Goodell-Pratt Company

[woody 73]

Let me say that among tool collectors they fly above the radar screen and for non-tool collectors they fly below the radar screen. Goodell-Pratt is very rich in History, they were based in Greenfield, Massachusetts.

They were originally founded in 1888 as the Goodell Brothers by Albert and Henry E. Goodell in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts. In 1895 William Pratt purchased half of the Goodell Brothers Company, later he bought the whole company and he renamed it the Goodell-Pratt Company.

Sadly after the wall Street Crash in 1929 their stocks hit almost rock bottom at 50 cents per share and the company went defunct in 1931 and they were merged with the Millers Falls Company.

I have some very nice links for you to read about their rich History along with some nice pictures , just another tool to look out for in your many hunts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodell-Pratt

http://oldtoolheaven.com/related/goodell-pratt-history.htm

http://oldtoolheaven.com/related/goodell-pratt.htm

http://www.vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=386

http://vintagemachinery.org/mfgindex/detail.aspx?id=386&tab=4

http://thevalleywoodworker.blogspot.com/2016/11/the-seldom-seen-goodell-pratt-no-83.html

http://www.davistownmuseum.org/bioGoodelpratt.html

http://hus-boringt.wkfinetools.com/GoodellPratt/tools/gpToolSamples.asp

http://www.academia.edu/9099387/The_Goodell_Brothers_The_Bedrock_of_Goodell-Pratt_Company_Part_I

http://www.academia.edu/11316585/Th..._Bedrock_of_the_Goodell-Pratt_Company_Part_II

https://www.americanprecision.org/i...il&utm_term=0_9c1996d897-d183a90445-433541185

 

[notlob]

Thanks for the info, Woody. Goodell Pratt, Millers Falls, GTD (Greenfield tap and die), Starrett, Athol, and many other excellent tool makers were, many years ago, all located in the greater Greenfield-Athol Massachusetts area. Some day I'd like to visit that area to see what remains of that once-great toolmaking era. I know Starrett is sill headquartered and has a factory in Athol.

 

[RodneyW]

I have a G-P miter saw setup. Good quality stuff and you're right Woody. To non-collectors they're just another old tool. I think I paid $5.00 for mine at a garage sale.
Rodney

 

[davethorik]

I have quite a few Goodell Pratt machinist tools. Very high quality.

Millers Falls kept producing a number of the Goodell Pratt tools with their name on them after the acquisition

 

[RidgeRunner]

Thanks for the info, Woody. Goodell Pratt, Millers Falls, GTD (Greenfield tap and die), Starrett, Athol, and many other excellent tool makers were, many years ago, all located in the greater Greenfield-Athol Massachusetts area. Some day I'd like to visit that area to see what remains of that once-great toolmaking era. I know Starrett is sill headquartered and has a factory in Athol.

On any visit to the area it would be well worth scheduling a visit here:

http://industrialhistory.org/visit/testing-map/

Ed

 

[tym]

It's also worth wandering over to Waltham to visit the Waltham Watch Factory building and the Charles River Museum of Industry.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I found this brass antique era Goodell Brothers spiraling push drill at the flea market this morning.

The complete marking, which wraps around the end of the handle, reads, "Goodell Brothers, Shelburne Falls, Mass., Patented Nov. 17, 1891".

The Patent (463,507) is not for the push drill mechanism itself, which must have been covered in a previous patent, but for the bit storage - nine (9) holes in the end of the handle. Those are the numbers, 1 through 9, one for each hole, that you can see under the branding and patent marking. See Pics 3 through 7.

It is missing its end cap, no doubt contributing - along with its age, to the loss of all its bits!

This push drill had to have been made no earlier than 1891, when it was patented, and no later than 1899, when Goodell Brothers became Goodell-Pratt.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Additional photos and the patent diagram...

 

[pfaustus]

Lugz

I've seen enough Goodell Pratt and MF push drills with brass revealed by worn chrome or nickel plating to suspect that all "brass" push drills are just missing the plating. This catalog is 20s, but says all exposed surfaces are nickel plated. pages 9-13 @ https://archive.org/details/GoodellPrattCatalogNo15/page/n9 Not surprisingly, the first part to lose the plating is the shaft sliding in and out of the handle.

I picked up this bakelite one yesterday at an estate sale.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I've seen plenty of Goodell-Pratt and MF drills and screwdrivers myself, P, but I have never seen a Goodell Brothers this old (1891-1899) before, and this one, I can assure you, is solid brass, except for the bit chuck. EDIT: Checked it with a magnet.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

P,

Here are some more shots. To be precise, the screw for the bit chuck is also steel. And there is a tiny steel pin in the end and the mangled remains of whatever held the cap on is also steel. That's it. Everything else is brass. Tried to show inside some of the tubes.

