"Bill Noble" wrote in message
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"anorton" wrote in message
m...

snip


I found two similar US patents: US3147003 and US078781, but not
exactly like the one you have.
http://www.google.com/patents?id=LfZ...page&q&f=false
http://www.google.com/patents?id=9JU...page&q&f=false

at www.uspto.gov it's a bit easier to read - following the ref in the
johnson patent, 2755681 seems relevant (dated 1954) but it isn't the
same - I would swear that this was pre WWII from the looks of it - what
do you guys think? It just can't be 1961

I have to disagree. It is just too fancy. It definitely looks post-WWII
consumer age. The fact that the ratchet part was plated, but the
plating was thin enough to wear away indicates it was made to look fancy
but not designed to wear like a professional tool. Then there is that
somewhat unnecessary spring to make it just a little more convenient.
If you search on Quikcet, it seems they made a similar acting vise in
the mid 50's.

Now I see a reference to the Quikcet vise just after the war in what is
also a very interesting Scientific American
http://tinyurl.com/2ebdn72
good - thanks for finding that - I actually did search on Quikcet and
didn't find anything useful - now that you found it, it turns up on the
first page of search results - how odd is that? So, the SA advertisement
is 1945, which I think still supports my feeling that this is pre war -
the other reason I think it is pre war is that the parts that show in
copper have VERY heavy copper plating with nickel over the copper - what
wore away is the nickel - it's pretty soft, this is typical of stuff that
is from the teens through the 30s. in fact, I may be at fault for
removing the plating when I polished it - there was probably more
remaining but I figured "shiny is good" -

still it must be somewhat rare or one of us would have found out more - I
found nothing on the company at all. But now we know that they made both
a vise (from the SA advert) and a C clamp.

The 1945 ad is actually a new product announcement in the "New Products and
Processes" column. The patent for this vice was filed in 1945
http://tinyurl.com/26ww8db , so the vise was probably not produced before
the war.

So the question is which came first, the clamp or the vise? Grand
Specialties (maker of the Quikcet vise) also has a design patent for a
ratcheting C-clamp from 1945 but it lacks the extra tightening
screw and hinge: http://tinyurl.com/2dhakoz . The fact it is a design patent
means they probably actually manufactured something that looked just like
that. The same inventor has a utility patent from 1943 for a ratcheting
C-clamp with with hinge, but a lever instead of the additional screw, and
no spring:
http://tinyurl.com/247lcl5. This makes me think that your C-clamp with all
its refinements came a little later.

The same inventor who filed patent # 3147003 in 1961 also had a slightly
earlier version http://tinyurl.com/2dsgxqj that looks even more like your
clamp. It was assigned to another individual, so someone must have bought
it.

Too bad I am not patenting a clamp. I have already done all the searching.