The Enduring Grip of Stillson’s Pipe Wrench (episode 306)

Transcript

Introduction to Boston’s History

Jake:
[0:05] To hub history where we go far beyond the Freedom Trail to share our favorite stories from the history of Boston, the hub of the universe. This is episode 306, the enduring grip of Stilton’s pipe Wrench. Hi, I’m Jake.

Jake:
[0:22] Long before it became a haven for biotech companies and software giants. Kindle Square was a center for manufacturing during that era of steam. Two crucial developments emerged here in the 18 sixties. The standardization of threaded iron pipes and fittings for use in household plumbing, gas fixtures and steam power, and the invention of the modern pipe wrench that allows us to work on those fittings. This episode explores the story behind the Stillson pipe wrench a tool so revolutionary that its inventor’s name became synonymous with the idea of pipe wrenches and so innovative that its design remains nearly unchanged. Over 100 50 years later, we’ll meet Daniel Chapman Stillson, the civil war veteran and ingenious machinist who frustrated by the limitations of existing tools designed an adjustable pipe wrench that revolutionized plumbing pipe fitting and his employer, the Walworth company.

Jake:
[1:21] But before we talk about Dan Stillson and his famous Wrench, I just want to pause and say, thank you to everyone who supports Hub History on Patreon. These are the loyal listeners who make it possible for me to keep making the show and to keep it free for everyone to listen to, at a time when podcast ad rates are falling off a cliff leading to more really generic product ads in your favorite shows and leading to more shows, signing exclusive deals with apps like Spotify. It’s important to me that Hub History remains free for anyone to listen to on any app with host, read ads from relevant advertisers when I can get them.

Jake:
[2:00] Unfortunately, while we’re keeping this show free to listen to, it’s not free to make, producing an episode of Hub History means they’ll spend money on research databases, online audio processing tools and A I services for transcription and more and publishing. That episode requires podcast, media, hosting and web hosting and security. Our sponsors cover the cost of making the show for everyone else by kicking in as little as $2 a month or as much as $20 or more to everyone who’s already supporting the show. Thank you. And if you’re not yet supporting the show and you’d like to start, it’s easy, just go to patreon.com/hubhistory or visit hubhistory.com and click on the support us link and thanks again to all our new and returning sponsors.

Jake:
[2:51] Now it’s time for this week’s main topic while I was researching this episode, I stumbled across an editorial that was written by William Jacobus for the journal engineering review in which the self described gray whiskered old time type plumber complains about how easy the kids today have it with their math, produce pipes and fittings instead of having to cast new valves and elbows out of lead from scratch. Every time something needs to be repaired like he did in the good old days and using specialty tools like the Stillson pipe wrench instead of the crude iron tonks that he learned his trade on. I wonder how many of the iron pipe monkey wrench plumbers of today know what a spider was or look like that applies of everyday use in the old time shop. Truly. If the Metropolitan Museum of Art fails in securing and preserving the future generations, some of the old time plumbers tools, the technical trade schools and stillson wrench plumbers of today will actually get to thinking that they are the only pebbles resplendent upon the Atlantic or other glistening shore. Those darn kids they’ve all gone soft in these modern times of 1907.

Jake:
[4:03] Jacobus was reminiscing about the good old days of a half century before when modern manufacturing was just beginning to standardize the production of threaded iron pipes and fittings. And the Stillson Wrench was just a sparkle in the eye of inventor Dan Stillson. And both those innovations would take place in the tech hub of Kendall Square. In the 18 sixties, Kindle Square has long had a reputation as one of the premier technology centers of the US, often rivaling Silicon Valley.