 

[pfaustus]

I must have written poorly. I wasn't denying it was brass. I was saying it is probably missing plating over the brass. I think some people believe the earlier ones had a brass finish, which I'm not convinced is true.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Aha. Got it.

EDIT:

According to d42jeep, maybe this Goodell Gremlin stole my end cap!

 

[d42jeep]

I thought you might like that. Here are a few Goodall Pratt tools I dug out for a photo.
-Don

 

[454ragtop]

Awesome catalog here http://www.blackburntools.com/articles/rose-tools-catalog-archives/pdfs/goodell-pratt-no-16.pdf

 

[humber2]

I obtained my copy of Catalog Number 15 today.

Dates from July 1 1922

Electric drills are not listed. Dozens of hand powered versions are.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Found another bearing scraper for the bearing scraper collection this morning at the flea. The tip is snapped off but the marking on the ferrule is terrific.

GOODELL-PRATT COMPANY
TOOLSMITHS
GREENFIELD, MASS. U.S.A.

 

[paulm12]

I have had this for a while.
.

 

[thehorse13]

Goodell-Pratt stuff hasn't escaped my attention. I discovered them years ago when I bought the same slide ruler as the one d42jeep posted.

Great stuff!

 

[Ecosta777]

I have a couple very nice machinist tools from Goodell Pratt that I love.

If anyone is curious this is what remains of the company. This is the second plant I believe, which eventually became the Goodell Pratt division of the Millers Falls tool company. It has sadly been turned into apartments, and the outside has been renovated. As far as I know the Shelburne Falls plant does not exist anymore. I've been to Shelburne falls several times and have never seen anything that could be it, and some quick research / google mapping does not show any indication its left either.

 

[thehorse13]

I bet the people who live in that apartment building constantly wonder why anyone would build an apartment building so close to a railroad line. lol.

 

[pfaustus]

Oldtool heaven says Goodell Brothers sold through Mayhew and has this picture. From the flow of the river, it is looking at Shelburne from Buckland side. It looks like it is just downstream from where the iron bridge would be built a couple years later.

https://oldtoolheaven.com/related/goodellimg/mayhew-lg.jpg

 

[pfaustus]

Although this one is up on the hill on Buckland side with the Boston & Maine running behind it. Same place Mayhew used until just a couple years ago? https://oldtoolheaven.com/related/goodellimg/goodell-tool-company-lg.jpg

 

[Ecosta777]

Although this one is up on the hill on Buckland side with the Boston & Maine running behind it. Same place Mayhew used until just a couple years ago? https://oldtoolheaven.com/related/goodellimg/goodell-tool-company-lg.jpg

If I'm not mistaken I believe these are the buildings you're referring to?
It appears to be the only industrial type building left on Sears st.
Possibly those two small buildings in front are the ones that can be seen in the old photo? Or maybe it's the long one perpendicular to the road that's the only original on left? (marked with the red arrow - labeled "Store Ho- Not Sprinklered")If it is the same site there not much left of the original factory. Would appear that the gravel lots on the left of the photo are where the old factory once stood?

 

[pfaustus]

Good eye for that long narrow building. The building to the right is actually much newer.

 

[PartsGuy]

My office manager just brought me a Goodell-Pratt eggbeater style hand drill....
so that is at least from 1931 or earlier? Any ballpark I can tell her it's worth?

 

[pfaustus]

$5-20 at the flea. Maybe $35 on ebay if it is nice. They made millions of the things, and they are mostly cool toys now.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

I picked up this Goodell-Pratt spiraling push drill at the flea market today. It is in terrific condition and only missing two of eight bits. You don't need to take the end cap off to get the bits out, of course - it's got one of those rotating caps with the push-button release that allows you to slip one bit out at a time through the single opening in the cap. It's a few decades younger than the all-brass Goodell Brothers spiraling push drill I found back in April at a flea market (see Posts #7, 8, & 11), but not too young to have a Bakelite handle.

 

[DadsTools]

Here's one you don't see everyday. It's a No. 2 with cocobolo handle, based on the 1891 Brothers patent. It has the Pratt signature but still rendered in the Brothers 1890s style which places it just after the name change, right around 1900, a rare variation. It also has the old Brothers style double-ring chuck nut. Note the interesting brass pins holding the handle onto the metal body. You simply don't normally come across artifacts like this down here in Florida, so it was a very lucky find for me.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Picked up this Goodell-Pratt Socket Wrench Set No. 380 by complete accident recently.

