The Lugzsonian - A Virtual Tour

[Modern Garage]

I hate to contribute to thread drift, but to close a circle, here's the finished product of the motorcycle front end that Leg17 posted up-thread.
I have a few Avon cars and now that Lugz suggested it (reminded me of it) I'll start posting them over on the Automotive Paraphernalia thread.
Joe

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The Curator is plumb tired of being distracted by The PLVMB Company Newsletters Thread and The PLVMB Letter-Letter Code Survey Thread, and thinks it’s time to unveil a new Curator’s Corner on a topic with no chance of Plomb being involved!

For you first time Lugzsonian thread readers, the Curator periodically stages these temporary (insanity) displays, which he rather too self-aggrandizingly calls “Curator’s Corners”, when he wants to highlight something that is not on permanent display down here in the Lugzsonian. These rotating topics could be an odd brand or a type of tool or whatever tickles his fancy.

From the archives…
CC#1: Waldes-Truarc, post #2780, page 7, which spawned its own thread, linked HERE.
CC#2: WWII Survival Gear, post #307, page 8
CC#3: Multi-Tools, post #365, page 10
CC#4: The Opisometer, post #391, page 10
CC#5: The Casket Key, post #399, page 10
CC#6: Not-Petersen’s (Other Brands of Locking Plier-Wrenches), post #436, page 11
...and...
CC#8: Utility Knives, post #458, page 12

He’s not quite sure how he skipped a #7 (seems unlucky!) or how Pancho Villa’s machete, the family heritage TONA sets, and ‘the Stinkdriver Study’ did not rise to the occasion of meriting the title of a Curator’s Corner, but alas, for whatever reason, he hasn’t done one in well over a year!

That slump ends right now with….

 

[Private Lugnutz]

CURATOR’S CORNER #9: Ratchet Action End Wrenches



INTRODUCTION

This is one of those Chicken-or-Egg topics that just keeps getting kicked further down the road here at GJ. Someone finds a BEVCO “CHARLY” and, without fail, someone else says it looks like a Thorsen “Speed-Hed”. Someone posts a Blackhawk “Nutmaster” and it almost always immediately prompts comparisons to Peugeot “Surpans”. Inevitably someone comes along to claim that Snap-on’s “Flank Drive” was the first of its kind, only to be quickly schooled about Kelsey-Hayes’ “Loc-Rite” beating them to the punch. “What about those weird Simplex wrenches from the 1920’s?” the Snap-on groupie will counter, just before being counter-countered with an even earlier Williams “Ratcho”. The Curator decided to get to the bottom of it. Or better said, the beginning of it. The last place on earth he expected that to be was Orlando, Florida. And yet according to his research, that is indeed where the first open end wrench designed to “re-engage a nut without bodily removing the wrench from said nut” was patented (463,137 / Nov 17, 1891) by Daniel H. Carpenter.



This is also one of those polarizing Love ‘em or Hate ‘em topics. If you think the “Quick” in Craftsman “Quick Wrench” signifies how long it took you to toss them in the trash, Carpenter is the guy to blame, not Bob Villa, and this thread is probably not for you. If by contrast you swear that using one saves you hours of work every week, well then, Carpenter is your hero, not Bob Villa, and you may be interested in learning the history and evolution. Many imitators followed, of course, many citing Carpenter’s patent as prior art. Most of them never got off the drawing board. We have focused our study on those that did. Some of those patents were cited in turn by later patents, which were themselves cited by later patents still.

To help us track and visualize our complex findings, the Curator decided to create a chart showing the timeline, the production details, and the relationships. And because, well...

 

[Private Lugnutz]

THE TIMELINE CHART



The chart reads best from right to left. The symbols (patents) and arrows (citations) should be fairly self-explanatory. The size of the triangle represents a patent’s significance within the milieu based on how many times its cited by others. Entries in black are wrenches we own here in the Lugzsonian and plan to show n’ tell here in the ensuing days weeks indefinite period. Grayed-out entries are wrenches we don’t have here on the premises of the Lugzsonian or, in some case, those which may not have ever been made.

As you study the chart and read between the lines, especially the vertical decade lines, you’ll see something very interesting emerge: periods of patent submissions separated like clockwork by utility patent expirations. Check out the vertical yellow bands and the blue Gannt bars at the top to help you along with that.

