This “As Seen on TV” whisk from a recent QBO Estate Sale has some clever engineering concealed in its unaesthetic plastic handle. Without batteries it whips eggs double-fast, single-handed. To work it, hold vertically, resting the bottom wires in your mixing bowl. Press down and the handle slides down on itself, spinning the coiled wire head. Relaxing rotates everything back up to start position, so as you push, relax, push, relax, push, you expend half the muscle.
This tool is sold by different companies under names such as The Whizzy Whisk, Zip Whisk, Easy Whisk, Semi-Automatic Whisk, The Whip Beater, The Better Beater and (most descriptive of its up and down motion) The Pogo Whisk. Breathless Shopping Channel and QVC demos would have you believe the requisite engineering is quite modern but it’s not. Not by centuries!
Here’s one made in America about 75 years ago. The paint is mostly worn off the handle, but the simpler construction shows the inner metal shaft is a spiral. On modern versions, that key spiral is hidden up inside the plastic grip. Inside the smooth metal shaft (old version) or the grip (new version) is a spring, and the inside of the shaft is knurled, creating the rotating spring-back motion. The only weakness of these whisks is cleaning, when water can get up inside and rust the mechanism, so it’s best not to immerse them. Vintage versions were also made by multiple companies who called them things like The Boun-C- Beater, or Archimedean Screw Beater.
This vintage screwdriver sold at the Beehive uses the same engineering principle in reverse – it has a small ratchet inside that keeps the shaft rotating in only one direction. With each downward twist of your wrist as you screw into a piece of wood, the shaft stays immobile, allowing you to apply maximum pressure. The screw mechanism then releases on each ‘back-wind’ of the handle, independent of the bit still stuck in the screw. This means you don’t have to continually reposition the bit as you go, making the uninterrupted action of this simple manual screwdriver closer to that of an electric driver. Need to unscrew something? A handy “F/R” toggle allows you to change directions; the shaft has two opposing spirals for forward and backward. These screwdrivers were (and still are) made by many companies and given a variety of titles such as automatic push drill, reciprocating spiral drill, or Archimedean push drill.
And yes, both screwdriver and whisk are named for Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 – c. 212 BCE) the ancient Greek mathematician, physicist, astronomer and engineer, because his early hydraulic machine, the Archimedes’ screw, is direct ancestor to these tools. The Archimedes’ screw was a long, oversized screw run through hollow pipe. When cranked by hand, it drew water UPHILL, emptying the bilge of King Hiero the Second’s huge naval ship the Syracusia, designed by Archimedes. Ironically Archimedes didn’t design the screw itself, but he was no Thomas Edison taking credit for other people’s work, the Screw was just mistakenly credited to him later. What Archimedes did do was travel through Egypt and Babylon, observe a screw-like mechanism being used to move irrigation water up slopes at royal gardens and return home to reverse-engineer the technology for other applications, introducing the concept into Europe; some of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions incorporate screw-based drive shafts. The Archimedes’ Screw is used today in water treatment plants, grain elevators, concrete mixers and for keeping the Netherlands dry. The Fields Medal, one of the highest honors a mathematician can receive, also carries Archimedes’ portrait but he might enjoy being remembered for the scrambled eggs.
Tuesday Treasures was started by our staff member, Jeanne Lusignan. Each week she will be featuring items that have been found at our estate sales. If you would like to submit a treasure for Jeanne to feature in a future installment of “Tuesday’s Treasures”, please follow the button below and send us an email! Please attach a few photos of your treasure in a beautiful setting as well as any details you have about your item such as manufacturer, use, age, region of origin. If you don’t know about the piece, that’s okay! We still might be able to research it for you! Don’t forget to tell us what makes this item such a treasure to you!