Jake:
[4:32] First manufacturing, then applied research for military applications in the space race, then computer hardware and software. And more recently biotech companies have been founded and incubated in Kindle Square and the shadow of MIT which provides much of the brain power for those companies. However, technology came to Kindle Square before MIT did while the state charted an Institute of Technology. In 1861 the school made its home in Boston’s Back Bay. Until 1916. Technology on the other hand, started concentrating in Kindle Square, then just a part of the up and coming Cambridge Port neighborhood. Soon after the West Boston bridge connected the area directly to Boston in 1793 and the Middlesex Canal was completed the nearby Charlestown in 1803. While a canal system was dug in the early 18 teens to drain the marshes and connect the Cambridge port neighborhood with the sea. With these convenient facilities for shipping. And the railroads that soon followed, manufacturing companies began concentrating in Cambridgeport in the early part of the 19th century, including the Kendall boiler company that would lend its name to a part of the neighborhood.

Jake:
[5:48] In the early 18 forties, Joseph Nason saw a demonstration of household heating that used hot water radiators while he was on a visit to England. And he wrote to his brother-in-law hardware dealer, James J Walworth with a description of the system together, they decided that they would bring this new heating process to New England, though they eventually became known as a producer of valves and fittings. When the Walworth company was first incorporated in 1842 it focused almost entirely on manufacturing iron pipe initially for household heating.

Jake:
[6:23] Their first production facility was located on Blake Court in Boston near today’s post Urban Renewal, Northampton Street. Also in 1842 New York City introduced its Croton aqueduct signaling the beginning of an era when indoor plumbing became common, then nearly universal increasing demand for iron pipe. You can hear more about the West Boston Bridge, the Middlesex Canal and the development of Boston’s own Kitu Aqueduct in episodes 115, 2, 25 and 292 respectively. As you’ll remember from our most recent episode, Boston celebrated the arrival of the Cunard line of steamships that connected our city with Britain in 1840 with the western railway expected to connect us with Albany. And beyond, not long after the mid 19th century, was undeniably, the age of steam which also required vast amounts of iron pipe. At the same time, natural gas was becoming more common in cities and large towns for generating both light and heat.

Jake:
[7:30] A 1945 Walworth company history titled a history of 100 years of valve manufacturing notes, one other nascent business that would send demand for iron pipe and related fittings and valves through the roof. JJ Walworth and Joseph Nason selected a pioneering business for their career. They became dealers in pipe, but almost immediately, they discovered a new field for the use of pipe, steam and hot water heating. A new method of heating buildings was ushered into existence, giving people the opportunity to live and work more comfortably and healthfully, especially in cold weather. Thus, the Walworth company was one of the principal founders of a vast new industry.

Early Innovations in Heating and Plumbing

Jake:
[8:14] They even made an installation in the White House in 1853. During the administration of Franklin Pierce James J. Walworth himself was sent for and was asked if he could heat the frigid corners of the White House of one of the corners President Andrew Jackson is reported to have said, hell itself couldn’t heat that corner but Walworth did heed it. A hot water system was installed which drove old man boreas from the nation’s number one dwelling. Eventually co-founder Joseph Nason moved to New York and set up a competing business. But JJ Walworth little brother CC Walworth joined the firm in his place becoming the author of many more inventions.

Jake:
[8:58] In the meantime, Walworth outgrew its first factory on Blake Court and moved in 1855 into a former railcar factory on Main Street in Cambridge port. An 1848 article in the American railroad journal describes Davenport Bridges factory on main street that the Walworth company would later buy.

Jake:
[9:18] To the three story brick building fronting on Main Street, two large wings were added in 1848 extending on Osborne street known as the East and West Wings. The west wing facing on Osborne street was about 350 ft long by 40 ft wide. The east wing extended parallel to the other wing with an open area between, this building was 240 ft by 43 ft. Both wings were brick, two stories high. One wing was used as a foundry and blacksmith shop. The latter containing 16 forges while the other was used as a machine shop. There were eight smaller buildings, most of them about 100 by 30 ft. Some of them being two stories high. From that description, it was not a small facility that Walworth moved into when it needed to expand.

