It's a "fluting machine"! (Not as in flute, the musical instrument.)
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We had a few people who knew or thought they knew, and some who did know but they all kept the secret to the end!
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And we had one sedulous guesser who analyzed each hint given after each guess to finally whittle her way to the answer! Great job Laura J. Ping (Adjunct Professor at Queens College, CUNY)! It was a lot of fun watching you play and guess!
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According to http://HomeThingsPast.com, "In the 1870s dressmakers were using pleated frills, also called fluting, lavishly. Dressmakers and classy laundries offering “fancy” ironing services both had plenty of use for a fluting machine. Fluters were sold for home use too. Classified ads from the 1860s to the end of the century show employers looking for a laundress who “thoroughly understands fluting”, or women claiming they could “do all kinds of fine laundry work, pleating, French fluting, starching, and polishing”."
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Here's another picture of a fluter from their web site: .
Calendar
Here is our 3rd "What is it?", and we know what it is! But the only hint we're going to give about this one... is that it's not part of a print press!
It's also not a can opener!! 
If you think you know what it is, take a guess at our Valentown Facebook "What is it?" post. Or if you don't know what it is, just join in on the fun and the conversation at http://historicvalentownmuseum.org/layout/valentown/images/fb-btn.jpg! Feel free to pass this along for others to guess at, too... the more the merrier!
Less is more.