[OT - Crescent Wrench] - Re: 8.10b - first impression and questions

[Derek Broughton]

Thorny wrote:

> Since I'm reading this OT thread I might as well put in my $.02.
> 
> Not sure where your neck of the woods is but I can certainly understand
> that there could be regional or local names for some tools.

In fact, _I'm_ not sure where that neck of the woods is! :-)  A fixed width,
open ended wrench was what my father called a crescent wrench - and that
could be prairie Canada, northern England or British Army usage.  I know my
wife, from Nova Scotia where I now live, always means an adjustable wrench.

> My understanding is that the name Crescent Wrench became a popular name
> for an adjustable open end wrench (the generic name) presumably because
> the name of the Crescent Tool Company was so prominently displayed on the
> handle and most humans like to deal with simple nicknames rather than a
> generic name which takes longer to say.

Thanks for the history lesson.

> Another example which you will probably recognise (since your
> email address ends with .ca) is the "Robertson" screw which is a square
> socket screw (to differentiate from hex socket screws which use an "Allen
> key", hex key). 

Indeed.  One of the great Canadian inventions.  The greatest, if you
consider that Insulin wasn't so much invented as discovered, and the
Americans and Scots both claim to have invented the telephone (though we
invented basketball and curling, so it's even).

A New Jersey man bought the house next door, which has a mysterious second
story door into space, and since he was renting it out he needed to secure
the door so that renters wouldn't kill themselves.  He showed us how his
carpenter had installed "special security screws" fastening the door into
the jamb.  We laughed ourselves silly before telling him that those were
Robertson screws, with drivers available at every local hardware store :-)
-- 
derek