Posted 3 years ago
dav2no1
(839 items)
J.H. Williams & Co. 1/2" S-51 Superrachet
Picked this up today for $5! I knew right away it was old. It was a little dirty, but the rachet mechanism works perfectly. It cleaned up very nicely.
This is a 1/2" rachet, model S-51.
In 1993 Williams was bought by SnapOn. It was renamed Snap-on Industrial Brands in 2011.
Patent was filed in 1933 and issued in 1934. The earlier wrenches were used through WWII. I'm not sure when exactly the change in logo of THE "Superrachet" to superrachet happened? I know the J.H. Williams changed in 1977, I believe to just Williams. Still researching.
***UPDATED INFORMATION***
I reached out to the Alloy Artifacts site and they responded that this is a rare example that dates between 1933 to before 1940. They found the catalog listing from 1933(image added) showing "Superrachet". On the 1940 catalog it shows, "The Superrachet". They updated and added the information to their site. He also concluded that the name change happened earlier than 1940, so it's likely that this rachet labeled "Superrachet" was only used for about a year(1933-34).
1882
"James Harvey Williams and Matthew Diamond founded Williams & Diamond in Flushing, Queens, a drop forging business."
1884
"The business was relocated to Brooklyn in 1884 and took the name J.H. Williams & Co in 1887. The company was one of the first to offer mass-produced drop-forged hand tools."
***There's way too much history to list, so as always I'll add links in comments ***
*** Links to J.H Williams history ***
Detailed History
http://maggieblanck.com/BrooklynRedHook/Williams.html
Patent
http://www.datamp.org/patents/displayPatent.php?pn=1957462&id=27942
Tools History
http://alloy-artifacts.org/williams-supercompany-p3.html
Now this I can love, whenever I see an old and different ratchet at a reasonable price I try and get them. This one was a bargain!!
Great find Dave!! I've never seen a ratchet like this one until now. I have some old Williams wrenches that belonged to my Grandfather, but no ratchets.
Thanks to everyone for the comments and loves. They did also make a S-52 round head rachet.
***UPDATED INFORMATION***
I reached out to the Alloy Artifacts site and they responded that this is a rare example that dates between 1933 to before 1940. They found the catalog listing from 1933(image added) showing "Superrachet". On the 1940 catalog it shows, "The Superrachet". They updated and added the information to their site.
He also stated that "Superrachet" had possibly changed to "The Superrachet" earlier than 1940.
http://alloy-artifacts.org/williams-supercompany-p3.html
dav2no1, Way cool. :-)
Yes exciting news! And he concluded that the change happened earlier than 1940, so this example may possibly be 1933-1934!
That’s so awesome Dave!! Some pretty amazing sleuthing you did there.
Thanks Scott. Pretty excited it's even better than I first thought...and I thought it was a great find.
VERY COOL, when stuff ends up having an even more interesting 'history' behind it than first guessed??!!! <applause>
Thanks AO. Very happy to learn this new information.