Jake:
[10:12] During the civil war, the Walworth company focused almost entirely on steam fittings to support the war effort. But with the return of peace, the company could diversify again. By the late 18 sixties, Walworth was moving away from the steam heat business focusing instead on manufacturing valves for a plethora of new industries, from food packaging to chemical factories, to oil drilling, to power generation. And each technological leap forward required more advanced valves that Walworth was happy to supply. With the end of the civil war, the Walworth company also got a new employee, a Union navy veteran originally from New Hampshire named Daniel Chapman. Stillson. Stela was trained as a machinist using lathes and other shop tools to make tools and parts from steel. By about 1860 he was living in Charlestown and working as a civilian employee of the Navy yard. Then South Carolina seceded from the union.

Jake:
[11:12] A biographical sketch that I found includes this description of Stillson civil war service while working at the Navy yard. Stillson was offered a position with the Navy on January 20th, 1862 he was appointed acting third assistant engineer and assigned to the steamer RB Forbes. He served on the Forbes until it was wrecked in a gale off the coast of North Carolina on February 25th, 1862, the crew was saved and Stillson was transferred to the steam frigate US S Roanoke, which was present at the battle of Hampton Roads on March 8th, 1862. Stillson was an eyewitness to the battle between the monitor and the Merrimac. Later he served on the US S Somerset which patrolled the Cuban coast and was president the capture of Cedar Keys due to ill health. Stillson resigned his position on August 31st 1862. After a period of recuperation, he was reappointed to the navy as an assistant engineer aboard the US S Queen.

Jake:
[12:18] During his service, the Queen was present the attacks on Fort Wagner and Fort Sumter on November 16th 1864 he was appointed acting first assistant engineer. And on January 25th, 1865 he sailed with David Farragut on his first voyage

Daniel Chapman Stillson’s Civil War Service

Jake:
[12:35] as Vice Admiral at the close of the war. Stillson received an honorable discharge and soon returned to Charlestown. He’d been in the technical role working on steamships in the service. So Stillson looked for a civilian job where he could put his steam fitting and machinists skills to work after his discharge. And as Michael Fitzgerald wrote in a 2019 profile of Stillson for the Boston Globe Magazine in the mid 19th century. There was no more exciting place to work in the plumbing industry than Boston. Luckily for Stillson, one of his old shipmates had been drafted out of his longtime role as chief engineer at the Walworth Company. So in about 1867 our Walworth company history says one day Dan Stillson presented himself at the Walworth plant and asked his old boss for a job. He was set to work as a mechanic in the Cambridge Port plant as a mechanic, or more precisely a machinist. And department foreman Stillson quickly became frustrated with the tools that were available to him.

Jake:
[13:40] Iron pipes were manufactured with threads cut into one end and then the pipe or the collar or fitting, it was to be joined to it had to be turned to screw in the threads.

Jake:
[13:51] As one writer put it back then, dimensions were poorly standardized. So each time a tradesman was out on a job, he needed a trolley to take a set of fixed pipe wrenches with him.

Jake:
[14:02] The same problem must have plagued Dan Stillson at the Walworth factory because he soon set his mind to the problem of turning pipes. Adjustable monkey wrenches existed by the 18 sixties. But as Michael Fitzgerald’s article points out, they were designed to grip and turn the flat faces of a hexagonal nut. Springfield was an early center of Wrench innovation in 1835 Solomon Merrick patents, the first wrench with jaws that can be adjusted by turning a screw in 1841. Loring cos another Springfield resident improves on Merrick’s Wrench by making it possible to adjust the jaws with one hand. But these stiff tools with their smooth jaws could slip on circular metal pipes. Enter Daniel Stillson Stillson had unusual mechanical ability. Wrote AA L stone. In this 1930 history of Massachusetts industries, he envisioned a tool made expressly for round metal pipe, its jaws would have angled teeth facing opposite directions allowing them to grip more effectively than its predecessors. The head would be loose which would help it clamp down ever more tightly on a pipe when a worker turned its handle but also easily release.

