Tool Talk
Wrench Forum => Wrench Forum => Topic started by: Wrenchmensch on December 28, 2013, 03:35:56 PM
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The Bell System is largely history today, but this 8-inch special purpose wrench remained. I found it on a flea market blanket today. The wrench has a 1 1/2-inch octagonal opening, and an odd opening on the end of the handle which looks like it applies to a wing nut, a square nut, and a hex nut. The wrench is a number 590 for you old Bell hands out there.
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Doesn't look like its been used, nice find.
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Thanks, Heel Spur! Take a look at the Triumph motorcycle wrenches, in this site's motorcycle section, I found today. All these wrenches were $.50 each.
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>The wrench has a 1 1/2-inch hex opening
Look more closely....
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Thanks! Correction made!
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I've seen (and have) several Bell System screwdrivers...but I've never seen a wrench so marked. Different!
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I can remember when the telephone guy came around in a green Ford pickup with painted utility box, and ladder racks. I have found several Bell System screwdrivers and one brace drill. Never found a wrench, let alone a unique one like that. Wish I could recall all the tools they carried in a leather pouch on their belt.
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The only other Bell System wrench I have is a wooden-handled 12-inch Trimo monkey wrench that is stamped with "Bell System" surrounded by a lozenge-shaped outline.
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There are quite a lot of bell wrenches, looking through the documentation, but many of them were specialized for CO work, probably not made in the kind of quantity the field tools like screwdrivers were made in. There are probably 2 dozen wrenches shown, as many screwdrivers...
I can not find a matching entry for 590, 590A is a totally different, special tool...
could be a slightly misnumbered WECo tool I suppose....(don't have a weco list)
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CO work?
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CO work?
Central Office
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As a Viet Nam Era veteran, I learned some Army-speak in my 2-years. CO meant commanding officer. CO meaning Central Office must be a regional usage, but what region I do not know.
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Bell System region.
Central Office = the place where the telephone lines go
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Please note, your "CO" (or Central Office) may well be in the thicket 2 miles down the road.
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Lots of thickets around here, containing white tail deer families, but no Bell CO found in any of the thickets so far. The Bell System wrench was found under some other tools on a blanket in a wetlands-adjacent flea market downhill 15+ miles from here. The other wrench collecting friend I run into these days at this flea market is a State Mosquito Control Chief. This is his off-season.
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As a Viet Nam Era veteran, I learned some Army-speak in my 2-years. CO meant commanding officer. CO meaning Central Office must be a regional usage, but what region I do not know.
Every region.
Every tiny community had a Central Office and cities had many.
Just like every job in America, the telephone employees had their own code to refer to things. Even tho violet is a light shade of purple, they called dark purple wires 'violet'.
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So, what is WEco?
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western electric,??
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weco - yea, Western Electric co, makers of all kinds of assorted telephone stuff....
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I've seen (and have) several Bell System screwdrivers...but I've never seen a wrench so marked. Different!
There must be hundreds of different quality vintage tools out there marked Bell system. I have pliers marked Bell System on one side and Klein, Cresent, or Utica on the other. In addition I have several files, hammers, and mechanical pencils marked Bell but without a manufacturers name. I also have a Bell first aid kit green metal case the previous filled with wood screws (it has compartments in it).