James P Crombie wrote:
Tom wrote:

John Doe wrote:

inlina inlina gmail.com wrote:


On Jun 14, 7:37 pm, John Doe j... usenetlove.invalid wrote:




There probably are few people in the world who have never heard of
vice grips.



Umm, the generic name is not vice-grips, it is locking pliers or
lock-jaw pliers.




Very unlikely that is the name in Franklin's home country Norway. Even
if they don't go by the brand name "vice grips", they wouldn't use a
generic English term.

Therefore it is not the case that when you say vice-grips
that everyone in the world understands what you mean.




Highly likely that anyone in a non-English speaking country would
recognize "vice grips" before they recognized "locking pliers".
That's the issue.

In fact, more people in the world understand what you mean when you
say "vice grips" than they do when you say "locking pliers" or "lock
jaw pliers".
From the worldwide USENET archives.

Results 1 - 100 of about 8,930 for " Vise grips "

Results 1 - 100 of 658 for " Locking pliers "

Results 1 - 37 of 37 for " lock jaw pliers "


Vice-grips came from Irwin's trademarked product 'Vise-grips',




Of course it did.

No it didn't, it came from Petersen Mfg Co's trademarked "Vise-Grip"
clamps,
that used William Petersen's patent of Jan 5 1923.

Tom


The Vise-Grip was apparently invented by a mechanic from Prince Edward
Island, Canada and the patent was sold to the Peterson Company for the
sum of $500 back in the 20's. Wether his was the first patent for the
vise-grip or if the Peterson company was buying up competing patents, I
am not sure.

James Crombie


UIrban myth from Canada, perhaps?
When William Petersen was granted his patent, http://tinyurl.com/2ts9gu,
in 1923, the Peterson company was yet to be formed.

Tom



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