Eberhard Mfg. Co. Cleveland Ohio - John L. Pope

For the last few years, the units shown on this 1894 Simmons Hardware Co. catalog page have had me stumped.



I was able to finally figure out that the unit shown at the top was manufactured by Wiley & Russell of Greenfield, Massachusetts. It's a "felloe wrench" (or "felly wrench" - presumably a difference in regional dialects) for nuts on the back sides of wheels. (Patent 87531 Mar 2 1869 Darius Wilcox)

The name of the maker of the three wrenches below, however, has eluded me until today, when Mr. Stan Schulz (MVWC) provided the answers.

These "implement wrenches" are ubiquitous and abundant. A search for "wrench" on Ebay will turn up hundreds of examples, almost none of which are identified by the sellers, who have probably picked them up at flea markets and garage sales, and who almost always think they're worth a fortune based on their asking prices.

Based on my personal observations of Ebay listings over the last six years, I would estimate their actual value to be no more than about fifty cents each, and that's provided they're not too badly rusted or pitted. They are as common as rocks.

These were all designed by one Mr. John L. Pope, of Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Pope, according to datamp.org, was issued no fewer than 30 consecutive design patents on November 14, 1882.
Unfortunately I was not able to find any information about Mr. Pope, because regardless of the search keywords I use, Google keeps wanting to tell me about a guy who was a big muckity-muck in some religious organization.

These were manufactured by the Eberhard Manufacturing Company, which was established in 1877 in Cleveland, Ohio, and is still in business (although they have moved their manufacturing facilities to a different location.) There are extensive and detailed historical narratives at the URLs listed below.

Some units can be identified by the "E in a circle" logo forged into the pieces. Others are identifiable by 4-digit numbers or other design features which are listed at datamp.org on the respective pages for each patent number.



Eberhard / Eberhard Mfg. Co., Cleveland, OH / implement wrench / marked with "E" inside a circle, some units marked 7320, 7338 / patents D13406, D13430, D13431, D13434, and D13435 Nov 14 1882 John L. Pope / est. 1877 / https://www.eberhard.com/ / https://case.edu/ech/articles/e/eberhard-mfg-co / https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=479078 / https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/the-eberhard-mfg-co.498583/





* Thanks Stan!

(* revised 05/25/22 BK *)

four Cycle super good job well done.

I don’t know if this is a match, but seems plausible.
Even if not, the links to relatives might prove productive, and lead to genealogy / local history narratives with more biographical detail.

And some S-shaped DOEs with the Eberhard E and numbers, and distinctive “cravat” shaped reinforcement near heads.

Found an Eberhard 7338D 3/4" square socket for use in a brace. 4 inches long.

This can be seen in a 1920 catalog page that four.cyle posted previously (thanks four.cycle).

Go Circle E !

(Maybe we have enough pieces to add an Eberhard link to the Sticky page?)

Found this Eberhard "S" wrench this morning. LS already posted one upthread. I've never found one before. The model numbering scheme is a bit curious, no? LS has a set that includes Z338C, 2338A, and 7338A, where all the model numbers have "338" in common (perhaps indicating the DOE "S" wrench style or type), with different suffixes (C, and A), indicating, as 4.c's catalog page illustrates for us, different openings. But what's up with the Z and 2 prefix? Those are not included in 4.c's cat cut, and LS's 7338A and 2338A look identical.

^ that is a headscratcher for sure.
LS has been able to "make sense" of it better than I have been able to, for sure.
Again, somebody from Eberhard had his hands in several different operations, per Stan S, but he didn't provide any details.
(Is this possibly something along the lines of the Plomb letter-letter thing? Or am I over-thinking this?)(Broached size openings are same/same, so why do we have different part numbers?)

four.cycle said:

Or am I over-thinking this?

Click to expand...

Possibly. The prefixes look like they should mean something, I just don't think we know what that is yet. Unless LS does. Finish maybe? Just spitballing. Other, earlier, or later catalogs might reveal it.

Here is one with no markings and one w/o that funky pointy diamond shaped end.
DSCF4122 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4123 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr
DSCF4124 (2) by wvwheaties, on Flickr