As for those citation arrows, the only reason you don’t see Miquelon cite Amborn and Denham, or Amborn and Denham cite Carpenter, is because "duty of candor" regarding prior art was not considered a virtue in the US until the 1950’s and it was not codified as a requirement in patent law until 1977, with the enactment of 37 CFR 1.97, the so-called "prior art statement".

Why is the Curator stopping at 1976? Because he doesn’t consider much of anything past high school to be vintage. (And that’s the youngest wrench of this type we have!)

We know that leaves out the Craftsman Quick Wrench and the Extreme Grip Quick Wrench and all of Snap-on’s Superfragilistic “Flank-Drive” spinoffs. The most we will say about that (patented in 1966, not TM’ed as a term until 1980, first commercial use in 1967) and all its iterations is that Snap-on’s marketing claim - to having “created a tool the industry had never seen before”, phraseology that they are still using today, is ******** only true of socket wrenches. Every end wrench ever built that was meant to provide ratchet action and/or precise torque to the flats or faces of a fastener without rounding the corners or able to turn fasteners that had already been badly rounded owes its existence to D.H. Carpenter, the patent lineage shows it, and Snap-on dang well knows it. Their own patent application proves it, whether they realize it or not. Snap-on (Knudsen et al) cited Kavalar, Kavalar cited Diebold, and Diebold cited – you guessed it, Carpenter.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Lastly, before we begin in earnest, some…

NOTES AND PROTOCOL FOR MOST EFFECTIVE AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION

This is going to be a long one. There’s a lot of information to cover, we’re going to take our time doing it, and we want to do so in deliberate, methodical, chronological order. PLEASE DON’T JUMP THE SHARK! Please don’t jump ahead in the chart and discombobulate the flow with random photos. We hope you will be excited by this topic and we welcome any and all feedback, comments, thoughts, questions, and especially new information, if you have any, that we can incorporate into the chart. If you have a wrench that is represented on the chart, the Lugzsonian heartily welcomes its virtual addition to this CC at the appropriate time – when we get to it. If you have a wrench of this type that is NOT represented by a patent or brand name shown on the chart, and you believe it was made between 1891 and 1976, please post it at the appropriate time. The Lugzosnian staff would like nothing more than seeing other examples of the patents and wrenches we have identified here or learning about an example we did not find or identify in our research – at the appropriate time.

We’re not in a rush. We’re going to let everyone study, ruminate and stew on the chart for a few days.

 

[Outlawmws]

 

[Private Lugnutz]

FIRST OF A KIND

As we stated in our Intro, we are pretty dang sure the “Cycle Grip” is the earliest specimen in the manual ratchet action wrench species. Our example is well-marked with the trademark, Carpenter’s name, and two of his four patent dates, the first and last.



The first (446,324 / Feb 10, 1891) was for an adjustable combined nut and pipe wrench.



The second (463,137 / Nov 17, 1891) was for a DOE wrench.



Carpenter continued refining the design in 467,151 / Jan 18, 1892 and 515,070 / Feb 20, 1894. They all had the same ingenious principle: a wrench meant to grip the flats adjacent to a nut’s corners to allow the wrench to be re-positioned without removing it from the nut, claimed and continuously awarded as novel. Wrenches produced with Carpenter’s designs were also marketed as the “Automatic Grip”, also bearing his name and patent info. The splash they made in the early marketplace rippled for decades.

We have seen many models that have the hook milled into the static jaw, as shown in all his patents, but they all have the same patent markings, so we’re not sure what’s going on with ours, but that rounded dynamic jaw is what grabs the flats and also allows its release for a new grip.

If anyone has any Carpenter wrenches, we’d love to see them now. Especially an actual open end.

 

[duddly]

Ooh... this is going to be fun! I may have to check out as you get up to 1950 or so. All the modern quick style wrenches start to make me twitch/shudder/wretch

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Ooh... this is going to be fun!

Thanks for your interest, Duds!

I may have to check out as you get up to 1950 or so. All the modern quick style wrenches start to make me twitch/shudder/wretch

Well, we can't promise that you'll find the older ones any more functional or less twitch/shudder/wretch-inducing, but if it's any consolation - and in the "Rules are meant to be broken, especially if they're your own" category, the Acquisitions Dept spotted and quickly passed these by this morning at the flea.

