^ I am not able to find Aldon's patent either, although their website claims they have one.
I am not sure I have found all the answers to
@johnre's question, as searching for "car mover" brings up all sorts of unexpected search results.
There were a number of manufacturers of these objects, some apparently more popular (or common) than others.
While they were marketed under various brand names, and contemporary advertisements would indicate they were being made by different companies, it is indeed curious that so many of them all came out of the little hamlet of Appleton, Wisconsin, which today has a population of about 75,000, but was only about 20,000 in 1920.
While I haven't been able to find a direct link between one Richard Miller, of Appleton, Wisconsin, and any of the various manufacturers of his invention, it appears (at least on the surface) that he was the man responsible for designing one of the first iterations of a car mover, specimens of which can be found as far away as
Denmark.
"Advanced", "Atlas", "Badger", "New Badger", and "Power King" were some of the brand names these Appleton, Wisconsin tools were marketed under. Which is the one to which Mr. Miller's patent applies I am unsure of.
November 14, 1911 Appleton Evening Crescent pp 1 Richard Miller
Richard Miller, Appleton, Wisconsin was a co-founder of Eagle Manufacturing Co., Appleton, WI (along with John Kanouse and William Prolifka) originally as the Eagle Fork Co.. Richard Miller sold his interests in the company in 1893.
William McLeish was president of the Appleton Car Mover Company.
"He came to Appleton in 1885 as a photographer, and later became a bookkeeper for a hardware firm, but in November, 1900, he organized the Appleton Car Mover Company, with E. M. Wright, R. Miller and Archie Shannon. Later Messrs. Shannon and Miller sold out, and the interest of Mr. Wright was purchased by Mr. E. C. Allen, who met an accidental death in New York, in 1907, since which time Mr. MeLeish has conducted the business alone, although Mrs. Allen retained her husband's interest. The company's goods, which are known and sold all over the world, consist of chutes, chute elevators, house shields, sheet steel, coal baggers, bagging screens, combination yard and car screens, pocket screens, wire cloth, rotary screens, coal bags, canvas steel and galvanized steel baskets, waterproof horse covers, Atlas car movers, push brooms, wagon signs, steel wheelbarrows, car wrenches, scoops, forks, coal elevators and conveyors, and, in fact, any and every article that is in demand by coal dealers, many of these articles being covered by special patents controlled by the company."
"History of Outagamie County" https://foxvalleymemory.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/PART7.pdf
1916 J.M. Warren & Co. catalog Advance Richardson & Tallman Sackett Sheldon ad pp 25
1924 Hardware Buyers Catalog Advance Appleton ad pp 433
1939 J. Jacob Shannon & Do. catalog Advance Car Mover Badger Never Slip Power King ad pp 261
1941 W. Bingham Co.catalog Appleton Advance Dayton Lowell ad pp 17
