Accles and Pollock The ferret Spanner

[Deso]

Hello All I have recently acquired a box of these sockets and I cannot find out much info on them apart from them being very rare can anyone tell me some history on what, would seem to me, the original socket wrench.
I do not even know the value but I would imagine that I may need to for insurance purposes
Cheers

 

[Plombob]

Wow. Those look really old. How about a few pictures of the ratchets outside of the box?

 

[meier motor sports]

they look like plumbing fixture sockets to me

 

[meier motor sports]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Rat...ollock-for-British-Classic-Cars-/231416374976
$699 for something similar on ebay

 

[Dave455]

Accles and Pollock are a long running British firm who specialise in supplying steel tube and tube related products!

Think I read somewhere that the Accles and Pollock name didn't come about till the 20th century, but I've certainly seen Accles and Pollock tools with 1890's dates, so that would seem suspect!

I believe Accles and Pollock were one of the first firms to introduce interchangeable socket wrenches, but they were by no means the only one. My Grandfather reckoned he'd seen 'socket sets' dating back to the early 1880's, and I can recall seeing a set in a museum not unlike the set in the eBay ad, but incorporating some extensions as well, that I think was late 1880's! The eBay set looks newer though!

Never seen a set quite like yours before, so I can't tell you if it's earlier or later or what! I have seen several tool sets with similar style boxes though, and they all seem to date between the early 1900's and the mid 1920's!

Accles and Pollock are still going strong, and I've bought Tube off 'em myself in a former life! Good stuff too! They have recently been bought out by Caparo (a large British steel products manufacturer) so I'd imagine the future is fairly secure for'em!

 

[Deso]

Thank you Dave455, Meier Motor Sports and Plombob I will carry on looking in Sunny South Africa for more info . I will also post a photo of the ratchet but I have a few Tech problems in the mean time (that is with my camera/ phone)
Cheers and al the best
Deso

 

[kez]

Hello All I have recently acquired a box of these sockets and I cannot find out much info on them apart from them being very rare can anyone tell me some history on what, would seem to me, the original socket wrench.
I do not even know the value but I would imagine that I may need to for insurance purposes
Cheers

I feel you mate, I acquired a similar set to yours but not as old and have been searching for months about some info on this ratchet tool.

It's hard to see but I'm sure the metal box container has the logo Acceles & Pollock in a faint gold. Mine has the brand King **** stamped on each side which makes it more bizzare .. I'm positive this is a ferret ratchet very much like the ones you have.

I've researched king dicks history but it starts becoming difficult after 1900.

If someone could shed some light into these tools that would be ace?

 

[humber2]

Time to reawaken this thread, Here’s my Ferret as purchased today, quite a find but without sockets. Never mind though.





There are images of ads for these from 1912 to be found on Graces Guide.

The hex drive is 5/8”, there are 12 clicks per revolution.

Please remind me when SO introduced the Ferret socket sets.

 

[four.cycle]

Accles and Pollock - Graces Guide

www.gracesguide.co.uk

Snap-on's own website does not make clear the actual date the company was established, but they were issued their first patent December 7, 1920. Wikipedia says Snap-on commenced operations in 1920.

ATTENTION @AntiqueBen

 

[Farmer J.]

I have 3 Accles and Pollock sets in storage, different size sets. No use for anything, but interesting and attractive wood boxes.
They often come up for sale on eBay UK.

The business started in 1896

History - Accles & Pollock

acclesandpollock.co.uk

 

[Farmer J.]

Wow. Those look really old. How about a few pictures of the ratchets outside of the box?

The OP hasn't checked back for years, but now the thread is reawakened I will try and post some pictures of my sets later on.
There are 2 sizes of 'Ferret' ratchet, the small one has 12 teeth and the large one is 10 tooth.
Not to be confused with a different set made by the same company, the 'Silentgrip' which uses a clutch mechanism so no 'clicks' at all.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Please remind me when SO introduced the Ferret socket sets.

Snerk.

1927.

The early catalogs really leaned into the mammalian allusion...



...reflecting the rationale in the "Snap-on Story" published for the 1960 annual shareholders' convention...



Snap-on was not the only American hand tool manufacturer to use the name. As I have noted previously, Milwaukee Tool and Forge used it for the same drive size in 1930...



...almost certainly because they had been making them for Snap-on. Me and @Oldtuleguy and @MR.X had some fun with that one on the MTF thread.

It may have been a coincidence. Meaning, someone at Snap-on or MTF or Motor Tool Specialty (their distributors) or all three may have independently arrived at the same name for the same reasons (its sleekness, etc). Then again, they may very well have appropriated it from Accles & Pollock. There is some evidence that they were acquainted with the industry in England, having listed the US licensed versions of the FAST-NUT wrenches in their early catalogs.

 

[Farmer J.]

Snerk.

1927.

The early catalogs really leaned into the mammalian allusion...



...reflecting the rationale in the "Snap-on Story" published for the 1960 annual shareholders' convention...



Snap-on was not the only American hand tool manufacturer to use the name. As I have noted previously, Milwaukee Tool and Forge used it for the same drive size in 1930...



...almost certainly because they had been making them for Snap-on. Me and @Oldtuleguy and @MR.X had some fun with that one on the MTF thread.