Jake:
[15:21] We’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. But as a fun side note, I’ll include pictures of the Wrench. Stillson eventually came up with in the show notes this week, as well as the earlier Merrick Monkey Wrench. Depending on which edition you buy. The board game. Clue might include either a Merrick or a Stillson as the wrench that Mrs Peacock might use to cave in Mr body’s head in the conservatory. My version purchased at TJ Maxx a couple of years ago has the Merrick, but I’ve seen a Stillson Wrench in other versions of the game.

Jake:
[15:53] The wrench that you might find in a game of clue is not what Daniel Stillson initially designed in the absence of an effective adjustable wrench for round pipes. Many plumbers and pipefitters were using blacksmith’s tons to try to tighten pipes. These long handled iron tongs looked a bit like oversized channel lock pliers with a thumb screw to adjust the size of the opening developed and patented by Boston’s James Brown. They were designed to hold round iron stock firmly in place while a Smith removed the white hot metal from the forge and worked it on an anvil. They were not unfortunately designed to provide the traction needed to effectively tighten a pipe into a collar or a valve fitting.

Dan Stillson’s First Patent Application

Jake:
[16:36] Thus, even before he went to work for Walworth Dan Stillson and his cousin John Chapman filed a US patent application for an improved tool for turning gas pipe, et cetera termed pipe tongs, which has for its object to produce simple and convenient pipe tongs for turning gas pipe, et cetera, which can be readily adjusted for different sized pipes.

Jake:
[17:02] This version replaced the squeezed handles of the tong with a single handle that had a screw to tighten the grip onto one side of the pipe. While the other side would be cradled by an angular fitting similar to the shape of a blacksmith’s tongs or as Chapman and Stillson put it in the application. Our invention consists of an eccentric grip placed within a sliding carrier block and made adjustable by means of a screw in connection with a claw or pipe rest placed opposite by which arrangement as the tool is moved in one direction, the pipe is turned, while it slips over the pipe to take a fresh hold when moved in the opposite direction. Their patent was granted in October 1865. But this improved pipe tong design didn’t go very far with its angled head in the shape of a blacksmith’s tongs. It just couldn’t provide the torque needed to ensure pipes were tightly fitted, especially high pressure fittings like those that were increasingly common in both steam power and gas lighting.

Jake:
[18:06] So soon after going to work for the JJ Walworth company, Dan Stillson returned to the task of creating an effective adjustable pipe wrench. The company prided itself on encouraging innovation in both manufacturing and business practices. With the 1945 company history stating the objective has been to introduce and sell more brains per pound in all the Walworth products. The Walworth company was among the first Boston business houses to install a telephone for its own use. It was also an early user of the typewriter, a machine which was invented about the same time as the telephone. Walworth had a female stenographer. Long before women were generally employed in offices. Not until the present century did manufacturers and wholesalers in many lines, make deliveries to retailers. Buyers had to come after their own goods. But when delivery service was instituted by manufacturers and wholesale distributors, the Walworth company continued its policy of innovating. It put in service spanking three and four horse teams that were shows sites in the Boston Streets.

Jake:
[19:18] Dan Stillson took advantage of this incubator like environment at Walworth to Tinker with his ideas for creating a wrench that would improve the existing pipe, tongs and adjustable wrenches. He wanted to create a tool that would grip a pipe firmly enough to turn and tighten it securely, but without crushing the pipe, it should easily release the pipe when the plumber stops pulling on the handle and the whole thing should be simple to use and easy to manufacture. Finally, the company history notes a year or two later, 1869 to be exact. Stillson whittled out of wood, a pattern of what was to become his famous Stillson Wrench.

