Antique Billings Box Wrench 3/4" x 7/8" 12 Point Off Set Vitalloy 8731-A Vintage

Description: Antique Billings Box Wrench 3/4" x 7/8" 12 Point Off Set Vitalloy 8731-A Vintage If you're buying this tool it's not to use it but to collect it. The wrench is possibly 70 or so years old and a newer wrench would be made of stronger and more modern alloys. This is a piece of history and you don't use history to tighten nuts. And thanks to alloy-artifacts.org I will bestow upon you some history. Engage copy & paste. Billings & Spencer began in 1869 as the Roper Sporting Arms Company, a partnership of Charles E. Billings and Christopher Spencer. Both founders were notable inventors, and Billings, in particular, was one of the pioneers of the drop forging process. The company's early products were drop-forgings for the arms and sewing machine industries. The company was reorganized as the Billings & Spencer Company in 1873 and began producing open-end wrenches and other tools shortly after this. Some products were based on designs developed and patented by Charles E. Billings, and the company also licensed designs from other inventors. Adjustable wrenches were a particular speciality during the latter part of the 19th century, and Billings produced many different styles of the smaller "bicycle wrenches", as well as pipe wrenches and tongs, pliers, and fixed wrenches.By the early 20th century Billings & Spencer had become one of the largest tool makers, in addition to being a dominant force in the drop forging industry. Billings produced the heavy machinery for drop forging itself, and made a business of helping other companies set up their drop forge operation. Now the number 8731-A is a code. 8=the 8000-series indicated a standard-length offset box wrenches and the 731-A is an "Industry-Standard Numbers" developed by the J.H. Williams & Company that means 3/4" x 7/8" I have now made you smarter or bored, hopefully, the former. And this from Wikipedia about Mr. Billings. Charles E. BillingsFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Charles Ethan Billings Born December 5, 1834 Weathersfield, Vermont Died June 5, 1920 (aged 85) Hartford, Connecticut Resting place Cedar Hill Cemetery Charles Ethan Billings (December 5, 1834 – June 5, 1920) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, superintendent, and businessman. He was elected president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1895. Contents 1 Biography2 References3 Bibliography4 External links Biography He was born in Weathersfield, Vermont, the son of Ethan F. and Clarissa M. (née Marsh) Billings.[1] He served his apprenticeship at Robbins & Lawrence (in Windsor, Vermont),[2] a factory and armory that was an important early node in the social network of the 19th-century machine tool industry.[3] In 1856, at the age of 21, he came to the Colt armory (in Hartford, Connecticut) as a die sinker and tool maker and became their expert on the drop forging process.[2] In 1862, he went to E. Remington & Sons, where he built up their forging plant, increasing its efficiency many times, saving $50,000, it is said, by one improvement in frame forging alone.[2] At the end of the American Civil War, he returned to Hartford as the superintendent of the Weed Sewing Machine Company, which had taken over the old Sharps Rifle Works, built by Robbins & Lawrence.[2] In 1868, while at the Roper Repeating Arms Company in Amherst, Massachusetts, he worked with Christopher M. Spencer.[2] Roper failed, and the following year, 1869, the two founded a partnership (in Hartford, Connecticut) called Billings & Spencer,[2] which would manufacture sewing machines, drop-forged hand tools, and machine tools. Billings perfected a drop hammer for metal forging in the 1870s and designed the copper commutator—central to the operation of electrical generators and motors. In 1895, Billings was president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.[2]

Price: 19.99 USD

Location: Cincinnati, Ohio

End Time: 2024-09-01T19:13:21.000Z

Shipping Cost: N/A USD