[rollei_list] Re: : Stillson Wrenches
----- Original Message ----- From: "Don Williams" <dwilli10@xxxxxxx> 
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 5:55 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] Re: : Stillson Wrenches



At 07:31 PM 7/22/2008, you wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerry Laderberg" <jerry@xxxxxxxxxxx> 
To: <rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2008 12:30 PM
Subject: [rollei_list] : Stillson Wrenches



" Monkey wrench"?
I little searching with Google Patents finds USP 184,993 dated 1876, issued to Daniel C. Stillson, of Sommerville Mass for "an improvement in wrenches". This is the familar "monkey wrench". Stillson's idea was to articulate the movable jaw so that it would grip various shapes equally well. The jaw is spring loaded. Stillson may very well have started a company but there is no indication of that and I did not do any historical research. Stillson appears to have held other patents but I did not research them. The earliest patent on what most of us would call a pipe wrench appears to be USP 765,912 dated 1904, issued to Harry L. Bordwell of Chicago. 

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Take a look at "Monkey Wrench" in Wikipedia. The examples there are very similar to mine, except mine is a bit less exotic and is all metal. I still use it today because it has a very large jaw opening capability compared to the other adjustable wrenches on the market today.
We (at least this writer) tend to call the ordinary adjustable wrench a "Crescent Wrench" but there are so many improvements on the market that the name can't cover them all. Still, being a bit behind the times, "Monkey Wrench" and "Crescent" (without the added "wrench") 
are very specific terms to me.
Wikipedia calls the Crescent an "adjustable spanner", which to me, is a British slant on naming wrenches. To me a "spanner" is a tool for turning parts which have holes or indents for gripping or turning them. 

DAW
Crescent was a manufacturer, I think they may still be in business or someone is still using the trade-mark. What is commonly called a crescent wrench is an adjustable open-end wrench. I think open end wrenches are what are called "spanners" in England. There are other types of wrenches also called spanners, maybe incorrectly. For instance pin wrenches are sometimes called spanners. The monkey wrench illustrated at Wikipedia is a Stillson type although I think Stillson's invention was the use of an articulation for the lower jaw allowing it to conform to some degree to the shape of the object hense giving a better grip. The Wikipedia artical refers to an early patent by Coes, I can't find such a patent although he had one on a method of rolling the parts for a "screw wrench". This turns out to be a sort of adjustable open-end wrench where the movable jaw is controlled by a bolt or screw in the end of the handle. I think I've seen such wrenches but certainly don't own one. It is a completely different pattern from the Stillson wrench or the familiar pipe wrench. The early date of the Coes patent (around 1840) indicates the screw wrench was a well established tool at the time. Stillson's patent is titled "An Improvement in Wrenches" suggesting some other wrench of the general type existed when the patent was applied for. More web research may find something but, at some point, the search engines just search each other and some real research must be done. I am not quite sure where my Stillson wrench is but remember that it had a hammer head so one could both wrench and bang on things. Our fearless leader accused me of being an expert on railroad history. Not yet: its a fascination but I am still learning a lot about it. This started off as a curiosity about steam engine locomotives when I realized one day that I really didn't know how they worked. From that I began to get interested in the business history of railroads. Its a fascinating journey (rail journey?) filled with con artists, thieves, and other scoundrels and all sorts of mis-management. I had the experience when very young of travelling on a train pulled by a steam locomotive. One does not open the windows. 

---
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA
dickburk@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
---
Rollei List

- Post to rollei_list@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Subscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'subscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org
- Unsubscribe at rollei_list-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the subject field OR by logging into www.freelists.org 

- Online, searchable archives are available at
http://www.freelists.org/archives/rollei_list

Other related posts: