Unusual Tools: Jaw Couplings

I picked this up last week just as a curiosity:

The Lovejoy company's motto is "where the world turns for couplings."  It was founded in Chicago by Thomas Lovejoy in 1900 as a manufacturer of tooling and machinery for the railroad and steel indusries.  Twelve years later it was purchased by W.H. Dangel who retained the name (let's face it: "Dangel:  where the world turns for couplings" could be misconstrued) and in 1927 the company purchased the patent for a jaw coupling from Louis Ricefield.  The softer medium between the steel pieces, which absorbs shock, is referred to as a "spider."  This patent was their gold-egg laying goose.  Today, the couplings are available from the company in more than 850,000 combinations of bore sizes!