The seller, who was advertising it as 'Auto Lug Wrenches', really didn’t know what it was, but he dutifully transcribed the only part of the marking he could read or understand, which was “Greenfield, Mass.”

Now, I was doing Tap & Die research at the time, but even if I hadn’t been, when I hear Greenfield I think of the Wells Brothers, Wiley & Russell, and the eponymous Greenfield Tap & Die. Looking at this early interchangeable socket wrench set didn’t jibe with that, however, so I opened up my aperture and Goodell-Pratt, the Toolsmiths, came into the frame. Still didn’t make sense to me. G-P flies way under the radar, as woody aptly described in his opening post, but I’m not sure those familiar with G-P even think of them too often as a wrench house. That part of their catalog, way off in the back, with the funky ratchet and sockets, seemed more like an experimental departure from their core competency. It had to be them, though. And sure enough, that’s where I found it, on page 294 of their 1926 catalog. So I bought it.

This set isn’t marked like the catalog indicates, but those are artists’ renderings and may not represent actual production. For one thing, the bar is not marked at all. Only the largest socket is marked, and it reads, “Goodell-Pratt Co., Greenfield, Mass. U.S.A.” on the bell.

The service openings in the sockets measure 5/8”, 11/16”, 3/4”, and 7/8”, as the catalog shows, but they are not marked on the sockets. The catalog doesn’t show the bar by itself, but as you can see, it has a detent ball to help retain the sockets. And the knurling matches.

Goodell-Pratt was merged into Millers Falls in 1931, and this socket set still appears in the 1926 catalog, so it’s reasonable to assume this set was made sometime before 1931, at least as late as 1926, and probably earlier. Although MF may have used the G-P brand for some time, I would think the 1930’s awful late for this design. It’s an interesting example of a transitional idea – stuck in time between the early fixed single and double end socket wrenches permanently forged or welded on the ends of square or round shanks (think Mossberg and Walden) and the fully-interchangeable sockets and handles that emerged as the standard we still use today.

I just love the elbow shapes, reminiscent of the cles-a-pipes style wrenches still favored by mechanics in garages across France and much of Europe today.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Here are some shots of the marking after I chalked it. And the broachings, which are very crude, as one might expect.

I have never seen another example of these before anywhere. Alloy Artifacts has a No. 482 in its collection, which is a single offset handle with a fixed 7/8" elbow socket. If anyone knows of another example, please post.

 

[454ragtop]

Cool socket set Lugz. Just realized I never posted my GP vise, so here it is.

 

[454ragtop]

Forgot about this strange little linemans hand vise I have as well. Note the loop to hang on a belt, and the parallel jaw movement, definitely different.

 

[lafester]

I posted these in another thread but I suppose it won't hurt to put them here as well. I should be able to start working on this hacksaw soon... I've removed a pound or two of sludge from the base and top.

I plan to do a test cut to see how I like it and then tear it down for a thorough cleanup. I don't believe there is any damage other then the holes drilled into the top. One of the other two known to exist has a coolant feeder attached there. Oh and the handle for the lift arm is missing but they were just wood so easy enough to make.

The stop lever and automatic stop do not seem to be included on any of the three examples that are out there.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

Very cool, lafester. I saw one at a tractor show a few years ago and, believe it or not, the kids seem to like it the most. Probably because it has a simple before (manual) and after (mechanized) quality and progression they can relate to. Love the pinned brass data plate, too.

Speaking of which, that is quite the raised boss for the branding on that bench vise, 454.

 

[lafester]

Are you saying you have one? If so pics would be welcome.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

No. It was a demonstration. And it was years ago, before I even carried a cell phone, let alone one with a camera. Sorry.

 

[lafester]

No problem at all. I am just collecting as much info as I can... I've contacted the other two owners but no response.

 

[Legion Prime]

I have an old Goodell-Pratt which I thought was a hand drill as it only drives in clockwise. However tonight I was looking it over and found that not all the bit holders in the handle were empty as I'd thought. It took me a minute or so but I managed to remove a clutch bit interestingly enough. Mine isn't as old as the one on the first page as the patent is from 1915.
https://patents.google.com/patent/US1166364A/en
However this one is all metal, no bakelite. I guess this now saves me the headache and expense of trying to track down #1-10 screw machine twist drills.

 

[outofbounds]

As I was disassembling the contents of an old Bonney box, I uncovered this little Goodell-Pratt No. 668 ratchet with flat screwdriver plug. Note the date Sept 16, 1924. I'll assume that this was used mostly in a machinist setting as there was somewhat of a common thread to the items contained in that particular box