Besco tool .... blacksmith???

[krusty the clown]

I have a pair of these as well, seems all I have seen had a 1926 date code, can you post the date code on yours?

[bird]

Well, there wasn't a code on mine at all..... but they're gone now... hopefully to a good home where they will be of some use to someone.
cheers
bird

[leg17]

Aunt Phil is correct- BESCO 9857 Battery Terminal Pliers


Alloy Artifacts- BESCO giant battery terminal pliers, designed for lifting a cable clamp from a battery post. The handle has forged-in markings for "BESCO" and "Made in U.S.A." with a B-Shield logo in the center.

I have a pair and I can't find the Bonney date code.
Where is it located?

[wvtools]

Those pullers are the perfect tool to hold a railroad spike for reforging into something.

[Northwoods]

Don't leave out the VW Bugs.  Under the back seat, passenger side.
And the old vans' batteries were hard to get to, as was everything else back there.

[mvwcnews]

Battery Equipment & Supply Co was advertising heavily in the early 1920s including the TERMINAL TONGS.  Their 1924 trademark filing gave July 1920 as start of use of  BESCO.

[Bill Houghton]

Don't leave out the VW Bugs.  Under the back seat, passenger side.
And the old vans' batteries were hard to get to, as was everything else back there.

As long as you kept the cover on the battery, the bug battery wasn't bad; and they lasted a long time, not being exposed to engine compartment heat.

The vans with the original doghouse-style motor - well, different story.  Keeping the acid topped up on those was nearly impossible, if you didn't have the special factory auto-shutoff water bottle.

[bird]

The battery in my old MGA was under the miniscule rear floorboard.

A model had a pair of 6 volt batterys, 1 behind each seat bulkhead with the driveshaft between them.
That red piece of sheet metal wasn't a floorboard, it was the battery cover, and the compartment above was storage for the convertible top.

If I remember right, Triumph TR-3s had that arrangement.  I always wondered how many times the cable wound up on top of the driveshaft, slowly wearing through until the copper was in contact with the shaft.  Or, conversely, how exciting things got if the U-joint failed catastrophically and broke loose - battery acid everywhere.

Not that parts on British cars ever fail.