An email contact has asked me about this patent by a relative of his. He thinks it may have been made by Billings & Spencer, but Cope doesn't think so, and DATAMP doesn't have it. Google patents and USPTO have the patent but no maker listed.
Patent # 804600 by David Harris of Coulter, "Be it known that 1, DAVID HARRIS, a citizen of the United States of America, residing at Coulter, in the county of Allegheny and State of Pennsylvania, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Wrenches, of which the following is a specification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.
This invention has relation to wrenches of that class wherein a movable jaw is provided that slides upon a toothed shank, wherein means is provided for holding the movable jaw in its adjusted positions.
The invention has for its particular object the provision of a movable jaw of novel construction, and has for its further object the v provision of novel means "for permitting of the rapid and easy adjustment of the movable jaw upon the shank and of novel means for sustaining the movable aw at any position to which it may be adjusted."
I suspect B&S bought the patent but never used it.
Screen shot of the patent:
Have yet to see one like it.
I've never seen a wrench that has an adjustment like this. He could do a search in Google Books looking for different searches related to this patent and something might pop up. If the original patent was assigned to another party at the time it was issued it would say so in the detail/description page of the patent.
The patent number is 804600
I typed it in wrong in the title. 804600 is correct.
I suspect B&S may have bought the rights to the patent but found a better way, or just didn't use it at all.
I'm no help in answering whether or not it was produced by B&S, but out of curiosity in understanding wrench mechanisms I have been studying the patent drawings and text a bit. My impressions are that it may not have been a very sturdy design;
The little #14 tooth at the end of the #11 plate was the only thing holding the moveable jaw in place. Pushing inward on the #24 button caused the #14 tooth to disengage with the rack teeth, allowing the jaw to be quick-adjusted. But during actual wrenching duties (which from what I understand in the 1800's was oftentimes quite violent) only the relatively small #14 tooth kept the jaws in place. To me, it seems like the tooth or the plate would have been prone to breakage....
Could be why it may not have been used.