This is a long-winded post, so please bear with me. You might even want to grab something to snack on...
I'm trying to do some internet detective work on a crazy old plier tool I bought from the Fall 2014 MVWC auction. Item 298 has no markings on it, but was identified as a "Mason's Combined Plier and Wrench" based upon an old 1907 catalog listing:
But when I searched for patent information about this tool, the only result I got was the contraption below, which of course does not resemble my tool in the slightest. Dang-it all.
HOWEVER, the inventor's last name
was Mason, and the 1905 patent date does put it in the same era as my tool, and the "Combined Pipe Wrench and Pliers" title is the same as that of the old catalog listing?
So I am trying to find a definitive connection between the "
Mason's" tool in the catalog listing, and "
Gilbert M. Mason" of patent #787,523.
The patent text says that Gilbert Mason lived in Perry, Iowa. And a clue I found in an old Iron Age publication is that a G. M. Mason represented a company called the Perry Plier & Tool Company around 1907:
The same Gilbert M. Mason was also named on patent #890,152, for a fencing plier:
These pliers were produced by the Osmundson Mfg. Co. (a farm implement maker, also of Perry, Iowa) and were called The Buffalo Fence Plier, according to a reference I found:
The Buffalo Fence Plier
Curiously, the Buffalo pliers were made of stamped steel construction, same as the "Mason's" pliers. And comparing the photos, one cannot help but see similarities between the two. (contour of the inner edges of the handles, etc)
Mason's Combined Plier and Wrench
So that is all I could find on the web. I still don't know for certain that Gilbert M. Mason was the inventor of the Mason's Combined Plier and Wrench that I bought, but it seems likely he was.
