Duff was like the "King" of Jacks! Cool ads. But that 110 seems scarce for some reason outside the two ads we've found.
I agree. Here's another one from the 1938 Duff Norton Jacks catalog.
Just going off what he said when he gave it to me. He said it was an old RR tool but no other information. I was just a kid at the time. Decades later, I decided to ask Google. The best I could come up with was possibly a device to maintain the correct distance between the rails. I can’t find that reference now. Like I said, I really don’t know anything about it. If anyone has insight, I’m all ears. Kinda why I posted, hoping for info.
trademarks.justia.com
That's interesting. Registered to Vanadium-Alloys Steel Company in Latrobe, PA. And I might've thought someone made the wrench from a bar of it, and decided to record for posterity what he used, but the wrench looks much older than 1950 to me.
Thanks. It could be both dynamo related and RR related. Railways used dynamos to create electricity for all kinds of things, including power, lighting, and even friction-less brakes.
I am not saying I have definitively identified the purpose of your wrench. I am just saying that the terminology reminds me of terms often used in old textbooks to describe dynamos, which use poles and a magnet to convert the magnetism into electrical current running through the poles to the armature, limbs, etc, optimizing the current (and minimizing the eventual dissolution of the iron) with fixtures that keep the poles and the lines of induction spread apart at certain lengths.
I thought the same thing about 1950 being late for the "look" of the wrench. If the date was 1920, I would have felt better about my theory.That's interesting. Registered to Vanadium-Alloys Steel Company in Latrobe, PA. And I might've thought someone made the wrench from a bar of it, and decided to record for posterity what he used, but the wrench looks much older than 1950 to me.
Thanks. It could be both dynamo related and RR related. Railways used dynamos to create electricity for all kinds of things, including power, lighting, and even friction-less brakes.
I am not saying I have definitively identified the purpose of your wrench. I am just saying that the terminology reminds me of terms often used in old textbooks to describe dynamos, which use poles and a magnet to convert the magnetism into electrical current running through the poles to the armature, limbs, etc, optimizing the current (and minimizing the eventual dissolution of the iron) with fixtures that keep the poles and the lines of induction spread apart at certain lengths.
Further readings about old dynamos with insightful descriptions using this terminology linked here, here, and here.
EDIT: On second thought about @ararat 's TM find..., if I hand-forged a DOE wrench from a bar of RED STAR TOOL STEEL, right now, in 2025, and stamped it myself, by hand, with letter figure punches, it would probably look crude and antique, too. The question is does the flip side marking make sense? If it's a reference to a dynamo, were they still using and servicing dynamos in the 1950s? It's possible.
I would totally go with that.
Cool pic.
That looks like a classic Roebling No. 5 or maybe No. 4-1/2 "Alligator" wrench to me, Ben. Your wrench has a skinny handle, the head is affixed to the handle at a severe angle, and the jaws are short with a hex throat.
Found another smaller steel jack similar to this one in my stash. Had totally forgot it.
The pics are horrible but that's all I got right now.That stamp reads, "C.R.I.&P.RY." with no period mark after the "R". "Ry" was the common acronym for Railway, and that almost certainly signifies the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railway.
FWIW, I think you should consider that it may not be original. Especially not by the crude look of those nuts, washers and screw pinning it on and the glimmery black and red paint on the wrench and that pipe handle, respectively, which looks like the classic rattle can spray paint work of certain kinds of old tool collectors who just can't help themselves from re-painting every axe, hammer, and monkey wrench they find.
I definitely already knew the handle had obviously been painted red & may not be original. The fact still remains that it takes a round pipe handle. Someone had some fun painting this one, which drives me crazy. Who knows, I could get lucky & maybe the handle is original. Either way the paint will be coming off once I get it. Still...W&B monkey wrench...with a pipe handle? Never seen or heard of one existing. I'm looking forward to researching this one.
I hear what you're saying. I've found wrenches before with a homemade pipe handle. What is confusing to me, it appears in the pictures, that the body of the wrench "appears" to be round to accept a round handle. Of course the pics are terrible. I've messaged who I bought it from to see if he can tell me the specifics or send me a pic. I would say, if it is in fact designed for a round handle, that would be a cool find.
Well, I don't know what you mean by body. We see the whole wrench except for the handle. The pipe actually looks more oval than round to me near the wrench, between the through-bolt and the shoulder, and I was thinking the shoulder looks more like a 'knife handle' type monkey wrench, without its wooden scales, but all of this is just unnecessary speculation. When you have the wrench in hand you'll know soon enough what's going on under that pipe.
Nice pic. Definitely a knife handle design. It's beginning to look more like a modified original handle with a pipe over it like you guys have been eluding to. I'll know soon enough once it's in my hand.
That's such a cool story. What year would you say that was? We'd like to see pics of any of those tools
It does have a very cool marking. You know some guys collect RR tools, paraphernalia, and ephemera just for the railway, right? Do you have anything else with the Chicago, Rock Island, and Pacific Railway acronym on it? It's a cool and none too common marking in my experience.
Well, if you're going to put time and effort into restoring what is essentially a chop job, I would go all in. I would strip the paint off the wrench and the pipe, and I would re-build that pin holding it together with vintage hardware, even if it was outlandish. Make it look like an extension a gandy dancer would be proud of.
