patent help

[jimwrench]

 Got this little Pratt and Whitney No 1 boiler ratchet today. Has a nice legible patent date of April 25,1875 which happened to be a sunday. Worthpoint had a similar tool with this patent listed but seems wrong date was inscribed. Don't find a patent for pratt and whitney for this tool. any info appreciated.

[jimwrench]

Find Renshaw name associated with this rat but still no patent no.

[rusty]

Surpriseingly, there are some 300 or so patents assigned to Pratt & Whitney, and that's just up to 1911 or so....

But nothing like a ratchet drill...

>Find Renshaw name associated

Hmm. why des that sound familiar? One of the reprint books...

edit: renshaw's drill is 666,695, but it is from 1901....

[jimwrench]

 found j b renshaw patent for ratchet 666695 but it wasn't issued until jan 29,1901. pratt and whitney should have neen much earlier. a correct patent date would have been nice but it is what it is.

[rusty]

Perhaps 273676? (1883)
Reissued as RE10502 (1884)

Some similarity, but the dates are still kinda far off...
And more problematic, it's a UK inventor....

43,109 is 10 years too early...:(

[jimwrench]

 Found a ratchet drill patent by olmsted (47446) which was issued Apr 25,1865. Month and day correspond to Pratt and Whitney and year is off by one digit. Have not found connection betweem Olmsted and Pratt and Whitney. Olmsted gives address of Newark,NJ

[jimwrench]

 Although there is some similarity in dates (except year) the Pratt & Whitney ratchet doesn't appear to use the features of the olmsted patent. Back to the drawing board.
 Leverett H Olmsted was a interesting inventor; found 7 patents going from ratchet,lamp,miter box,linen press,hack saw machine and mole trap. He lived at 5 different address's during this period and sired 10 children. The thing I haven't found is(what does his middle initial stand for?)

[rusty]

I would guess Leverett was a freelance inventor, I didn't see any assignments for his inventions, so probably patented first, then hawked to whoever was interested....

Agreed, the ratchet being the patent is a stretch from a design stand point.

A search seems to indicate that is the *only* patent for a drill (in the class) with a date ending 4/25

Time lapse from application to issue seems to be about 2 months in the 1870's, so I don't think it can be an application date either, as it would still be 1875 , or 74, and I don't see anything in that range that was close....hmm

>(what does his middle initial stand for?)

Given how unusual his first and last name are, I wouldn't even begin to guess....