Jake:
[19:59] This wood model had a long shank with teeth at one end to grip a pipe and a handle. At the other end. In the final model, the whole thing would be made of hardened tool steel with the handle sheathed and polished hardwood. Atop this long shank was a smaller shank that was shaped like an inverted L. The short end of the L had teeth and ran parallel to the teeth on the large shank. While the long end of the L followed the handle part of the main shank, a bracket held the two pieces together with a screw mechanism to allow the teeth on the L shaped shank to move closer or further from the teeth on the main shank. The bracket allowed a lot of play. So the L shaped shank wobbled slightly when the wrench was picked up as the handle was pulled. This play caused the gap between the two sets of teeth to close, tightening the grip while it released when the force was reversed. Or as he would write in an 1869 patent application, the jaws being adjusted. So as to permit the pipe to pass between nearly to the shank, the handle is pressed forward and turning upon the pivot connecting it with the frame, shuts the jaws together firmly clasping said pipe between them.

Jake:
[21:14] The front end of the lower part striking against the shank, arrests the motion of the frame and jaws and thus prevents the latter from crushing the pipe. As would otherwise be the case, the pipe is instantly released by removing the pressure from the handle. So as to permit the wrench to be rotated upon or removed from the said pipe, the especial advantages possessed by this wrench consist in the ease with which it is adjusted upon a pipe and the certainty of its operation. In addition to which the strength and simplicity of the parts ensures great durability at a moderate cost.

Jake:
[21:52] Stillson was pretty sure he was on to something and he showed the wooden model of his wrench to Levi Green, his boss and former navy shipmate Green was impressed with the design and told Stillson to use company resources to make a steel prototype of the Wrench. Stillson quickly forged a working steel wrench and presented it to Green and company partner, Cece Walworth. According to our 1945 company history, he was ordered to test the wrench which he supposedly did while swearing up a blue streak in true sailor fashion. The steel wrench was shown to CC Walworth. According to the story which Colonel Green often told many present employees of the company Stillson was instructed to try the wrench on a piece of one and one quarter inch pipe. The colonel’s instructions were either to twist off the pipe or break the wrench, put enough strength on the wrench to do one thing or the other to quote verbatim from Colonel Green’s story. Dan looked at me with some strong language in his eyes. He was competent to use language chiefly profane. He exercised this accomplishment on frequent occasions. Cecy chuckled as Dan turned on his heel and walked out of the office. Half an hour later, Dan came back with a piece of pipe which had been twisted off. His wrench was intact.

Jake:
[23:17] If Stilton’s wrench was strong enough to shear a one and a quarter inch iron pipe in half, it was gonna be strong enough to tighten pipes and fittings without crushing them. Both Stillson and the Walworth company knew that they had a potential hit on their hands. Calling the new invention, America’s most famous tool AA L Stone wrote in his 1930 history of Massachusetts industries. Volume one CC then became really interested and told Dan to go back to the factory and have the foreman make up two dozen wrenches. Colonel Green continued. He and I agreed upon suggestions as to the length of the handles for different sizes. And Dan went away, he came back with the finished wrenches a few days later and was advised to go to the patent office and get a patent for his new invention.

Jake:
[24:08] It is as much as I can do to get my dinner to say nothing about going to the patent office said Dan CC. Walworth, however, thought so well of the wrench that he authorized Stillson to draw upon the office for the necessary expense money and directed him to a patent lawyer who had served the company, in the course of time, Stillson came back with his letters patent and asked Colonel Green’s advice as to how he should proceed.

Negotiating the Stillson Wrench Patent

Jake:
[24:34] Stillson was granted a patent on his design in 1869 and he offered to sell it to the company for $2500. The company declined telling him instead that he should try selling it himself. He lowered the asking price to $1500 but the company still declined to buy his patent instead offering a licensing deal. The Walworth company would get exclusive rights to manufacture the new tool while its inventor would retain the rights to the patent and receive royalty payments for each sale. Dan Stillson accepted this deal and sales of the Stillson Wrench quickly skyrocketed, our 1945 company history points out that one of the JJ Walworth company’s warehouses was directly in the path of the Great Boston fire of 1872 falling victim to fire department efforts to contain the blaze.

Jake:
[25:28] The building occupied by Walworth was in the path of the flames and had to be dynamited. Some of the more valuable finished items in stock were saved including a quantity of Stillson wrenches.

