.......... I am a sucker for any yankee style drills / drivers. The top North Bros. Has patent dates of Nov 2.97- Jan 22.0 - price okay at $4.
The wood handled driver is very clean, no spring but I don't yet know if it was supposed to have one. I paid too much, but I do that knowingly sometimes. Other times I've waited for ever until I found an item in the right condition for the right price.
"Yankee" No. 35
North Bros. Mfg. Co.
Pat. Apr 10.95-Nov.2.97
Sep.5.99-Oct.9.00
May.1.06-Nov.3.08
May.4.15
Regarding all those patent dates.... Wouldn't some of those earlier parents run out before the date of the last patent? How long are they good for? Was it for bragging rights, marketing purposes, or something else if they were no longer enforceable?
Nice haul. I too am sucker for North Bros. "YANKEE" tools. Here is an abbreviated extract from my North Bros. Yankee Tools web page (http://jp29.org/wwyankee00.htm) (contains illustrated detailed information relating to markings, finishes, packaging, links to reference resources, etc.)
Tool Markings
North Bros. always used that form of their Company name -- never North Brothers -- in marking their tools. Similarly, "YANKEE" was always rendered that way -- never without the quotes or in lower case lettering. The layout and arrangement of stampings varied from tool to tool.
* From the introduction of "Yankee" tools in 1895 until North Bros. Mfg. Co. was sold to Stanley in 1946:
"YANKEE" (Tool No.) NORTH BROS. MFG. CO. PHILA. PA. U.S.A. (followed by Patent dates)
* After acquisition of North Brothers by Stanley in 1946:
"YANKEE" ® (Tool No.) NORTH BROS. MFG. CO. DIV. OF STANLEY TOOLS PHILA. PA. U.S.A.
* After Stanley closed the North Bros. Philadelphia plant in 1959 and moved "YANKEE" Tool production to New Britain, Conn:
STANLEY ® YANKEE (Tool No.) MADE IN U.S.A.
Patents
Three very imaginative and talented inventors designed innumerable (mostly ratchet) hand tool mechanisms and assigned their patents to North Bros:
Zachry E. Furbish - active from 1831 until 1908
George O. Leopold - active from 1887 until 1940
Thomas J. Fegley - active from 1906 until 1940
Furbish worked mostly alone, but Leopold and Fegley frequently collaborated in producing their designs.
The Directory of American Tool And Machinery Patents Search Facility is an outstanding tool for researching patents by Patentee, Assignee, Manufacturing Company ..... and so on.
Patents (which are of minimal use in dating tools) expired after twenty years from the date of issuance. After that the design was consigned to the Public Domain.
James