Found these 2 rather LARGE Wrenches... What were they for??

[Blasphy2020]

Cleaning out a deceased relatives house and came across these 2 Large Wrenches...

They were made by the J.H. Williams company.

The Smaller one has a logo of a   'W' inside a Diamond on the side of it.
The larger one Says  'Williams' and it is underlined.

The larger one says 2 3/16th" on it and has a 13 etched on the side of it.   The smaller one has a 12 etched on the side of it.

Anyone knows what these things were used for? How old they might be?   How much they might be worth? etc.

Any info would be appreciated.

[Bill Houghton]

Can't help on the use of the wrenches...but...

A diseased relative?  Might you have meant "deceased," as in passed on, rather than "diseased," as in ill?

[john k]

Here are my WAGs.  Plain steel makes them most likely before 1950, back to the teens even.  My older Williams wrenches are marked JH Williams and sons.  Single end wrenches usually came with machine tools, perhaps large stationary engines.  Certainly not for the average mechanics box. 

[Blasphy2020]

Ahhh, my neighbor said they might have been used in the military on a Ship so that would make sense with large stationary engines.

Thanks for the spelling correction to the previous poster as well! lol

[HeelSpur]

The #12 would be a 2".

[leg17]

The oval shaped oval dates the wrench.

[Yadda]

To paraphrase Teddy R., "Speak softly and carry a big wrench".    My grandfather had similar size wrenches for his 1950's era Well Drill.

[Chillylulu]

Just another type of wrench, like ooen, closed, or combination wrenches.  These are often shown in older catalogs as engineers wrenches.

I don't know if engineers means "train operator" or "designer of stuff"

Chilly

[Bill Houghton]

These are often shown in older catalogs as engineers wrenches.

I don't know if engineers means "train operator" or "designer of stuff"

Chilly

Or wrenches used in keeping your engineer in good running condition?

[Nolatoolguy]

It's hard to say what there used for, lots of heavy industries used such sizes back in the day. I have a smaller jh Williams engineers wrench like that but none that big.

Some would say those are small. I have seen that style wrench in 4 foot long wrenches with 3" openings, or there about.

[mikeswrenches]

I picked up a 1939 Billings and Spencer catalog when I was at Donnelly's last week.  It shows as the largest Engineers wrench a whopping 4 5/8 in. opening. Wrench is 42 in. long and has a head thickness of 1 7/8 in.  Unfortunately they don't list a weight.

Wrench is made from carbon steel, and cost $58.50 in a plain finish.  If you wanted the fancy version, that would be the one with the black crackle finish and the polished head, then you had to pony up an additional $3.50.

I would guess that there are probably even larger ones, maybe from Williams.

Mike

[Lewill2]

Welcome back Chilly it has been a while. I hope things are ok with you.

[kwoswalt99]

What do you think this was for? 7" open end

[turnnut]

engineer wrench could mean;   boiler room engineer, check out any old boiler room and see the huge wrenches they have
hanging on the racks.