I bought a new Kruesi tinfoil machine from Elmer Jones at Union in the early 1980's for $500. He said he was going to make 10 of them. Mine was either the first or early in the run, I think. I never heard if he finished all 10. I did see another Elmer Jones tinfoil machine at Union in 2001. I took a picture of it which you can see at the link below in the outdoor Tent at Union in 2001, behind the Maroon Gem. I'm still kicking myself that I forgot to take a good close-up of it. I was very puzzled at how old this one looks (mine still looks mint). But if Elmer made some "in the 1960s or 1970s" as Rene said, that might explain it. And yes, mine has Elmer's name cast in the bottom. Union 2001: http://homepage.mac.com/jn45224/Menu17.html I'll also throw in my link to the Jasper Sanfillipo pics from 2001. Victorian Palace 2001 (there are 121 photos): http://homepage.mac.com/jn45224/VictorianPalace/ Jim Nichol On Jun 10, 2007, at 6:08 PM, TAEdisonJR at aol.com wrote: > There have been a few commercial production runs of Kreusi > replicas, but > also untold numbers of privately-made ones. The blueprints used to > be sold by > the Edison National Historic Site and allowed anyone with machining > skills to > make one or more. > > The three best known of the larger production runs were the > following: > > Elmer Jones in the 1960s or 1970s. These were quite well made and > can be > readily identified because they have his name cast into the > underside of the > base. > > Bill Ptacek from 1995 to 2004. Bill's made somewhere over 50 in > total, of > exceptional quality. All have his initials ("WCP") cast underneath > the base, > along with a serial number (e.g. "9605" -- the year and the > sequence number > within that year.) > > Mirek Stehlik ca. 1995 or so. Mirek made 25 absolutely perfect > copies. He > did not cast his name or initials into the base, but each has a > serial number > stamped into the end of the main shaft. > > There was another commercial run of machines made in the 1970s, > I'll have to > dig through my files to find the maker's name. I have never seen > one of these > so I don't know if they were marked in any way. The original > promotional > material didn't state whether they were marked. > > I have seen many privately-made examples, varying in quality from very > amateurish to highly professional. One of the best of these one- > offs was shown on > the cover of the December 1977 issue of "Audio" magazine, and > described in > detail in an accompanying article. The author appears to sell > himself short when > he wrote that is isn't an expert machinist -- it looks outstanding > -- but he > did note that it took him over 300 hours to make. > > I hope this helps. > > Best regards, > Rene Rondeau