Jake:
[25:41] So already by 1872 just three years after Stilton’s initial patent, the wrench bearing his name was one of the Walworth company’s most important products. Within the decade, the name Stillson became a catch all for the pipe wrench. The way the band aid or Kleenex brand names are treated today over the life of the company, Walworth would sell far more Stillson wrenches than they would pipes or valves or fittings or any of the other products that the company was organized around. Dan Stillson quickly became one of the stars of Walworth S Firmament as described in the company history. Many noted persons have been in its employ or have been associated with it. One of the first of these men was Robert Briggs, the originator of the Briggs standard of pipe threads. NJ Bundy inventor of the Bundy radiator was a Walworth steam fitter. At one time, JC Chapman originator of the Chapman valve was another Walworth employee.

Jake:
[26:43] And of course, there was Dan Stillson inventor of the Stillson Wrench. It was a characteristic of the Walworth Brothers, particularly of CC to encourage men with ideas and to let all employees express themselves that policy is continued all through the company’s history. Certainly any company that succeeds owes its success to its manpower. This is the greatest asset that any business organization can have.

Jake:
[27:12] In 1870 Stillson patented an improvement to the wrench that made them simpler to manufacture. And in 1872 he filed a patent for a change that added small leaf springs which smoothed the action of gripping and releasing a pipe. Once initially adjusted. Since 1872 the design has remained relatively unchanged if you were to walk

Enduring Design of the Stillson Wrench

Jake:
[27:35] into your local hardware plumbing supply store. Today, the pipe wrench you buy might be made from a more modern steel alloy and it’s unlikely to have a polished hardwood handle, but it’ll be functionally identical to the tool that Dan Stillson patented in 1869. The company history touts not only Stillson lasting design but the durability of individual wrenches as well. Noting there are records of these wrenches being in regular use for more than 50 years when the Walworth company organized the Walworth genuine Stillson Wrench quarter century club. It brought to light thousands of Stillson that had been in use for 25 years or more. Any Stillson owner could join this club by showing that his Wrench’s serial number was at least 25 years old.

Jake:
[28:24] The Walworth company leaned hard into this reputation for durable quality, releasing an ad campaign in the 19 twenties, featuring pictures of antique Stillson wrenches that were still in use, many of which were sent in by satisfied customers. One such ad in 1928 featured a Stillson pipe wrench with a slightly bent handle that appeared to be wrapped in leather. The ad copy says, look at those teeth and that straight bar. Never mind the trek handle WV Robbins of Magna Utah sent us this husky veteran, a 10 inch Walworth that’s still full of fight after 37 years of trouble busting, Mr Robbins inherited it from his father’s plumbing shop and used it in inspection work on locomotives for 20 years or more. The handle seems to be a contrivance of his own, which has grown old gracefully with a slight list to pour, notice the teeth though and the youthful straightness of the bar that is the kind of lasting strength you can count on getting in any wrench of any size that carries Dan Stilton’s own trademark. Stillson forged in a diamond on the top jaw.

Jake:
[29:36] Even today, hobbyists scour estate sales and online auctions for original stilts and wrenches which they then restored a working condition in a stunning example of if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This basic design has been in production for over 150 years under patent law. At the time, the design was owned by Stillson and exclusively licensed to Walworth for 17 years for the life of each patent. During that time, the inventor earned about $100,000 from his licensing agreement with the company that employed him, which would be about $3.7 million. Today, Dan Stillson used his fortune to move his family from Charlestown to a new house on the slope of Winter Hill in Somerville. He continued tinkering while working for Walworth, filing for at least 20 more patents for everything from sprinkler heads to faucet valves to a machine round the edges of pipes to reduce injuries to plumbers.

