Joseph Eifel Plierench pat.,# 1,862,817

[woody 73]

Sometime back on the GJ someone had written a post about gimmick tools; and my post reply went something like this, I give these guys a lot of credit for thinking up new ideas and even more credit getting them to market. May these inventor never stop inventing.

As it turns out Joseph Eifel was that very man who came up with a new idea for his Plierench in the first half of the twentieth Century. In 1921 he set up a display at a car show in Chicago and started selling his invention the Plierench.

His tools sold very well and today we have collectors that specialize in collecting his plierench tools. In doing the research I found that GJ member Ibgradwell had summoned the following words in a post reply on another Forum as follows.

"The Plierench is an interesting tool, for sure. It has been in continuous production since Joseph Eifel started manufacturing the things in 1921. Vaco acquired the rights to the tool from the Masterform Tool Company (also Chicago-based) after Joseph's widow sold the rights after his death. In 1980, the rights were acquired by Galland Henning Nopak, Inc. who make them still..."

http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?id=35500

http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?number=1,862,817&type=

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/1862817.pdf

http://www.practicalmachinist.com/v...-rudeness-joseph-eifel-plierench-fame-149490/

http://forum.multitool.org/index.php?topic=47985.0

http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=5415.0

http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=14216.0

Many thanks to member Ibgradwell for letting me use his post , please enjoy the pictures and be sure and read the links.

 

[Steinmetz]

There would be no rights to acquire in 1980. The patent (USP No. 1,181,654) expired in the early 1930's. After expiration of the patent term (17 years), the invention is dedicated to the public.

 

[rlitman]

After expiration of the patent term (17 years), the invention is dedicated to the public.

Not quite. While the utility and design patents might be expired, it is possible (and likely) that copyrights and trademarks still existed.

In the very least, if someone wanted to copy this tool, they could not use the Plierench branding.

 

[doctordirt]

Wow, this is really cool. Albeit, I need to add another tool to the box

 

[Ton ton]

Woody 73, thank you for the history of this tool.

 

[four.cycle]

American / American Plierench Corp., 4611 No. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago, IL / patent 1181654 May 2 1916 & 1862817 Jun 14 1932 Joseph Eifel / http://alloy-artifacts.org/other-makers.html#american-plierench / http://toolarchives.com/AmPlierench / https://papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=14210.0 / https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/joseph-eifel-plierench-pat-1-862-817.269558 / https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/threads/eifel-jawed-plierench.322470/ /