Vanished Tool Makers: Lowentraut Manufacturing Co., Newark, New Jersey

Below, two pairs of dividers and two sets of inside/outside calipers made by this company:

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Peter Lowentraut founded his company in 1869 or 1871, depending on the source.  They made a wide variety of hand tools, including box scrapers, compasses, hammers, pliers, wrenches and rasps.  The company is best known today for their  "combination wrench-braces" which could be used as a wrench, a brace or a vise.  (To see this tool, google Patent No. US674735 A).  The company was employing 125 men in 1890 and was incorporated in 1899.  Into the 1900's it got involved in the ice skate craze, making skates under the "U.S." brand that were strapped onto your shoes. The US brand was also used on some tools, usually inside of a diamond logo.  The company seems to foundered sometime before 1920. 

1911