Trevor,
In today's information age I still frequently wind up turning to experts for help finding critical information.
Check your public library. Typically reference or business departments are staffed with professionals trained to retrieve this kind of information. At minimum they should be able to provide who manufactured the device and, if presently out of business, what company was last to own or control it and how/when it was disposed of.
It's always worked for me.
The more info about the manufacturer you can find (year of manufacture, country/state it ws built, etc) the easier it will be to find the info. A good librarian is also an advantage; some "librarians" merely serve as book check-out clerks. Our county-wide library system puts the best librarians in it's main facility with the people in charge of the system; look at the main branch (or trunk) if you hit a dead end.
I have also (re)found manufacturers of unusual adhesives through on-line searches of patents after all else failed. It was a bit convoluted from there in my case, but you may find enough in the patent records themselves to solve your problem...
Manufacturers generally WANT to be found. For someone who knows their way around directories it shouldn't be a big deal. (And all the time in school I thought library passes were there only to get me out of class)
Regards
d
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