 

[Outlawmws]

So Lugz, where does the Masterench fall in this category? It also ratchets... But definitely not earlier than Carpenter.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

So Lugz, where does the Masterench fall in this category? It also ratchets...

I can see how some users may have become adept at using them that way over the years, if they're loose enough to make a backswing, but technically, they're considered self-adjust wrenches, and they're not meant to slip off the nut. Quite the opposite. Once you slip them on a nut, they're meant to adjust to the size and the spring is supposed to provide the tension to keep the jaw there. You know I'm a fan, and you know I have a complete set on your thread. But the first Lynch patent and every subsequent improved patent on them cited this as the objective - "to provide an adjustable wrench that will automatically grip various shapes and sizes of nuts," and "without any tendency of the nuts to slip from place," and none of them contain the word "ratchet" or "ratcheting."

 

[Outlawmws]

I get that the patent focus was keep it tight, but they do in fact ratchet in contact, and the pipe wrench version takes advantage of it. I do it with the nut/bolt version routinely, and always have.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I have no doubts you have used them that way, Outlaw, but their self-adjust quality, conforming to multiple fasteners, and not letting go, is not just a technicality of the patent. They were never marketed as ratcheting or ratchet wrenches. I'm not being dismissive of them being used that way, merely answering your question. Their niche and history and prior art etc is not the same as self-adjust wrenches. DATAMP doesn't list them that way. None of the later ratchet action wrench patents cite them for that reason. And that's why I didn't include them. They're just not part of this category.

 

[Outlawmws]

The fact that design intent, and actual use differences go back probably to the very first tools. Many things, if not most, get used for other than design intent. It has to or there could be no progress. I get you are trying to setup rules, but the fact remains the rules are artificial to actual functionality.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Many things, if not most, get used for other than design intent. It has to or there could be no progress.

Of course. No argument. To wit, screwdrivers being used as chisels. But the point of this study and its parameters is clearly driven by design, by the patents, and my meticulous tracing of them back, in steps, to Carpenter. See the chart. Those complex interconnected citations explicitly show a history of inventors all studying the geometries involved in designing open ends that explicitly work on flats, explicitly for ratcheting action. Mssrs Lynch and Mead were studying a whole 'nother history, with a whole 'nother objective: self-adjusting. I am looking at this like a patent examiner. Not a user.

I get you are trying to setup rules, but the fact remains the rules are artificial to actual functionality.

? It's just a topic area. No more artificial than you expecting no DBEs to be posted in your DOE thread, or vice versa. I get that you like to ratchet with them, but they're just not thought of as ratcheting wrenches in this category. And remember, I am a big fan! It's really and only that simple.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Moving on to the...

FIRST WAVE

The “Ratcho” in the Lugzsonian, patented (956, 259 / April 26, 1910) by George Amborn, of Brooklyn, NY, assigned to and made by J.H. Williams, is a very early model. Later models have “RATCHO” forged in with the patent date. Ours reads simply, “Ratchet Wrench” and “Patented” on the shank with Williams’ earliest oval “BKLYN, NY” logo. Like Carpenter’s models, the jaw is designed with just enough curvatured “slop” to gently "rock off" of a nut on a reverse stroke and allow for a re-grip and ratchet action in repeated sequences. The patent drawing shows the wrench in use on a large nut like those used on railroad rail fish plates.

This patent was cited by Wilder in 1953. See chart.

(We've attached the chart again below so you can follow along without having to scroll up.)

 

[Private Lugnutz]

We frankly don’t know much about Edwin Denham or his Erie Wrench Company, started in 1910 in NYC with a $10,000 stake and a few partners, ostensibly to make the ratchet action wrenches for which he had just submitted an application to patent. We have never seen one or found a record of one. His importance in the chart is helping to inform the later Diebold patent.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Going once, going twice... on the FIRST OF A KIND and FIRST WAVE.

If anyone has any Carpenter wrench or a Williams "Ratcho" (again, ours is early and does not have that name on it), later cited by Wilder (the Thorsen "Speed-Hed"/early Craftsman "Ratcheting Wrench" inventor) or by some stroke of miraculous luck, a Denham "Erie wrench", later cited by Diebold (NB/Blackhawk "Nutmaster" inventor), please post them.

