I just found a Goodell driver in a thrift store. It seems very strange but the driver only works in counter clockwise direction. The driver should be reversable?I can see clearly the the spiral is in the wrong direction.

Can anyone shed any light on this tool?

Patent 591097 Oct 5 1897

I think you might want to read the patent very closely. It describes in detail how they work. It is not intuitive. I fiddled with mine for a while before I figured it out. It will go both ways eventually.

To my knowledge there are none of these types of drivers that will only remove screws. There are several, however, that will only drive screws.
Probably the most notable is one made by the Decatur Coffin Co. that was marketed to undertakers.

North Bros. also made a right hand only model that was sold to manufacturers for use in assembling products. These are not real common as most of them got thrown out when they got worn.

By the way, welcome to ToolTalk. It is an excellent source of good information.

Mike

Hello, Mike. I agree with you on this one. The shifter mechanism is finicky, at best. I will try to see if I can dig up the one that I have. I'm still not sure if I ever did figure it out. Regards, Lou

I recently sold one of those Yankee 20-1 production model screwdrivers that only drives screws.  Here is the listing if anyone is interested:


http://www.ebay.com/itm/North-Brothers-Yankee-No-20-1-Production-Model-Screwdriver-Clockwise-Only-/401276885490?rd=1


For some reason, I cannot get the hyperlink button to work.  You will have to cut and paste.


EDIT:  Thanks Papaw for fixing the link.

Glad to have you here.  Can you post a few pictures of it (taken from as close as you can reasonably focus).   That detail may help you find out more about the mechanism.