The joy of a good old device

1 : something devised or contrived: such as a(1) : a piece of equipment or a mechanism designed to serve a special purpose or perform a special function Merriam-Webster Dictionary I'm not, it must be said, the worlds most practical man. I can do a few things however, and have enough practical background to recognise when something is a truly beautiful example of a tool. Something made to be used, but also made itself of metal and wood and human ingenuity and a thing of beauty in its own right. I was out in the world and got shown a device, actually a number of them, but this particular one stood out. The first thing that drew my attention was the 'Made in Western Germany' stamp as well as the beautiful metal tooling. The stamp means its likely older than me and indeed this dated from not really all that long after the creation of West(ern) Germany as an entity. It's essentially a specialised sewing machine for stitching leather and especially zips into leather boots. The current owner…