A Great New Discovery

Friday, July 21, 2017
Sunny with Blue Skies
28 C  83 F

A Great New Discovery

   I received an e-mail about 6 weeks ago. It was from Mr. Greg Hickey, who had this wonderful  toy that was an electromagnet steam shovel iron mover. In place of the normal scoop or shovel, there was an electromagnetic for attaching iron  to be moved by the steam shovel. It was a great new discovery, and the name of the manufacturer was  the A.C.Redmond Company, in  Flint, Michigan (USA).  

 In Greg's Own Words:

Stacey , hope these pictures are better for you to use. If you need more or different parts shot will be glad to try. I bought the crane in a antique store in St Louis Mo. I had never heard of the company , so I thought I would take a chance was purchased in 2011. I don't think the wiring is original, I also question the tube that would have held what looks like D batteries. The line that raises and lowers the magnet looks original. The measurements I took are , swing deck "bottom of the cab" 7 1/2 inches wide , length is 12 1/4 to 12 1/2 inches , hard to measure back end has a curve out, point of boom 16 inches, length of boom 18 inches . The crawler frame is 4 7/8 inches x 9 inches long . The roof is 13 inches long  7 1/2 inches wide measuring straight across the bottom of roof. Length of the house is 11 1/2 inches width 6 1/2 inches , the side of house is close to 5 1/2 inches. The magnet is 2 3/4 inches. The wheels are 2 inch high  by 1 1/2 wide. I'm going to send pictures in a separate file . You can use ,edit pictures however you need to . 

Thank  You, Greg

Greg does not know much about this toy, so I naturally asked him to send me photos in order to perhaps have someone provide more information about this magnificent toy.  For those who might not know, Flint, Michigan  is a city famous for manufacturing cars in the USA by the 3 major American manufacturers.

Greg is quite ingenious. He took 3 size D batteries and taped them together, 

along with the positive and negative wire terminals.

 When Greg turned on the On/Off switch, lo and behold, the 

electromagnetic of the A.C.Redmond toy, the magnet worked perfectly,

even atyer all those years!

I congratulated Greg on his excellent photography. The photographs illustrate all of the different sides of the toy, as well as the boom and the electromagnetic magnet. Hopefully, this being a somewhat old toy from I would guess the 1940's-1950's or even earlier, someone out there who reads my blog will be able to help us out.

So if someone has the same toy out there, and knows more about the A.C.Redmond Company, would you please write to me,so that we can give readers more information about this newfound toy company.

Sometimes, I receive e-mails from readers who give me assistance or have questions to ask. I received the information about the AG Redmond Company a week after I had posted this post:

"It appears there were two companies with the name Redmond. The AG Redmond Co. started in 1925 and built car parts and small electric motors. This maybe the only toy they produced. The patent is dated 1933 and this toys label say patent applied for so it is pre 1933. Overall a very nice toy and likely a rare one."*

* Derrick Clow

Thanks for dropping by,

And as always,

Have a great day or night,

Wherever you may be.

Stacey Bindman

Toysearcher@gmail.com