4 Antique Monkey Bicycle Wrenches Peck Stow Billings Spencer Whitman Barnes

Description

Lot of four late 19th and early 20th century adjustable monkey / bicycle wrenches, including Peck, Stow, & Wilcox Company Robinson’s Patent Steel Bar Wrench (large, wood handle), Acme monkey / bicycle wrench by Whitman & Barnes Manufacturing Company (small, twisted all metal handle), monkey / bicycle wrench by Billings & Spencer Company (small, all metal handle), and a rarely found wrench by the Sterling Wrench Company (large, wood handle, head also marked on one side with a I or H).

BILLINGS & SPENCER COMPANY - The company was founded in 1869 as the Roper Sporting Arms Co. by Charles E. Billings and Christopher Spencer. It reorganized as the Billings & Spencer Co. in 1873. The company produced drop forged hand tools and the drop forging machine themselves. Milling machine production started in 1908. In 1962 Billings itself was acquired by the Crescent Niagara Corp., of Buffalo, NY.

The PECK, STOW, & WILCOX COMPANY ("Pexto") was organized in 1870 by a three-way merger of the Peck, Smith Manufacturing Company, the S. Stow Manufacturing Company, and the Roys & Wilcox Company. In later advertising the company claimed to have been established in 1819, but some sources place the company's origins as early as 1797. Pexto was a major manufacturer of machinery and tools during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The company specialized in machinery for tinsmithing, an industry that faded to insignificance as better manufacturing and transportation greatly reduced the need for local production of sheet-metal goods.Tools made by Pexto were typically marked with the company name, or with the abbreviated form "P.S.&W. Co." if space was limited. After 1914 the Pexto-Oval was frequently marked on tools.

The WHITMAN & BARNES MANUFACTURING COMPANY (W&B) was founded in 1877 by the merger of the Whitman & Miles Company with George Barnes & Company, and initially operated as a maker of knives for mowers and reapers. The company's principal location was in Akron, Ohio, with a secondary location in Syracuse, New York. The company later built factories in Chicago and in St. Catherines, Ontario. In 1893 the company acquired the Acme line of monkey wrenches with their distinctive twisted handle from the Capitol Manufacturing Company of Chicago. In subsequent years the company expanded its wrench business with various models of bicycle wrenches, pipe wrenches, fixed and adjustable alligator wrenches, auto wrenches, and other tools. One of their best known products was the line of "Bull Dog" alligator wrenches, produced in a range of sizes. In 1920 the J.H. Williams company acquired the drop-forge and wrench operations of Whitman & Barnes, and the W&B president A.D. Armitage became a vice-president of J.H. Williams. Some of the W&B product lines (e.g. monkey wrenches and alligator wrenches) remained in production under J.H. Williams.

STERLING WRENCH COMPANY - Likely founded by M.E. Campfield in the mid to late 1880's. A notice in the July 12, 1884 edition of American Machinist mentioned that M.E. Campfield was intending to leave the Cleveland Screw Wrench Company to start a wrench business in Sterling, Ohio. This is theorized by alloy-artifacts.org to refer the Sterling Wrench Company. Associated patents: "Ross' Wrench" / patent 296877 Apr 15 1884 Barney Ross & patent 303385 Aug 12 1884 Matthew E. Campfield. Also mentioned under the list of Branch Houses and Agencies in "The Iron Age" Volume 42, from Dec. 6, 1888 (M.A. Mihills, Agent).

Condition

Good Overall - Surface rust/tarnish; wear/staining to handles

Dimensions

Largest - 10” x 2.75” x 1.25” / Smallest - 7.5” x 2.125” x 0.625” (Width x Depth x Height)