We are itching to move on to the SECOND and THIRD WAVEs, when things start to really get interesting.

 

[humber2]

Google rexos spanner for a ratcheting wrench but like Carpenters first patent it uses a swinging jaw which keeps these off Lugs’ chart.

There is even an adjustable akin to a crescent shifter.

edit, image of the business end added, 3/4 BSW =33mm =1 & 5/16”

 

[Private Lugnutz]

but like Carpenters first patent it uses a swinging jaw which keeps these off Lugs’ chart.

We actually thought it a happy and tidy coincidence that the oldest (Carpenter) and youngest (Evans T&R) wrenches in the Lugzsonian providing a ratchet action happen to be the adjustable versions of each inventor's same basic design, which made for a nifty photo.

To be clear, though, even though it's an adjustable wrench (and therefore having what inventors in this family called "yielding" or "loose-jaw" members), the shape of the opening made by the fixed jaw and the dynamic jaw to adjust it to different size nuts or pipes uses the same principle that Carpenter applied to a fixed open end wrench, and had as its sole stated objective and claim, a wrench "capable of being moved to get a fresh hold upon the object being acted upon without removing the wrench from such object."

As does the Rexos!

From the patent: "Upon turning the wrench back, the jaws a and b are removed from the nut, while the pivotal jaw member still embraces the nut on three sides. On the pivot of the movable member an abutment x is provided, which permits a turning-back of the fixed jaws a and b so far only that the key can turn over the nut, whereby the ratchetlike action is obtained." That pivoting jaw is there explicitly to allow a backswing and another grip on a different flat, in sequence, again and again, without removing the wrench from the nut, not for self-adjusting on different size nuts, but to achieve what they claimed: "a novel wrench of ratchet-like action".

Patent GB191019234A, granted June 21, 1911, to Paul Meyer and Max Nolden, Solingen, Germany. No citations.

Thanks for being it to our attention!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

SECOND WAVE

Here is a “Simplex Ratchet” wrench from our collection, made by the Simplex Wrench Company.



That “FASTNUT LICENSE” marking is a reference to Fastnut, Ltd., their manufacturer in England (God Bless The Queen; Long Live the King!) under an earlier British patent (GB-194,041 / March 8, 1923) granted to Walter Cook, of Beehive Wharf, Brentford, Middlesex, England, with the objective of inventing a spanner made “to ratchet or ride over the corner of the nut engaged, when on the return or non-working stroke of the spanner.”



Here are some purloined photos of an earlier "BRITISH MADE" "FASTNUT", a very handsome spanner.



The “PAT. JAN. 1, 1924” marking is a reference to Cook’s US patent (1,479,772).

Later, Simplex made them under their own patent (1,642,508 / April 12, 1927 / Reilly).

The chart again for easier reference.



These are the wrenches that the Motor Tool Specialty Company, Snap-on’s founders’ distribution company, sold alongside Snap-on and early Blue-Point tools in their 1928 and 1929 catalogs.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Other than the indisputable coolness of the inventor’s name, Edward Z. Miquelon (if E.Z.’s friends didn’t call him “Easy”, we’d be very disappointed!), we don’t know much about the Hugo, Minnesota resident or his patent, 1,954,141, granted on April 10, 1934. The public record is pretty sparse. Eleven twelfths of the patent was assigned to partners, and they were bankers in Scandia and Marine on St Croix, Minn., so we’re assuming they staked his startup, to be paid off in dividends on licensing fees, a scheme that probably failed. There is no record of its production. Its importance here in this study is in the fact that Wilder cited it as prior art, and therefore it is at least partially intellectually responsible, along with the earlier “RATCHO”, which Wilder also cited, for bringing us the Thorsen “Speed-Hed” and the Sears, Roebuck & Co Craftsman “Ratcheting Combination Wrench”.



Ditto for Emile Henot of Paris, France. Notable for being the earliest patent the Curator could find that used rounded lobes rather than notches inside a wrench opening, and it was cited by both Diebold (“Nutmaster”) and Hinkle.

 

[leg17]

Just got back in town. Tryna catch up. (Grand-kids taught me that one!)

