People have created so many various objects. However, there are very few things that surprise us with their simplicity. It is when a genius borders on everyday necessity and ubiquity. At the same time, these items reflect the technological advancement of the society of their time. One such example is an ordinary wrench.
At first glance, a wrench is a steel tool of a strange shape. Before using it, we had to progress in mechanics, chemistry, materials science, and medicine. Moreover, a wrench is a small but essential link in the system of implementation, standardization of measures, and lengths.
Why do you need a wrench to provide grip on one continent while another continent requires a spanner? Why do you know the authors of many unique developments while the creators of others are not known? Which type of wrenches are the most common?
The Borys Paton State Polytechnic Museum staff sorted those things out to share with you. