Spreading hard butter on soft bread has always been a problem. When I was a child growing up in Tasmania my mother battled with this while trying to make our school lunches in winter. Her solution was to put the butter in a bowl then melt it in the oven of our fuel stove. It certainly wasn’t ideal… an oily mess as I recall.😨
The following ideas were more creative, but not really much better! I doubt my busy mother would have had time to muck about with this ‘tin pot’ invention anyway;
THE HOT TIN WEDGE
The Sun, July 20 1934
THE STEAM POWERED BUTTER KNIFE
This would truly have to be one of the most ‘bonkers’ inventions ever, A knife that was fitted into the spout of a kettle to heat up the blade 😍;
Mind you, it’s debatable whether a battery powered model is any more sensible. Good grief!
Of course in summer, at least before refrigeration, there was a reverse problem.
Here is the flower pot solution.
WINCHED DOWN THE WELL
My family could have used this old method, well except for one thing. We dug a 60ft well on the spot where a water diviner’s rod swung to earth, but it didn’t have any damn water in it.
The Mail, October 20 1909