It may have been a coincidence. Meaning, someone at Snap-on or MTF or Motor Tool Specialty (their distributors) or all three may have independently arrived at the same name for the same reasons (its sleekness, etc). Then again, they may very well have appropriated it from Accles & Pollock. There is some evidence that they were acquainted with the industry in England, having listed the US licensed versions of the FAST-NUT wrenches in their early catalogs.

I need a double emoticon representing 'laugh' and 'like' together..

 

[four.cycle]

@humber2 -
GB191006435

 

[Farmer J.]

@humber2 -
GB191006435

Thanks four.cycle.
I didn't realise the patent date was so early, I hadn't read what is cast in to the handle!

 

[four.cycle]

Yes. 1900 was the date the patent was issued.
I wasn't able to figure it out from the espace.net site - Stan did that part.

Rather interesting that they were fabricating a pressed steel socket that fit a "ratchet" mechanism as early as 1900, yet a couple American manufacturers claim to have been "first" to introduce "interchangeable sockets".

 

[four.cycle]

I hadn't read what is cast in to the handle!

This might help you to make sense of it (which it still does not for me):

See Post #21 in this thread below
"
Brian,
2nd reply -- directly relating to the "FERRET" Before 1916, the British patent system reset their number each January 1, so the patent citation was two part -- [ # / year ]. That's what appears on the handle [ 6435 / 1910 ]. Contemporary citation numbering for British patents has adopted the format GB + four digit for year + seven digits for patent number with "leading zeros" filling any space between the year digits & patent number digits. Thus British patent 6435 of 1910 is cited as GB191006435. It has been digitized & added to ESPACENET -- {https://worldwide.espacenet.com/pat...448475/publication/GB191006435A?q=gb191006435 }. You can pass that along to the GarageJournal folks -- I'll be generating an entry in DATAMP. Regards, Stan S."

 

[Farmer J.]

This might help you to make sense of it (which it still does not for me):
"
Brian,
2nd reply -- directly relating to the "FERRET" Before 1916, the British patent system reset their number each January 1, so the patent citation was two part -- [ # / year ]. That's what appears on the handle [ 6435 / 1910 ]. Contemporary citation numbering for British patents has adopted the format GB + four digit for year + seven digits for patent number with "leading zeros" filling any space between the year digits & patent number digits. Thus British patent 6435 of 1910 is cited as GB191006435. It has been digitized & added to ESPACENET -- {https://worldwide.espacenet.com/pat...448475/publication/GB191006435A?q=gb191006435 }. You can pass that along to the GarageJournal folks -- I'll be generating an entry in DATAMP. Regards, Stan S."

Thanks. I did make sense of Stan's explanation of the numbering format, after reading it through slowly several times...

Here's the illustration shown on datamp.org

and the 1914 advertisement for what is known as the no. 1 set:

 

[Farmer J.]

I do have one of those no.1 sets in the leather pouch as advertised, and also the nos. 2 and 3 sets which came in wood boxes. The no. 3 set is actually the 1 and 2 sets combined.
Will post up pictures here hopefully sometime soon..

 

[RTM]

Contemporary citation numbering for British patents has adopted the format GB + four digit for year + seven digits for patent number with "leading zeros" filling any space between the year digits & patent number digits. Thus British patent 6435 of 1910 is cited as GB191006435.

Makes sense why I've been unable to decipher their patents in the past, and espace can't find them. Thanks to Stan

 

[four.cycle]

Subject:​	Re: Well.. this is certainly interesting....
Date:​	2026-04-17 9:25 am
From:​	Stan Schulz (datamp.org)
To:​	four.cycle

Brian, I got to thinking -- I made a mistake in explaining the patent numbering convention for pre-1916 British patents. I said: " 2nd reply -- directly relating to the "FERRET" Before 1916, the British patent system reset their number each January 1, so the patent citation was two part -- [ # / year ]. That's what appears on the handle [ 6435 / 1910 ]. Contemporary citation numbering for British patents has adopted the format GB + four digit for year + seven digits for patent number with "leading zeros" filling any space between the year digits & patent number digits. Thus British patent 6435 of 1910 is cited as GB191006435. It has been digitized & added to ESPACENET --" but where I messed up is the total number of digits after "GB" is nine, not eleven. (four for the year, + five for the number, with "leading zeros' to fill out the space between the year & actual patent number). Sorry for the mistake. Regards, Stan S.

 

[Farmer J.]

Number 1 set:

 

[Farmer J.]

No. 2 set:

 

[Farmer J.]

No. 3 set:

 

[Private Lugnutz]

They're all splendid, J.! While I have been aware of Accles & Pollock for years and I have seen them show up before, I don't recall seeing the logo with an actual ferret on it before (No. 2). That's marvelous. Between these sets and your ca. 1904 British Auto-Cle, you have a wonderful early socket sets collection.

 

[Farmer J.]

They're all splendid, J.! While I have been aware of Accles & Pollock for years and I have seen them show up before, I don't recall seeing the logo with an actual ferret on it before (No. 2). That's marvelous. Between these sets and your ca. 1904 British Auto-Cle, you have a wonderful early socket sets collection.

Thanks Lugz.
All the sets have the same logo, apart from the set numbering and yes, it's a very good picture of an actual ferret! Apart from the leather pouch No.1 set which has it embossed in to the leather they're all done with very thin transfers on to the wood cases. I've never seen an undamaged one but they must have looked quite striking and colourful when new.
The wood box sets aren't particularly rare over here, there's one for sale on eBay recently. The prices have gone up over the last few years though.