FIRST WAVE cont.
RATCHO -- J.H. WILLIAMS

A group of seven different sizes of the Williams Ratcho wrenches patent APR.26,’10.
All seven are similarly marked with “Ratcho” and date.
Looks like the patent and the logo copyright were both filed in 1910.
AA credits the Brooklyn Oval logo to after 1914.
The more commonly encountered examples here have all the dope on the wrench with no oval.
Lugz' example has the patent name and info blanked out with the post 1914 oval.
Could be earlier…. or….. could be later and tangled up in copyright issues.

I smell a rabbit trail.

Numbers include:
1125
1127
1127C
1134
1725
1729
1736

 

[leg17]

SECOND WAVE cont.
SIMPLEX -- FASTNUT -- REILLY

A selection of classic style Simplex wrenches in several iterations using at least three different material specs:
Chrome Vanadium
Nickel Molybdenum
Hi-Nickel Molybdenum

and three different patent markings:
January 1, 1924
1,642,805
January 1, 1924 & April 27, 1927.

I have five different combinations of patent info and material. There may be more.

Wrench numbers include:
10
11
12
13
14
15
19
32



Three materials, three patents, and eight part numbers makes 72 potentially different wrenches.
And, there are variations within some of these.
And, … some are seen marked Frank Reilly rather than Simplex.

I don’t think though, that the situation, from a collectors perspective, is quite that bleak.
I only have, or know of, less than 20 different combinations total.

The wrench part number is usually forged into the panel.
The die-makers were surely kept busy.

 

[leg17]

SECOND.5 WAVE cont.
RATCHO -- Patent 1,954,141

The lone example I have of Miquelon's patent wrench.
It is stamped rather than forged and is about 3/16” thick.
Apparently went into production, but to what extent is unknown.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I smell a rabbit trail.

Snerk. Agreed. But I'm already chasing too many critters already. I might have to call this one goodenuff for now.

The die-makers were surely kept busy.

Indeed.

The lone example I have of Miquelon's patent wrench.

That is awesome! I am glad someone had one, I am pretty sure it's the lone example on GJ, and if I had to narrow it down to a few likely suspects to have one, you'd be one!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

THIRD WAVE

It should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever used a CAM-LOC wrench to find out that the patents Alfred Kavalar cited in the application for his patent (2,550,010 / Apr 24, 1951) had nothing to do with wrenches! They were all freewheeling clutches and sprockets. Why? During WWII he jury-rigged trigger mechanisms into ratcheting devices with a very short arc-swing to tighten hydraulic fittings. After the war, he used his idea to design the CAM-LOC for the company who shrewdly hired him – Kramer Fabricating, in St Claire Shores, just outside Detroit.



We have no plans to say much more than that about the ingenious CAM-LOC here, since it is well exemplified in several threads, because it actually ratchets, with moving parts, and doesn’t technically fit this genre. The only reasons we’ve included it in the chart and the discussion is because Kavalar cites it later in his LOC-RITE patent application, which does belong here, and because it is worth noting that the rollers, which spin, do act very similar to the fixed lobes he would carry through into the LOC-RITE design later, presenting more bearing surfaces to the flats less likely to distort the corners of a nut.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

THIRD WAVE Cont'd (Petit)

Peugeot Freres, or the Peugeot Brothers, is an interesting story. @Outlawmws is a fan, and maybe we can get back into his good graces after that Helleracious false start by telling it.

The name refers to Jean-Pierre and Jean-Frederic Peugeot, who in 1810 converted the family flour mill to a steel mill. They began making all kinds of products, from coffee grinders to clock mechanisms, including tools. In 1847, due to severe disputes between several cousins who ended up with control of the company, Peugeot Freres split into a few different business entities, making different products, including the automobile and tools, which the other entities were prevented from making. (If anyone else is picturing men with classic handlebar moustaches histrionically shouting French epithets at each other across a big oak table set up with fine French food and wine, you’re not alone!) They were reunited again as Peugeot Freres in 1910. (Now they’re older and all smiles and shaking hands across the same table!)

“Surpans” is from two words, sur pans, which translates quite literally in English as “on flanks.”



The “Bte.” on the shank of the Peugeot Freres wrench is an abbreviation for “Brevetes”, the French word for patented.



Unfortunately, no indisputable evidence of which patent it refers to is readily available in the public domain as far as we know.

