Tool Talk
Wrench Forum => Wrench Forum => Topic started by: Branson on April 08, 2013, 08:55:48 AM
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The list of tools for the mountain howitzer calls for "One wrench, (for nuts Nos. 1 and 4,)" Its weight is given as one pound. There is no accompanying drawing of this wrench. One use of this wrench would be setting up the folding frame for the fire place of the forge (it collapses to fit into a chest carried on a pack saddle). The nuts visible on the one photograph I have of an original are hex nuts, and the nuts shown in the drawings are also shown as hex nuts.
I have no idea what the thing might look like. I *think* the numbers refer to the size of the nuts, as the various nuts are not numbered in the drawings available to me. Two of the nuts have limited clearance, so the wrench must be on the thin side. The material -- steel or iron -- is not specified.
At the very least, I would like to find images of wrenches from around 1850 so I know what they should look like.
Anybody have any suggestions? Information?
I'm going to start this week to try to cold forge the fire place pan. We haven't found anyone who will build it per the drawings, and we got a $400 bid to make it up with straight sides like a cake pan -- which won't work at all.
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Well, I found one answer. The numbers refer to the size of nuts. The No.1 is for square nuts 3/4 inch flat to flat, and the No.4 is for square nuts 1 1/2 inch flat to flat.
I still need to see what such a wrench looked like circa 1850.
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Mike, It would probably look about like this.
http://www.douglas.co.us/museum/vex4/B5BEDF47-5872-43B6-A0D9-632216301330.htm (http://www.douglas.co.us/museum/vex4/B5BEDF47-5872-43B6-A0D9-632216301330.htm)
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Thanks, John. I've saved off the photo. I found a pair of wrenches this morning from about the same date, and they look similar to this one. The thing is, all of these are blacksmith made. The one I'm looking for was most likely factory made -- over 600,000 were made just for the mountain howitzer kit. It was most likely issued elsewhere, too. But the issue ought to resemble the smithed wrenches to some degree.
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Branson, I doubt that there was much difference between a factory made "smithed" wrench and the one made by the little smithy on the corner, except the factory smith would have had access to some form of power hammer and other tooling to make his work easier and faster, but basicly it was still by hand and eye! My impression is that drop forging with open dies didn't evolve till much latter? The only production forging machines that were in use during the civil war were Henry Burden's Horse Shoe making machines (51 million shoes a year!) and his rivet and dog spike making machines. Although one would never know, Henry may have had a "wrench" making machine in a corner of the Troy Iron Works! Here are a couple of links. http://www.farmcollector.com/equipment/henry-burden-horseshoe-making-machine.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Burden
Graeme
Clalification
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Hmm I have a few of those, let me see what the widths are.
Burden Iron Works?
right up the road from here... maybe I should take a look
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Could they of been cast rather than forged?
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The only production forging machines that were in use during the civil war were Henry Burden's Horse Shoe making machines (51 million shoes a year!) and his rivet and dog spike making machines. Although one would never know, Henry may have had a "wrench" making machine in a corner of the Troy Iron Works! Here are a couple of links. http://www.farmcollector.com/equipment/henry-burden-horseshoe-making-machine.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Burden
Graeme
Clalification
Wow! Graeme, this is amazing information! I knew nothing about the manufacture of these shoes or the machines that made them other than the fact that the Union supplied ready made shoes in three sizes. Artificers in the field were issued all the tools for making shoes by hand if the need arose as well, but the ready made shoes were issued in 100 pound lots. Just amazing. Thank you!
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Could they of been cast rather than forged?
At the moment, I have no information here. I was wondering whether they might have been cast. On the other hand, trip hammers of massive size are illustrated in Diderot's two volume Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry from the mid-1700s. I've found the marks of trip or power hammer work on heavy military iron work.
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More on Burden and his factory here:
The Industrial Archeology of Henry Burden & Sons Ironworks in ...
northbennington.org/_assets/​Burden/​rolando.pdf
He even mined his own iron ore!
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Branson, Henry Burden is very interesting, the fact that a immigrant Scotsman helped change the course of the American Civil War is fascinating to me! ( I have long been intrigued by how much invention/technology the world owes to the Scott's) I was able download this book yesterday Written (compiled) by his daughter in 1904 it seems to contain much more information including drawings than I have been able to find before. I have only just browsed it so far. http://archive.org/details/henryburden00prou I don't know about you but my computer skills/knowledge leaves a lot to be desired,the one I downloaded off the left hand list was the PDF 6.6M. it worked ok!
I did d/l that Archeology article also.
