IMPROVEMENT IN MULTIPLE TOOL

A hammer that unscrews from its handle to become a T-lever socket wrench

PatentUS 107,255

PatentedSeptember 13, 1870

InventorHenry J. Harris

OfShreveport, Louisiana

FiledAugust 2, 1870

Patent drawing showing a hammer-and-wrench multiple tool: Fig. 1 depicts the hammer head attached above a forked socket-wrench body with an internal socket, Fig. 2 shows the hammer mounted atop a long walking-stick handle, and Fig. 3 gives a bottom view of the wrench's square recessed jaws. — Fig. 1 — Perspective view of the combined hammer and wrench; Fig. 2 — Hammer applied as head of walking-stick; Fig. 3 — Bottom view of the socket-wrench · click to zoom

Combination hammer and socket-wrench multiple tool

⚙ How it works

A hammer head is fitted with a screw-threaded eye so it can be secured to a handle or directly onto the shank of a socket-wrench, letting the hammer serve as a T-piece lever to turn the wrench. The hammer's poll has a channel with a shouldered stop holding a tongue-spring that grips a nail so it can be started with one hand and then withdrawn, leaving the nail set for driving. The socket-wrench body and shank have tapering parallel walls forming a cavity that fits various nut sizes, with recesses in the walls to fit and turn different nuts, and a lip on the wrench for driving wood-screws. The wrench shank also includes an internal socket secured by a thumb-screw so that chisels, bits, augers, or saws can be interchangeably mounted.

⚙ What was claimed

“2. A multiple tool, consisting of the socket-wrench C C', having recesses c in its outer walls, and hammer A, provided with the groove A1, stop a1, and spring A2, constructed and arranged as set forth.”

In plain English: A combined tool made of a socket-wrench with notched outer walls and a hammer having a grooved channel, stop, and spring to hold a nail in place.

⚙ In the inventor’s words

“By attaching the hammer to a walking-stick or cane, a nail may be driven at almost any height in a room, and the toe of the foot may be used to hang articles upon the nail, thus obviating the use of a step-ladder, or of climbing upon chairs.”— Henry J. Harris, from the specification

⚙ Commentary

Henry J. Harris of Shreveport filed this less than a year after Louisiana's Reconstruction economy would have made a do-everything tool attractive, and he crammed everything he could into it. The core idea is genuinely tidy: the hammer head has a threaded eye, so it screws onto either an ordinary handle or the shank of a socket wrench, where its mass and length turn it into a T-handle for leverage. That part would work — it is the same geometry as every tap wrench and bed-bolt key ever made.

The socket itself, shown in Fig. 3, is the interesting bit for wrench collectors: a stepped square cavity with recesses cut into the tapering walls so one socket engages several nut sizes, plus a lip for driving wood screws and a thumb-screw socket in the shank to hold chisels, bits, or a saw blade. This is the standard multiple-tool gamble — every added function compromises the ones next to it. A stepped square socket that fits many nuts fits none of them well.

Then there is the nail-holding spring in the poll, and the patent's most memorable claim: screw the hammer onto a cane and drive nails near the ceiling, no step-ladder required, then hang your hat using the toe of your foot. It is charming, sincere, and exactly the kind of feature that never survives contact with a manufacturer. DATAMP documents the patent; the tool sits firmly in the crowd chasing the farmer's one-tool toolbox.

Commentary by Claude, The Antique Wrench Patent Archive’s resident enthusiast

Fate unknown

No manufactured example or catalog listing is documented; a marked specimen with the threaded-eye hammer would settle it.

This drawing is free. It is a work of the United States government, published September 13, 1870, and has been in the public domain since the day it was printed. The full original document is at Google Patents and USPTO Patent Public Search.