While cleaning the shop yesterday my son picked up a monkey wrench, and asked me why is it called a monkey wrench? I have no idea. Wikipedia was no real help so does anyone have a clue?

I've always heard it's named after the inventor.
Not sure.

FF, Try this link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_wrench

Mike

Wiki's comments are about the state of it. No one really remembers anymore...

I guess the pet monkey story is just that then, a story?

There are uncounted stories. There was a town in Connecticut that swore up and down the monkey wrench was invented there, by an appropriately named fellow, apparently oblivous to the fact there were monkey wrenches in England a century before the town was founded....

Kinda like Columbus discovering America when the land was already occupied.

There seems to be some question regarding this explanation, but this is what Wikipedia has.

Charles Moncky story

The following story can be found in sundry publications from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries:

    That handy tool, the "monkey-wrench", is not so named because it is a handy thing to monkey with, or for any kindred reason. "Monkey" is not its name at all, but "Moncky." Charles Moncky, the inventor of it, sold his patent for $2000, and invested the money in a house in Williamsburg, Kings County, where he now lives.[7][8]

I was thinking with the introduction of steam to boats, then the railroad, it rather drove the need for an adjustable wrench.   Doesn't the Coes patent go back to the 1830s?   With the industrial revolution, and water wheels, can see the need for a universal tool, but the English had them in the 18th century?

So basically no one has any more info than Wiki as I stated in my OP?

Also, I never understood why gramps used to call Montgomery wards "monkey wards" (you don't what to know his term for a VW bug!)

Quote from: johnsironsanctuary on March 10, 2013, 08:31:13 PM
    That handy tool, the "monkey-wrench", is not so named because it is a handy thing to monkey with, or for any kindred reason. "Monkey" is not its name at all, but "Moncky." Charles Moncky, the inventor of it, sold his patent for $2000, and invested the money in a house in Williamsburg, Kings County, where he now lives.[7][8]

Unfortunately for this appealing story, the term is earlier than the purported Moncky patent. 

Branson researched this a while back. Sorry Mike, my memory fades in and out.

http://www.papawswrench.com/vboard/index.php?topic=6433.0

One far-fetched story is that the wrenches were popular but a bit expensive, so the mechanic that had some told the others in the shop- "Don't monkey with my wrenches!"

I don't remember if I was reading something, or possibly watching a documentary, about the lives of those working in early factories of the industrial revolution, especially children, and the jobs they had to do. Passing mention was made that some of the more agile boys were enlisted to climb into the overhead maze of line shafting, pulleys, and belts to do assorted lubrication and minor maintenance adjustments. The common slang term for this job was, not surprisingly, "Monkey".  I've searched the internet for more proof of that job title but can't find anything now. Maybe someone with interest in the early factories can verify it? Anyhow, It got me thinking that maybe the term "monkey wrench" came about simply because an easily adjustable wrench, that doubles as a hammer, in a size easily handled, was the one tool that these "Monkeys" would invariably find perfect for dealing with square headed set screws on pulleys and the other simple hardware they might encounter. Maybe the name came after the wrench was already well established.
There is another old term--- "throwing a monkey wrench into the gears" or "monkey wrenching" that has come to mean accidental, or intentional, sabotage of the industrial process. I did find this term originally came from the Dutch windmills and the wooden shoes, or sabots, that could fall off and end up in the gears. So I thought, as industrialization became more widespread, who was more likely to drop a tool into the gears below than a "monkey" climbing around above said gears. If the commonly dropped tool that stopped the grist mill or factory gears was a hammer or pliers maybe we would have "monkey hammers" or "monkey pliers", but NO, we have "monkey WRENCHES". If someone can verify that those people sent into the overhead works were indeed called "Monkeys" I think it makes a good case for the wrench being named after those who preferred it, possibly over any other tool, for the job. Many tools are named after those who find the design best suited for the job, like a "cobblers hammer" or "tinners hammer". If "Monkeys" exclusively preferred a certain style of combination wrench / hammer then might the tool not become known as a "monkey wrench"? I'd like to hear from anyone with thoughts on the idea.
John Dunn

Quote from: JohnD on March 11, 2013, 05:25:12 PM
I don't remember if I was reading something, or possibly watching a documentary, about the lives of those working in early factories of the industrial revolution, especially children, and the jobs they had to do. Passing mention was made that some of the more agile boys were enlisted to climb into the overhead maze of line shafting, pulleys, and belts to do assorted lubrication and minor maintenance adjustments.and end up in the gears. <snip>
John Dunn

Checked monkey in the Oxford English Dictionary -- what a bunch of meanings! -- but finally found, "A term of playful contempt, especially for young people."  The word is also associated with qualities like mimicking, gambolling about, and great activity.  I know this kind of association, with children and constant motion in other cultures, too.   Especially boys.

I have also heard the connection with children and the old line-shaft factories.  What I heard was that the lads who had to climb up to  grease the line- shaft were referred to as "grease monkeys."  Maybe that is a source for "grease monkey" as a mechanic.  And just maybe (WAG) it's the grease monkey who gave the screw wrench (1850s term in military manuals) the common name of monkey wrench.