Graeme
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Graeme, great find, that book. The patent drawings are wonderful to say the least. I've just browsed it myself and found so much useful information! Thanks!
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Branson, a little more research into Henry B has brought this book up. http://books.google.com.au/books?id=W6jGh80u0iYC&pg=PA139&lpg=PA139&dq=henry+burden+horseshoe+machine&source=bl&ots=j1fqLrrN-6&sig=MC6fS345KgIxZSnhBC4A0nr9nxQ&hl=en&sa=X&ei=lhFmUc8i6peJB5fhgJgM&ved=0CEcQ6AEwAzgU#v=onepage&q=henry%20burden%20horseshoe%20machine&f=false
It has a chapter on the use of horses and mules during the civil war, it is still in print. It may have more information to help your overall research into the mountain howitzer company's.
Graeme
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Wonderful stuff, Graeme. Another thank you for your help.
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I may have found it. At least I have a photo of a contemporary DOE wrench dug up at an artillery site from the Battle of Resaca -- May of 1864. Note the angle of the open ends to the shaft of the wrench.
Anybody seen one like this before?
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Not helpful, but, I remember coming across that pattern somewhere, and assuming it was a textile wrench. Later I read something somewhere that made me conclude it was NOT a textile wrench, but was a machine wrench. Sorry, been too long....don't remember where I saw it...
It *is* for hex bolts who, it has a curved back cut...
PS: You got me distracted for hours with Henry...LOL
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Yes, for hex nuts. I'll have to check the nuts on the howitzer, though the nuts on the forge are all hex. I found a friend may have drawings of army issue open end wrenches from before or during the Civil War.
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Branson, That is a interesting "modern looking" wrench,to me it is not the angle but the offsett that makes it unusual. All the hand forged wrought iron wrenches I either own or have seen have been made from three pieces, with the "grain" of the wrought iron running around the U (necessary as wrought is weak if cut or split along the grain) and the grain running straight along the the handle (usually S shaped handle) There being a fire weld directly in line with the bottom of the U. Straight handled wrought iron wrenches are uncommon if not even rare and I don't think I've seen one angled? I think it would be very difficult and messy to scarf and fire weld that wrench together in that offsett postion!? To me that means that this wrench is either cast (doesn't look cast) or made in one piece from steel? Either by hand or in a factory or by Henry Burden's so far mythical wrench forging Machine!! It is very difficult to make judgements from a photo, I guess both you and I would like to "handle" that wrench! I must say that it looks to be around the right size to handle the bolts/nuts in your forging kit.
Graeme
Correction and clarification
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Right dinkum I want to handle that wrench! The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that these were not blacksmith made. The original drawings of all artillery used by the army were made in 1848 so that all the equipment could be standardized. Alfred Mordecai also made measured drawings of very many of the tools used in the armories and depots as well as in the field. There would have been over 600,000 of the wrench I'm looking for just for issue to mountain howitzer crews (one for every mountain howitzer produced). Since they fit standard sized nuts, they were almost certainly issued to other workers involved with artillery manufacture and repair. Manufacturers were obviously capable mass production of much more complex tools -- consider the Coes and Merrick screw wrenches. Why wouldn't they mass produce open end wrenches by the thousands?
Buried somewhere in the Quartermaster General records there are probably invoices for these wrenches as well as the answers to other mysteries (like who churned out the hundreds of thousands of standardized nuts for these wrenches to turn?).
Yeah, the offset is something I've never seen before. I notice that one end has been beaten with a hammer to get off a hard nut, too.
This strikes me as a very early example of ignoring wrenches as just being the common, unremarkable tools of mechanics -- the "heart of darkness" of early wrench history.
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Well, I still want to get my hands on the wrench in the picture or one like it -- it's almost certainly CW vintage. But today, pouring over the drawings, I found a top view of the wrench -- only what you could see looking down in the tool chest at a wrench in its slot against the right hand side. If the drawings are correct, the jaws of these wrenches are parallel to the handle, not angled at all. All I can make out in the drawing is that it is 5/16 thick, and the end I can see has a 1 1/2 inch opening.
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Don't know if it will help, but I found this guy with lots of books on the civil war cannons.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cannon-Blasts-Civil-War-Artillery-Eastern-Armies-Union-Confederacy-NEW-/370786854881?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item56549e67e1 (http://www.ebay.com/itm/Cannon-Blasts-Civil-War-Artillery-Eastern-Armies-Union-Confederacy-NEW-/370786854881?pt=US_Nonfiction_Book&hash=item56549e67e1)
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Thanks for the heads up on the book. Alas, it talks a lot about cannons, but near nothing on who maintained them with what tools.