Got this one today from Skip Brack at Liberty Tool. The phrase Semper idem is Latin, and it means "Always the Same".  PHARTS members, please weigh in on the transmigration of the Perfect Handle brand name from H. D. Smith, to Trimont, and Russwin. Dates would be appreciated.

The Louisville and Nashville Railroad (L&NRR) was one of our nation's premier railroads. It was founded in 1850, and was used by both sides in the Civil War. After WWII, the L&N railroad introduced streamlined passenger service with the advent of The Humming Bird and The Georgian, and gradually updated the equipment on such passenger trains as The Pan-American, The Piedmont Limited, The Crescent, The Azalean, The Dixie Flyer, The Flamingo and The Southland. The L&NRR name was merged out of existence in 1982, but most of its 6,574 miles of trackage are still in use today.

Tool History:  Now that's a class in school I would've stayed awake through.  I need to check all those monkey wrenches I snagged.  A couple of them had railroad logos on them.

Speaking of Dixie Flyer, Randy Newman wrote a song about the Dixie Flyer that is from personal experience with riding the train as a little boy.  It's a great song even if you are not a Randy Newman fan.


I remain....

DM&FS

H D Smith (est 1855) was an early victim of The Great Depression and failed in 1930. The wrench line was then taken over by the Trimont Mfg Co. Russell and Irwin was older ( est 1851), and in 1906 was offering the Russwin monkey wrench from patents belonging to H D Smith, who probably made the wrenches for Russell and Irwin.

The real mystery is, what the heck prompted Trimont to start spouting Latin???
Did they think the average joe wrench twister was schooled in the classic arts?
Or perhaps they assumed they were all good Catholics who took latin in bible study....

Rusty,

There are two answers to your question:

• Perfect Handle, Trimont's predecessor, had already branded the wrench SIS.  The picture shows a 6" SIS from the boards downstairs that has the HD Smith Perfect Handle Plantville.... stamp on it.
• In a happier time, eg. before 1960, lots of kids were taught Latin in public and private schools by the age of 14 or 15. Some of us had no gift for learning Latin. That's just how it was. Excellence in thinking and learning was the standard.

We had Latin in High School, and I actually enjoyed it, even though the teacher was a tyrant!

To DM & FS,

I am also a Randy Newman fan!

Bob