Vanished Tool Brands: The Parker Line, Worcester, Massachusetts

Above, a hacksaw I recently unearthed in my travels. Below, photos from the web of other tools so marked:

Below, a later product, or at least a product based on a 1942 patent assigned to the Parker Wire Goods Company.  The screwdriver is missing the metal tabs that acted as a screwholder:

Arthur Henry Parker founded the Parker Wire Goods firm in 1901. Eventually, they branched into hand tools, making some of them for the Sears Craftsman brand.  The company became the Parker Manufacturing Company in 1943.  During World War II, the company was the largest producer of the M3A1 combination tool. By 1965, the company was reputed to be the world's largest manufacturer of hacksaw and coping saw frames, and the largest manufacturer in New England of saber saw blades and jig saw blades.  It was also a pioneer in adopting a guaranteed annual wage plan, which it had begun in 1939.

I've no idea why the tools were marked "The Parker Line" but use of the Parker name ceased in 1966.  According to one contributor to The Garage Gazette, the company almost folded in the mid-1980's when Sears suddenly decided to cancel its annual order. (Shades of what happened to Emerson Electric at the hands of Sears as well!)  In 1989, the company was bought by the Stanley Works and seems for a while to have been known as Parker-Stanley.  

Parker Metal Products was a related firm, founded in 1922, which at its height employed 500 people.  It became Parker International Products in 2000 when it changed ownership.   It offered hammers, screwdrivers and screwdriver sets, faucet aerators, sprays and spritzers, tub and sinks stoppers, key locks, bicycle locks, safety hasps, surface savers, hooks, value packs, hangers, fasteners, home hardware, nails/tacks/brads, screws, builder’s hardware, displays, garden carts, utility carts, peg hooks, auto hardware, trophy rods, and specialty nails. The realities of the marketplace dictated that many of its products ended up being made elsewhere, primarily in China.  It wasn't enough to survive.  In 2007 it was sold to The Faucet-Queens., Inc, putting 33 people out of work. As the old owner said, "“China made a big difference,” Mr. Levy said. “We tried to be identified as a U.S. manufacturer, but we couldn’t fight China." Parker's wire forming and nail business, which had been devastated by a flood at the 84 Prescott Street factory in 2005, was not included in the sale.

For more history, see my previous post on Ackermann, Steffan & Company.

The factory at 149 Washington Street in Worcester was built in 1930 and changed hands several times after that, its manufacturing capabilities reducing each time.  Today, it's vacant.  Below, from Google Streetview:

A reader sends in the card of countersink bits by Parker below. Too original to use! (See comments)

Valvespout Oilers and the Sad Story of Parker-Hale

Below, my little Valvespout Oiler.  It used to be very handy when filled with threading fluid for tapping holes.  Sadly, the plastic bulb has become brittle with age and cracked, so it's been retired to ornament status in the shop.

My version was made in England by Muller & Co.

The spout has a nicely knurled end that, if turned clockwise, opens the spout, and closes it when turned in the opposite direction. Hence "Valvespout."

1934

A British patent on the device was taken out in 1931. (My example is curious because the brass stem says "Pat. Pending" but the bulb is made of plastic.  I don't think this kind of plastic was around prior to 1931. Maybe they just never bothered to update the stamp.)  The patent was awarded to the Parker-Hale Company, the famous Birmingham arms manufacturer:

1938.  Source:  Grace's Guide

1940

1953

1973

As such, the oiler was offered in various configurations.  It also appears to have been sold under license in the U.S. by the Continental Arms Corporation of NYC, a distributor of guns, gun supplies and even juke boxes!

Boys Life, 1952

Continental Arms renewed the American "Valvespout" trademark in 1965, but let it expire in 2008.  I don't think that U.S. company is around anymore, at least not in its original form.

Across the pond, the Parker-Hale story didn't end well.  Founded in 1880 and once the largest producer of high-power sporting fire arms in the UK, the company had its ups and down through the last century.  It was perhaps most famous for "Parkerifling", a system by which old gun barrels could be renewed, or larger caliber ones could be sleeved down.  The company was facing some rocky financial times in the 1990's when the Dunblane school massacre occurred in Scotland in 1996. A teacher and 16 children were killed. The British government responded with new legislation severely curtailing gun purchases and ownership.  As the website above explained:

Events following the tragic Dunblane incident in 1996 are well documented, but public awareness to the consequences affecting people working in the gun trade was less forthcoming. The national ban on handguns brought further pressure on an already troubled industry and the closure of allied trades received little sympathy.

In the end, this drove Parker-Hale under. Parker-Hale was eventually sold to the Midlands engineering group, Modular Industries. In 1992 Modular sold the gun firm to Navy Arms of West Virginia which then sold it again to the Gibbs Rifle Co, also of West Virginia.  Both U.S. firms make historical replica firearms (as did Parker-Hale--see the 1973 ad above).  On the Gibbs website, they state, "The production facilities purchased from Parker-Hale were ideal for taking worn-out curio and relic firearms and upgrading them to Historical Remake™ arms."  

