I would watch them (from my driver's seat) put a whole large potato into a slicer, chopper or whatever it's called. From this device, the slices would drop directly into the fryer. I thought that pretty neat.
It was a chip machine. I used to have a fast food outlet in Brisbane, called a take-away here, this was many years back and we had a mechanical potato peeler and then would feed the peeled spuds into the chipper and keep the chips in cold water until required. When needed you would scoop some out into a fry basket, knock all the water off and dunk them into the hot fat. On one occasion when it was stinking hot outside (we had shop doors open so no aircon) not only did the chips get dunked into the fat but also my reading glasses, they slipped off my nose nice an easy and "PLOP," no more glasses.
This manor was completely restored and repaired on 2018, the manor is about 250 years old. All those colorful windows and other wooden parts, are original.
Inner view, showing the "Shah Neshin" area, the most important, and ussually biggest room, in manor, where the manor owner used to live, work, eat and have guests.
Old manors used to have both inner and outer yards. Ussually the outer / forward yard had a small pool. Photos showing inner / back yard.