lot like this mystery crimper.

Are the crimpers solid or are they hollow tubes? The Web site at KC's link above says that hot irons were placed inside the crimping rollers.

[regularjoe2]

A few weeks back , on about.com's forums (in the 'mystery item' heading) , was a small version of a 'ruffler' , with a horizontal iron 'rack' and a small metal hand-held brayer as the 'pinion' for doing the same sort of thing .

[KC]

Wow, I will have to look at that.  I haven't seen one of these in years.  Remember all of the old curling machines and dryers my relatives had (beauty shops) and the clothing crimper.

[rrdd123]

I believe you are correct ii is a crimper but I think it was used to crimp hair either the real thing, on the head or in wigs. The rollers are probably removeable so they can be heated.

[KC]

Don't believe it was used on hair - at least on the head.  Really leaning towards the clothing crimper.

I know there were crimpers for hair. hey were handled with wave plates, but they didn't look so different than the ones we have these days. However...finally found a couple of pics of the electric curler machines I remember seeing in the old shops where I grew up at (they didn't use them - just had them because who would want to buy them??!?!?)
[url]http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1168/1162222982_d3a607ffb6.jpg%3Fv%3D0&imgrefurl=http://flickr.com/photos/42411496%40N00/1162222982/&usg=__nrZVcduYQU3zz7rF92JGSaieVx8=&h=500&w=375&sz=169&hl=en&start=11&um=1&tbnid=j2fDHMmO-6x_SM:&tbnh=130&tbnw=98&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dantique%2Bhair%2Bcurler%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1/url]

[url]http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.digapixblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/antique-hair-dryer-original.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.digapixblog.com/category/critiqued/color-color/absrtact-color-color-critiqued/&usg=__35dr_C7yyy9KlFLiiLrZd7pjtIQ=&h=650&w=431&sz=83&hl=en&start=18&um=1&tbnid=2-_lYAt3hBqw4M:&tbnh=137&tbnw=91&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dantique%2Bhair%2Bcurler%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26sa%3DG%26um%3D1/url]