Jake:
[30:39] With his newfound prominence, Dilson was elected to the Somerville City Council in 1884 and the board of Alderman in 1885 he served as one of the town’s overseers of the poor and helped to raise money to build the Somerville public Library. Daniel Chapman Stilton’s comfortable life came to an end. On August 21st, 1899 the Boston evening transcript called Stillson a well known inventor in the headline for their August 23rd notice of his funeral, writing funeral services for Daniel C. Stillson. The inventor took place at two o’clock this afternoon from his late residence, 55 Tennyson Street, Somerville. The services were of a simple character and were conducted by Reverend Charles L Noyes of the Winter Hill congregational church. Vocal selections were given by Mrs WC Bailey and Miss Bailey. The interment was at Mount Auburn.

Jake:
[31:38] News reports described his passing as sudden and due to heart disease. He was 69 years old and left behind a wife and daughters, as a veteran, a delegation from Stilton’s Chapter of the Grand Army of the Republic attended the Somerville funeral as well as other fraternal organizations he had belonged to including the Knights of Pits, several different orders and lodges of Freemasons and the Winter Hill Club with the Globe reporting, delegations were present from Granite Lodge A FN AM Salmon Falls, New Hampshire, Shakina Royal Arch Chapter of Chelsea Orient Council of this city. Coeur de Leon, commander KT of Charlestown, Ivanhoe Lodge, KP of Charlestown, Willard C Kinsley Post 189 Gar of the City and the Winter Hill Club. There were numerous and elaborate floral tributes.

Evolution of Walworth Company’s Production

Jake:
[32:34] In 1881 the Walworth company would move most of their production to a new plant in South Boston that had better access to the rail yards near South Station. But their Cambridge factory facility would remain a hub of innovation for over a century.

Innovation Hub at 700 Main Street

Jake:
[32:48] Robert Bei’s 2022 history of Kindle Square where futures converge includes an entire chapter on this one building which begins, Kindle Square has a sweeping history from the area’s marshland beginnings to becoming the world’s densest center of research and innovation, especially in the life sciences.

Jake:
[33:10] A microcosm of its journey lies in the history of just one building. 700 Main Street. The oldest industrial structure in Cambridge, a three story red brick structure with a bright green door and green trim around the windows adorned by a quartet of historic plaques. 700 Maine has witnessed almost every key change in the evolution of Kindle Square, from within its walls came the first modern railroad passenger car, the first pipe wrench, the first two way long distance telephone call, instant photography, spy cameras and much more today. It’s home to lab central, a start up space containing what’s arguably the biggest

Further Exploration of the Stillson Pipe Wrench

Jake:
[33:51] concentration of fledgling biotech companies on Earth to learn more about the Stillson pipe wrench. Check out this week’s show notes at hubor.com/three 06. I’ll have a lot of media for you to look at this week. I’ll include images of James Brown’s design for Pip Tongs and Stilton’s improvement on it so you can see what people were working with at the time. There will be images from Dan Stilton’s patent filings of 1869 1870 1872. There will be images from Dan Stilton’s patent filings of 1869 1870 1872 illustrations showing the difference between a monkey wrench and Stilton’s Wrench design and Walworth company ads for the Stillson Wrench from different eras.

Jake:
[34:40] I’ll link to historic maps from 1854 1873 and today to illustrate where the Davenport coach works and the Walworth plant were located in Cambridge Port as well as an 1877 bird’s eye view of the area and an illustration showing what the factory looked like. I’ll link to historical sources like the 1945 volume, a history of 100 years of valve manufacturing that 1907 editorial by the grumpy old plumber and contemporary news coverage of Stilton’s funeral. I’ll also link to the modern articles that I cited, including Michael Fitzgerald’s Globe magazine article and a summary from mass plumbers local 12. If you’d like to get in touch with us, you can email podcast at hubor.com. We’re Hub History on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. And if you’re on Mastodon, you can find me as at Hubor at Better dot Boston, or you can go to hubor.com and click on the contact us link while you’re on the site, hit the subscribe link and be sure that you never miss an episode. If you subscribe on Apple podcasts, please consider writing us a brief review. If you do drop me a line now, I’ll send you a, a history sticker as a token of appreciation.

Jake:
[35:59] That’s all for now. Stay safe out there listeners.