The Birmingham firm's abandoned factory was visited by urban explorers, who documented its lamentable state in photographs. You can see these at 28 Days Later, specifically visits in June 2010, later 2010, and 2012.  For machine-tool lovers, it's heartbreaking to see this precision machinery left to the depredations of vandals and then to the ravages of the elements.  (It was eventually moved out and sold, mostly for scrap.  The company's historical documents were reportedly taken out into the yard and burned in a giant bonfire.)

Anyway, it turns out that Valvespout oilers are still available from Production Equipment Limited in the U.K.  Maybe one of these days I'll treat myself to a new one.

Vanished Tool Makers: Ackermann, Steffan & Co. (Chicago, Illinois) and the Parker Manufacturing Company (Worcester, Massachusetts)

"Trojan" was originally the major brand of Ackermann, Steffan & Company of Chicago, Illinois. (Curiously, note how Steffan is spelled with an "a" on the package above, yet with a final "e" on their ad below.  Apparently, the spelling of surnames was somewhat more fluid back in those days.)

Popular Mechanics, December 1932

Drawing from Ackerman-Steffan package

After World War II, the company was acquired by the Parker Manufacturing Company of Chicago, Illinois which moved production to Worcester, Massachusetts.  

Remember to always lubricate your Trojans!

The new parent company had been founded in 1901 by Arthur H. Parker and Edward D. Priest as the Parker Wire Goods Company.  Initially, they made bright hardware wire goods, but in the 1930's they expanded into the small hand tool market.  The company took its final name around 1943.  In 1952 they acquired the Snell Manufacturing Company of Fiskdale, Massassachusetts, the oldest auger bit manufacturer in the U.S. and whose products had been used in the building of the U.S.S. Constitution.  In 1966, they ceased marketing small tools under the Parker name, but continued to use the Trojan brand for their saw blades.  

In 1967, they were awarded a very large contract from Sears, Roebuck and Company which saw virtually half of their production going to this large retailer.  In the late 1980's, both the Stanley Works of New Britain, Connecticut and Vermont American of Louisville, Kentucky vied for Parker's power tool accessory line.  In 1989, the company was finally acquired by Stanley, which promised that their facilities would continue to remain open and that their 425 employees' jobs would be safe.  This promise was apparently more honoured in the breach than in the observance.  Today, Stanley continues to use the Trojan brand name on its saw blades, wherever they are made these days.

One of my vices is vises, The Charles Parker Co. 1921

Railway Mechanical Engineer, June 1921

Charles Parker was born in 1809 and became one of Connecticut’s leading industrialists.  He started his manufacturing career inventing and producing coffee mills in a small shop in 1832. By 1860, he owned several large factories and employed hundreds of people, in and around Meriden. Vises were only one of his products, Parker products included hardware and house wares, flatware, clocks, lamps, piano stools and benches, coffee mills, industrial machinery, and, after 1862, guns. His descendants carried on his businesses until 1957. 

I mentioned the Parker vise to a tool-centric friend who took me down to see the one he has had for years. About a hundred years old now, still doing fine.

Model Tool kit by Mason and Parker

Nice wooden box with a lovely label. The tool set is not complete and I expect some of the tools aren't originally from the kit. The Model Tool Chest for boys was made by the Mason and Parker Mfg  Co.

H. N. Parker and Orlando Mason started the company in 1899, their first products were metal horse-drawn wagon toys, but added wooden toys in 1907. This type of Boys tool box was a popular product for the company over the years. We’ll use this post as a base to collect the tool kits as they were presented through the years. By the airplane that sits nonchalantly in the shop, this kit might have been from the twenties?
 

One of my vices is vises, C. Parker No 5 1/2

 I dropped in to visit the Waterloo Central railway in St Jacobs today (more on that later) and was greeted by this big old Charles Parker Number 5 1/2 vise sitting out proudly by itself in the middle of the yard. It's obviously had a long hard life and it's good to see it still working!

Craftsman Power Wood Boring Bits

I picked up this Craftsman Power Wood Boring Bit set recently.  It was missing several of the bits, and the shaft into which they fit.  The individual bits themselves are curved:

They are locked into the shaft through the use of a raised rib and side threads, which engage with the shaft:

I discovered that I already had a shaft which I'd picked up somewhere else. Curiously, it turned out to be made by the Snell Manufacturing Company:

Still, it had exactly the features to lock onto the Craftsman bits, suggesting to me that Craftsman took this design from a Snell patent.  As Snell had been bought by the Parker Manufacturing Co. in 1952, and as Parker was awarded a huge contract by Sears in 1967, this is probably how the tool came to be in the Craftsman catalogue. In 1970, the set sold for around $3:

This is at the same time that other manufacturers were selling interchangeable bits held in place with a single screw, clearly far less reliable than the "triple lock" design of the Craftsman offering:

Popular Science, April 1965

I bought the set primarily because it came with the original Craftsman booklet, in a plastic pocket on the back:

I've uploaded the booklet that came with the tool here.