Patent No. 3,273,430 Knudsen,Price, & Olson Wrench geometry

I am amazed at how fast the vintage tool section is moving these days, since we only have 12 members and 12 guests at any one time.

Today I only have information about Knudsen but if we (GJ member ckadams00 and myself) find any more information we will share it with you in any further updates).

Patent No. 3,273,430 was applied on Nov. 06, 1963, (looking back at history only a short time later on Nov. 22, 1963 Pres. Kennedy was killed); the Pat. was granted on Sept. 20, 1966. Three men working for the snap on company in Kenosha, Wi. came up with the idea of the special geometry that grips hexagonal nuts on the flats rather then the corners.

This is what GJ member ckadams00 found out about Raymond G. Knudsen he was able to determine that he was born in Kenosha, Wi. in 1917 and he died in Wisconsin on June, 27th, 1977, age 61. In 1950 he was working in Kenosha and he listed his occupation as " Chief Draftsman". In 1958 he and his wife June lived in Kenosha and he was a "Project Engineer" for the Snap On Company.

Special thanks too GJ member ckadams00.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of a design we all take for granted and use, along with a link to the patent.

http://datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?number=3273430&typeCode=0

Thanks, Woody. I remember when Flank Drive was in it's infancy and was not available in all sizes.

Very interesting. I like the historical context.

I found this thread because I was looking at some Snap-on sockets. Some have a patent number, some do not although they all have an older styled "Snap-on" font nomenclature.

I was looking for information on the dates these patent sockets could be from.
I don't even know when the fonts were changed. I'm sure that's another way to get a general date window for the tools.

Back to your Flank Drive history, it makes sense that it happened in the 1960s. After the industrial revolution of the late 1800s, it took about 70-90 years for machines to get smaller and smaller and less mysterious for them to be around where local mechanics and home mechanics could work on them, neglect them, and strip them. Before Flank Drive there had to be enough rusted and frozen nuts and bolts to warrant inventing a way to get them apart without stripping them. I'd say Rust is the mother of Flank Drive and Mr. Knudsen was the father. : )

Just some hypothetical context...
Cheers.

PM sent to you today with the following chart hope it helps you out, glad you enjoyed this older story of mine.

http://www.collectingsnapon.com/index.php?page=Data_Chart/Date Chart