There are some good clues, however. In 1954, Fritz Diebold (New Britain and Blackhawk “Nutmaster” wrenches) cited Henot. In 1964, Alfred Kavalar (Kelsey-Hayes, including Utica, Herbrand, and Bonney “Loc-Rite” wrenches) cited a later French patent (1,033,792 / Raymond Petit). It’s very likely that the Surpans patent is one of those. Which one has been an open question.

Neither patent uses the words “sur pans” verbatim. The Petit patent does not cite the Henot patent. As others have noticed, the “VANA” in “VANA-LION” undoubtedly refers to vanadium. Many tool makers were using vanadium in alloy steel in the 1930’s, so it’s possible the wrenches date to the 1930’s. According to car collectors, however, the wrenches were part of the kit put in the trunks of the Peugeot 203 and other cars made in the 1950’s.

Another clue comes from Surpans wrenches made in England, ostensibly under license. The “BNT” on them refers to Brades, Nash, and Tyzack, which did not even form as a company until 1951. See the purloined photos below.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Finally, and most convincingly, the Curator has found several trade mag references that indicate the Surpans wrenches were first introduced to the market in 1953.



Therefore, we have fairly confidently assigned credit for the Peugeot Surpans to Raymond Petit of Paris, France.



Technically, these wrenches, which always seem to get thrown into the mix in this conversation due to their unusual milled opening, were not designed for ratcheting; they were designed to apply force on the flats to prevent marring of corners, but their design lends themselves to riding over the corner on a sort of backswing.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

THIRD WAVE Cont'd Further (Wilder)

In another context, in the city just across the bay from Emeryville, Calif., the name of Thorsen’s entry in the ratchet action wrench category (Speed-Hed”) might conjure a completely different image than a wrench. An alley, a $20 bill, and one’s pants around one’s ankles, perhaps. Submitted to the USPTO on March 22, 1949, and not granted until Sep. 22, 1953, the time it to took for Glenn W. Wilder’s patent application to be examined and granted (2,652,735) was anything but speedy.



Which is a little curious, since Miquelon’s had sufficiently expired by then. And Wilder, seemingly covering all his bases, cited Amborn ("Ratcho"), "Easy" Miquelon ("Ratcho" 2), and the grandaddy of them all, Carpenter!

We suspect – and it’s just a hunch on our part, that the examiners wrestling with both of Fritz Diebold’s applications (submitted January 24, 1952, and March 23, 1953, respectively) at the same time as they were looking at Wilder’s may have had something to do with it. They took different approaches and had different purposes – Wilder, in Sutherlin, Oregon, to achieve ratchet action and more accurate, no-slip, non-marring turning power, and Diebold, in Switzerland, to achieve truer, non-marring turning power, but both were “novel” openings, and both cited Carpenter.

Not that the delay stopped Thorsen. There’s no doubt they were making the “Speed-Hed” in 1949 and my example is one of those early “PAT. APPL’D FOR” models.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

The Lugzsonian made it a goal of including only wrenches we have on the premises, so the Curator could study the openings on the bench, but we are making an exception, with honor and permission, for @Jim C. ’s splendid “Ratcheting Combination Wrench” set, if only because they’re so rare. First offered as a 3-pc set in 1954, these MDF-made Heritage era =V= series wrenches were clearly the precursors to the later “Quick Wrench” and the much later “Extreme Grip Quick Wrench”, and, while we have no proof, we think it's a good bet that Sears was licensing the Wilder patent. The geometry of the opening is exactly the same as the “Speed-Hed”.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

THIRD WAVE Final (Diebold)

New Britain gave the design they licensed from Diebold one of the cooler brand names in this genre and openly advertised the fact that it was a European innovation. They used the same name and marketing on their Blackhawk models as well. We don’t have much to say about their lobular design except the obvious: they look very similar to the Petit Peugeot “Surpans”. Very similar as in nearly identical. Which is a little odd, because Diebold did not cite Petit, he cited Petit's earlier countryman, Henot, as well as Denham ("Erie"), and the granddaddy of them all, Carpenter.

But note that Petit was earlier than Diebold, who was earlier than Kavalar, who was earlier than Knudsen et al. If anyone deserves credit for the modern era of end wrenches of this type, it’s Peugeot, not Snap-on.

The “Surpans” are milled just a little thinner than the “Nutmasters” on the outer jaws.

