alert tool co phila. pa..patented..............for smaller size taps,i didnt find much with a quick google

I use tap wrenches every day at the machine shop where I work. Never seen that one before. Is that some sort of a ratchet mechanism on it?

Quote from: Plyerman on January 19, 2018, 04:29:33 PM
I use tap wrenches every day at the machine shop where I work. Never seen that one before. Is that some sort of a ratchet mechanism on it?

Spring loaded center, used with a dead center in the machine.

Ah, clever.

just found one on ebay 142632439720    almost the same

1921 ALERT TOOL Co. ad:
( <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=hLtNAQAAIAAJ&dq=alert%20tool%20tap%20wrench&pg=RA1-PA366&ci=63%2C1063%2C857%2C326&source=bookclip"><img src="https://books.google.com/books/content?id=hLtNAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA366&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&sig=ACfU3U1HUOvOgoE64CdgJzRDzOo-o55TkQ&ci=63%2C1063%2C857%2C326&edge=0"/></a> )
Guess I should hunt up some patents & add them to DATAMP although tap wrenches have hardly  been looked at previously in MVWC Newsletters.

 never seen that one, it is very interesting. I like the idea of the ratchet action.

Looks like  patent # 1,299,764  -- assigned to ALERT   ( https://www.google.com/patents/US1299764 ) applied for in 1913, granted in 1919.

 interesting patent write-up, and it took 5 1/2 years to get it approved ???

Quote from: turnnut on January 20, 2018, 09:08:54 AM
interesting patent write-up, and it took 5 1/2 years to get it approved ???

Maybe the patent office was lacking a qualified examiner & then there was the distraction of a national emergency in 1917 - 1918 ??  One would have to see what correspondence took place between the patent office & the attorney.
At any rate, Alert Tool did not waste any time -- they were in production & advertising well before the formal patent application was even made.  The ratchet tap wrench was "front cover" material for the July 3, 1913 AMERICAN MACHINIST.

Guess you could say the company was misnamed - must have had more than one lert working for them.

Probably a whole family of lert's 

Mike