Funny. I love that old stuff. When I was a kid, my old man was a partner in a dry cleaning place here in DC. Actually, it was the oldest dry cleaners in town. A place called Besson's. They used to do the cleaning for everything from embassies, to the white house (first lady kind of stuff). It was established in the 1890's. And the business was run out of the same building on 14th street (a true S-hole when I was young) from the start. Amazing that the "well to do" would still have their stuff brought to that place. Even though it was in the "bad" section of town. Anybody that knew the northwest section of DC in those days would agree. Even being so close to the White House.....it was still a shitty part of town. So, when I was a kid (working for slave labor as family does), I spent many an hours in the old dry cleaning "plant" that had the old original machinery just like this stuff. Flat leather belts that turned heavy equipment. What's not to like? This kind of stuff is very cool....on a historical kind of level. Especially since I had the opportunity to work around it (in the 70's mind you....that shows how the stuff kept working).
Just something our next generation won't understand. They may appreciate it (as my son does)....but they won't get the first person experience of dealing with that kind of industrial equipment.