I've wondered why so many call the tool "water pump pliers" rather than "slip joint pliers," "tongue-and-groove pliers," "interlocking joint pliers,"or even the ubiquitous "chanellocks." In fact, I can't recall ever using the BMW toolkit water pump pliers for removal or installation of a water pump, or much of anything else, except to have it slip under pressure and find some skin to pinch. IMHO, similar style tools made by KNipex , Teng, Snapon, Facom, Craftsman, Channellock, etc. all seem to function better than the toolkit version.
Answering my own question, a quick search indicates generic "Channel Locks" were designed in '33 and the design received a patent in '34. SnapOn had them available in their catalog in the early '30s too, and may offer a clue by describing one pair as "water plump packing nut pliers." One therefore assumes that, among other things, the pliers were once used on rebuildable or "repackable" water pumps, so the name is mostly vestigial. Curiously, perusing a couple of Dykes manuals from the '30s depicts various pliers but not the ones in the toolkits.
I am in awe. Could be my favourite post of the year! Pliers struck a cord did they? Amazing photos and copy. Thanks for posting nashvillecat
Perhaps the first version of a slip joint plier?
Early ChanelLocks
Speaking of toolkits, Chuck Lindbergh is said to have carried a pair of pliers and a crescent wrench with him on his '27 solo trip to Paris.
Did he use the tools and on what were they used?
"As workers were snaking a flexible borescope camera through inaccessible areas of the plane, they spotted a pair of pliers underneath the instrument panel. They were 'laying in the dust . . . basically laying on the fabric on the belly of the fuselage . . . (in) an area that’s very difficult to get to,' Collum said. Later, Collum decided to try to retrieve the tool, and worked his hand into an opening in the footwell where the rudder controls are. “I was able to contort my arm . . . and got my two fingertips on these things.” He said everyone assumed the pliers had belonged to Smithsonian employees who had worked on the plane over the years.
'I pulled these things out and blew the dust off them, and you could tell right away that these are old pliers,' he said. The handles were painted the same color as the plane’s oil, fuel tanks, and fuselage structure.
He said that they probably came from the Ryan airplane factory that built the plane and were
part of an original tool kit that went with the aircraft.
'I was like a little schoolboy — "‘Look what I found!"' Collum said. He said Lindbergh could have needed the pliers to tighten anything that might have come loose from the constant vibration of the engine during his 33-hour flight. 'The engine . . . was bolted directly on the steel tubular airframe,' he said. 'Everything in there would be constantly vibrating and shaking.' Collum thinks Lindbergh may have dropped the pliers at some point during the flight and they slipped down into the crevice. 'It’s really not a historic discovery,' he said. 'It's just a fascinating little thing that popped up.'
But there was more.
An early tale was told that when crews were fueling the plane in the factory, a rubber hose was accidentally dropped inside a 209-gallon tank and could not be retrieved, Collum said. The story was that a hole had to be cut in the tank before the flight to get the hose out. When the tank was examined last year, the patched hole was found.
In addition, Collum said historians have known that the airplane’s oil reservoir split open and began leaking during the flight. Upon examination, he found the place where the seven-inch split was later patched.
“Lucky Lindy” was fortunate indeed. “Here you’re flying across the ocean and your main oil reservoir has ruptured and is leaking oil,” Collum said. “It’s just incredible.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...b336e293a3c_story.html?utm_term=.e414594f6a81
The right tool of the job, but what job?
Anyone keeping Champion (rather than Bosch or Beru) spark plugs in their kits?
Wonder if Karen switched to BP5ES or BP6eES?
. Its just like you rehearsed this or something! How about favourite tool in the workshop? I like my mini, 1/4 inch drive ratchet/socket that can reach ANYTHING! Mike
