Time Capsule - The Box in the Attic

Attic cleaning.  Never fun.  There's always this mix of nostalgia "Awww...we can't throw that away", and a sense of eventual mortality "Let's clean this mess up now so the kids never have to".

But at least there are assorted curios to make the process more interesting.  Here's one.  A big wooden box.  I have no memory of how it got there.  Maybe it was there when we bought the house.  It seems like the sort of thing I might have hauled back when the old family farm was sold but I figure I'd remember doing so.  Anyway...

Here's some detail of the front.  It took me a while to squint this out but the box is from the Manyuse ( or Many-Use ) Oil Company of New York.  Indeed, look at the Many Uses it proposes:  Sewing Machines, Rental Engines ( or is it Dental?), Lawn Mowers, Tools, and something to do with Furniture.

And on the slightly better preserved back side:  Firearms, Bicycles, Guns, Typewriters, Golf Clubs (?), Talking Machines, Motors.

A side panel says something about Lubricant and Rust (Removal?), further down Cleaners and Polishers.  There is a scrawled message from the warehouse or purchasing merchant that I read as:  5 Gross Manyuse Oil 2L.  What, liters?  In an era where "Talking Machines" still conveyed some meaning?

It struck me as odd that one variety of oil could have this Many Uses.  And a bit of research does show a different story.  Here's something that was for sale on ebay.

Evidently you could buy Many-Use Oil either in half gallon cans or in a variety of smaller specialty dispensers.  The packaging seems to have been as important as the product.  So what else is new.....

My initial guesstimate of 1915 plus or minus five seems to be about right.  The various references to Many-Use in publications such as "Hardware World" and "The Retail Clerks Advocate" range from 1908 to 1922.  By that last date the company appears to have relocated to San Francisco.  Seeing the above I figure that "2L" is really "2Z" a short hand for 2 oz.  With packaging I should think 720 of their 2 ounce bottles is about the right size for the crate.

Now if I could only remember where it came from.