Distinctions between the Petit-Diebold (“Surpans”-”Nutmaster”) pairing, like the distinctions among wrenches in the Wilder-Ward/Evans (“Speed-Hed”-”Lockjaw”/”Speed Wrench”) lineage, which I have yet to get to, are so imperceptible they strain either the Curator’s incredulity in the examiners’ definition of “novel” or his understanding of patent law, and, to be frank, we have no interest in resolving it.

 

[d42jeep]

Here are some that I have or have had. I think I sold off the Craftsman wrenches.
-Don

 

[Jim C.]

The Lugzsonian made it a goal of including only wrenches we have on the premises, so the Curator could study the openings on the bench, but we are making an exception, with honor and permission, for @Jim C. ’s splendid “Ratcheting Combination Wrench” set, if only because they’re so rare. First offered as a 3-pc set in 1954, these MDF-made Heritage era =V= series wrenches were clearly the precursors to the later “Quick Wrench” and the much later “Extreme Grip Quick Wrench”, and, while we have no proof, we think it's a good bet that Sears was licensing the Wilder patent. The geometry of the opening is exactly the same as the “Speed-Hed”.

Hey Lugz,

Nice job putting this information together. Big thanks for the shout out and inclusion in your write up.

Jim C.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Here are some that I have or have had.

Thanks for the early Craftys, Speed-Heds and Surpans, Don.

Nice job putting this information together. Big thanks for the shout out and inclusion in your write up.

Full set in the original pouch? It was a sure thing! Thanks for letting me show them off and virtually spiff up my Curator's Corner!

//// BREAK ////

Final (Fourth and Fifth) patent waves coming later tonight...

 

[mritchie77]

THIRD WAVE


We have no plans to say much more than that about the ingenious CAM-LOC here, since it is well exemplified in several threads, because it actually ratchets, with moving parts, and doesn’t technically fit this genre. The only reasons we’ve included it in the chart and the discussion is because Kavalar cites it later in his LOC-RITE patent application, which does belong here, and because it is worth noting that the rollers, which spin, do act very similar to the fixed lobes he would carry through into the LOC-RITE design later, presenting more bearing surfaces to the flats less likely to distort the corners of a nut.

Figured I'd throw in a couple photos of a recent LOC-RITE purchase that show the design mentioned here.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Well, you skipped the NOTES AND PROTOCOL FOR MOST EFFECTIVE AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION post by jumping the shark a little, in the sense that we did not quite get to Kavalar's LOC-RITE patent in our chart progression yet, but, we're going to give you a pass because of the yeoman's work you're doing on the Plomb newsletters, and, well, frankly, because there's a package in transit from you to us via USPS, and who are we to look a gift horse in the mouth! (Why, yes, we most certainly can be paid off!)

Seriously, thanks. Believe it or not, we don't have any LOC-RITE wrenches in the Lugzsonian, faux 14K gold-plated or not! So those photos will come in handy, especially the view of the broach.

 

[mritchie77]

Well, you skipped the NOTES AND PROTOCOL FOR MOST EFFECTIVE AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION post by jumping the shark a little, in the sense that we did not quite get to Kavalar's LOC-RITE patent in our chart progression yet, but, we're going to give you a pass because of the yeoman's work you're doing on the Plomb newsletters, and, well, frankly, because there's a package in transit from you to us via USPS, and who are we to look a gift horse in the mouth! (Why, yes, we most certainly can be paid off!)

Seriously, thanks. Believe it or not, we don't have any LOC-RITE wrenches in the Lugzsonian, faux 14K gold-plated or not! So those photos will come in handy, especially the view of the broach.

oops, since the CAM-LOC was shown in wave three and LOC-RITE was mentioned, I thought it was fair game! MY BAD!! . On a side note, I cannot believe it hasn't gotten there yet!

 

[Private Lugnutz]

No worries! Hopefully our jocular tone expressed our not taking ourselves too seriously.

On a side note, I cannot believe it hasn't gotten there yet!

(I was so surprised I did some searching, and apparently, there is something awry in the system nationwide. Lots of late deliveries. Which I took some small comfort in.)

 

[bbbarracuda]

I have a 1/2" Cam-Lok wrench. that was rusted solid, with none of the rollers moving.
When the rollers wouldn't move the ratchet action actually was better than after I freed up the rollers.