What intrigued me most about the reel are two hand-scratched inscriptions inside the headcap and under the foot. One shows a date of "Oct. 10, 09," which would be years before the star drag was introduced on the B/Ocean reel.
I've never been able to find the reel in A&I catalogs, and I've always figured it was a prototype or an after-market addition by a competent machinist. Searches for the identity of Gid Luttrell have been confusing. A John F. Luttrell was a machinist in Brooklyn for many years. But there were Gid, Gideon, and Giddeon Luttrells all over the country, especially in Tennessee and California, during the 1900-1920 period, none whom I could ID in New York City. So the first major question I have is: Was Gid Luttrell merely an owner of the reel, perhaps receiving it as a gift? The second is: What is the significance of the inscribed date in the headcap? Could that drag have been made that long before the first star drag appeared, or does the date signify something else in retrospect, e.g., graduation from casting school, release from jail, whatever?
The idea that the reel was a prototype or some machinist's weekend project was shattered years later, when I ran across a model 99 1/2C reel (I think that's the model no.) with the same drag.
This time, the device looked a lot more like an after-market add-on. Here's a comparison of the reels' adjusting wheels and crank collars:
It's hard to believe that I could have picked up separately two reels modified by the same person, some 80-90 years after the modifications were made. If you have ever seen reels with similar drags, of if you can throw any light on the origins of these things, please let us know!
