I patched a lot of tubes, and tubeless tires. A patch for a tube has to be heated to activate the glue compound to bond the raw rubber to the tube. Most of what I dealt with was: the patch was a square, oval, or diamond shape on a like shaped metal shell. Most of these were the size of a playing card or smaller. Inside the shell was a dry material, about 3/ 16th thick. The patch was clamped to the tube, then this material was lit afire, had lots of sulphur, as the smoke was white and really stank. Later on, shops not liking to smell up the place started using the electric repair. The orange machine there would be bolted to the bench, with the arm hanging over the edge towards you. This model looks like that round piece heats up, so the patch would go on that, and the tube with the hole would be placed squarely over the patch. The arm with the ball end looks like it operates the dark metal clamp hanging over the round part. There would be a fixture pressing down on the tube, while the electric heater got hot. Smelled like hot rubber. Either way, the tube was left alone until it cooled so the patch would bond, boss didn't want you to waste a patch. What do the patches in the boxes look like? The boxes look big like maybe boot size vulcanize repairs. A boot in a tire was a very large repair, only used when things were really tough, often on farm machinery. There was even a large convoluted clamp assembly again bolted to the bench, that let the electric heater reach down inside a 7.00x14 inch tire, to patch a hole in a tubeless. Tubeless came out in 1957.
