Found these interesting looking pliers. Hadn't seen anything quite like them before. No markings except an "8" on the inside of each handle. They are spring loaded to stay closed - when you squeeze the handles they spread open. An initial search turned up nothing, so I just started browsing through old catalogs - a strategy that usually exceeds my patience. This time I got lucky. Found them in a 1913 Pittsburgh Gage & Supply Company catalog.
These turned out to be pliers for attaching double wired hose straps. John A. Caldwell patented the pliers way back in May 1877 (Patent 191,026) in the same month that he and Sam Adlam Jr. also patented the straps (Patent 190,728). In the 1870’s, Caldwell had a Boston business selling railway supplies and rubber goods like hose, packing and belting.
I found the Caldwell pliers and straps advertised in catalogs or mentioned in various city purchase logs in 1883, 1886, 1889, 1892, 1902, 1903, 1906, 1913 and 1920 catalogs. After the 1920’s I didn’t find any more mentions of the pliers, but I found a 1940 listing of the Caldwell straps being made by W. D. Allen Manufacturing of Chicago. (Per Alloy Artifacts, W.D. Allen also sold Williams carbon steel wrenches at one time).
The Caldwell straps were available in multiple sizes and there were two sizes of pliers (the “No. 1” and the “No. 2”). My pliers are 6.8-inches long, but I am not sure if they are the #1 or #2.
I picked up an unknown tool and ended up learning a bit about a once-upon-a-time common hose clamp system that I had never heard of.
May 22, 1877 Patent: Tool For Tightening and Fastening Straps For Securing Hose To Coupling
These turned out to be pliers for attaching double wired hose straps. John A. Caldwell patented the pliers way back in May 1877 (Patent 191,026) in the same month that he and Sam Adlam Jr. also patented the straps (Patent 190,728). In the 1870’s, Caldwell had a Boston business selling railway supplies and rubber goods like hose, packing and belting.
I found the Caldwell pliers and straps advertised in catalogs or mentioned in various city purchase logs in 1883, 1886, 1889, 1892, 1902, 1903, 1906, 1913 and 1920 catalogs. After the 1920’s I didn’t find any more mentions of the pliers, but I found a 1940 listing of the Caldwell straps being made by W. D. Allen Manufacturing of Chicago. (Per Alloy Artifacts, W.D. Allen also sold Williams carbon steel wrenches at one time).
The Caldwell straps were available in multiple sizes and there were two sizes of pliers (the “No. 1” and the “No. 2”). My pliers are 6.8-inches long, but I am not sure if they are the #1 or #2.
I picked up an unknown tool and ended up learning a bit about a once-upon-a-time common hose clamp system that I had never heard of.
May 22, 1877 Patent: Tool For Tightening and Fastening Straps For Securing Hose To Coupling
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