Old Wooden Propeller and a Big Story

[Blu]

My grandparents recently left me an old wooden propeller. He claimed that it was a "test Prop" used on the Spirit of St. Louis, but through some research, I have found that the Spirit had a metal propeller. With this propeller, he also left me two pictures of Lindberg on the Spirit of St. Louis that I can't find any similar to them. Is it possible that this propeller was in some way used on test flights for the Spirit of St. Louis? It doesn't look like the propellers on your site because it has a gauge in the middle. Any suggestions on finding out what this was used for?

[Dave]

Virtually all of those stories are bogus, sometimes completely innocently, but bogus nonetheless. For instance, very often the claimed history will even precede the date of manufacture of the item or the origin of the company that manufactured it.

However, a picture of the prop and a list of anything stamped on the propeller would be a good place to start investigating a little further.