Some of you may have already seen these pictures and the related posts on Facebook. Martin picked up a few wrenches this week near Boston that he plans on including in his April Nashua NH auction. They are new to many of us and marked as unknown to have been produced in DATAMP but that isn't unusual with rare wrenches. Stan is fixing that as people let him know of known examples.

The first is what I believe to be a  patent 69,911 D. Harrigan patented October 15, 1867.

The second is what I believe to be a  patent 491,513 W. Bill February 14, 1893.

Martin posted these pictures before he made it home so someone could help him identify what they are. I jumped in with these findings after looking through my books/files. Subsequent updates sound like neither wrench is complete but they are still interesting finds for us adjustable wrench nuts out there.

The amount of creativity and ingenuity displayed from that time period is something.   Thinking of the time spent with a hacksaw and grinder to create some of these one off tools.  Or the prototypes thereof. 

Wow, just wow. It's amazing how many completely different mechanisms they came up with back then to make a "wrench." Every time I think I've seen them all, another one pops up.

  There was certainly no shortage of people trying to come up with their own ideas of how to design tools.  From what I have read a lot of them were blacksmiths.  After spending some time looking through old machine tool catalogs there was also no shortage of very specialized manufacturing equipment.  Custom formed cutters for horizontal mills and the like.  I think how some of this stuff was produced interests me almost as much as the tools themselves. 

 two more that I have never seen before.

you better reserve your room soon. I haven't been to Nashua auction since Dick Crane sold out to Martin. always
something else had been going on.

It never ceases to amaze me that there are still wrenches out there that we may know of but most of us have not seen. These two are wonderful examples of what is still to be discovered.

Quote from: Plyerman on March 11, 2017, 09:29:23 AM
Wow, just wow. It's amazing how many completely different mechanisms they came up with back then to make a "wrench." Every time I think I've seen them all, another one pops up.

+1