Walter Ruby

Ancestry.com researches

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on July 29, 2006 - 14:44

I mentioned yesterday that I signed up for a 14-day trial period with Ancestry.com. It has proven very useful so far, turning up various census and death records. If it continues to be useful, I will have to consider paying the very expensive membership fee--more than $300 a year or about $40 a month for access to their worldwide databases. I'm going to try to get as much use of it as I can in the trial period.

Two things of note I discovered today. I was doing searches on some of the Ratner children and was able to follow George and wife Emma to Englewood Cliffs, NJ, in 1920, where he was listed as a grocery proprietor. Household members were wife Emma, daughter Marjorie (age 2) and Emma's mother Louise Paeglow. From there I can follow Marjorie into her marriage with Robert K. Decker, evidently known as Ken. Marjorie and Ken appear to still be living at age 89 and 91 at 20 Willow Dr. in Delmar NY, outside of Albany. The phone number listed is 518-478-0208. We know that Marjorie (Stan's first cousin) and Ken had two sons, Kurt and Ronald, but I have not yet been able to find them among the many Deckers with those first names.

But much more exciting than any of that is this morsel, Walter Ruby's draft registration card from June 5, 1917, apparently filled out in his own hand. He lists his name as Walter Ruby Rabinowitz. It provides an exact birthdate for him, October 15, 1893, a datum we may not have had. He lists his occupation as "salesman" with (as best I can make out) Lenox Novelty Co., located at 109 Lenox Ave. in New York City. He is 23 years old and writes that he is a "natural born" citizen.

Here's the image.

Jim Crax corkscrew

Submitted by fhmadmin on November 14, 2013 - 17:12

I should have posted this in August when I received the Jim Crax corkscrew in a private sale. This is the Walter Ruby designed and manufactured pencil corkscrew. I also have hopes of acquiring a copy of the Knud Knudsen version of the device, but for now I am happy to have this family artifact. I am not a great photographer but here is my attempt to show it off in its environment.

Knudsen's occupation in 1940 census was "making novelties"

Submitted by druby on July 24, 2013 - 11:23

Knud Knudsen came to America in 1906 as a laborer and hired hand and retired in 1958 as the president of a large industrial enterprise. But his heart and soul was in the metal shop as a tinkerer and inventor of consumer wares for enjoying spirits and tobacco. Even as Danbury Electric Manufacturing took off as a supplier of electrical components during the 1930s, he tinkered away with inventions for corkscrews, ashtrays, and bottle stoppers.

His 1940 census record identifies his occupation not as a corporate executive but as a novelty-maker in the metal goods industry. The image is the census record for Knudsen and his wife Christine (her Danish given name was Kirsten) for their address at 5 Osborne Rd. in Danbury, Conn. (highlighted) with an enlargement of the Knudsen information below. This information was collected by a census enumerator on April 10, 1940, a year after Knudsen had acquired rights to the Walter Ruby corkscrew patent.

By contrast, his 1930 census record identified him as "General Manager" in "Electric Mfg."

Knud Knudsen obituary

Submitted by druby on July 20, 2013 - 15:15

To learn more about Knud Knudsen, the inventor who bought the rights to my grandfather's corkscrew jimcrack, I started with the name of the company referenced in Knudsen's patent. In the filing, the patent is assigned to Danbury-Knudsen Inc., a corporation of Connecticut.

I quickly found out that the company was the successor to Danbury Electrical Manufacturing Co. and was a major supplier of automotive and industrial electrical components. Knud Knudsen was the founder and president until he sold the business to Amphenol Corp. in 1957.

That gave me pause because it seemed unlikely that same man who tinkered with corkscrews would also be a high-flying corporate executive. But as I worked it through, it was the same Knud Knudsen who headed an industrial enterprise who also tinkered around with corkscrews and ashtrays.

There is a lot to learn about this interesting man but I will rely on his March 1967 obituary in the Bridgeport Post for the overall narrative. Corkscrews are not mentioned but cigar lighters are. Enjoy.

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - Walter Ruby