A vintage coffee grinder made from an unusual material was showcased at the Dnipro museum exhibition (PHOTO).

In Dnipro, at the Dmytro Yavornytskyi Historical Museum, numerous fascinating exhibits will be on display for Valentine's Day. These include items from the museum's collection as well as contributions from museum staff. One notable item is an antique coffee grinder made by PeDe (Peter Dienes, Germany) from the 1930s. This information was shared in a post on the museum's Facebook page, as reported by "Vidomo".

In 1869, Peter Dienes merged two companies to form PeDe. By 1899, coffee grinders from this company began to be sold not only in European countries but also in the USA. In 1935, PeDe started manufacturing coffee grinder housings from an unusual material—bakelite (phenolic resin). These grinders were referred to as the "Model 411" and were produced between 1935 and 1937.

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It is worth noting that this material was also used to create housings for field telephones (one of which can be seen in the exhibition "From Smoke to Ring: The History of Telephone Communication"). Its introduction marked the beginning of a new era in human history, the era of synthetic polymers. A unique property of bakelite is its ability to mimic materials such as coral, amber, ivory, and even tortoiseshell.

The body is made from marbled red-brown bakelite with a fixed plastic side handle and a nickel-plated crank, topped with a wooden knob. There is a chute for ground coffee at the bottom, equipped with a valve.

This model is available in various colors, and sometimes it comes without a cover on the chute, occasionally featuring a brass plate on the lid.

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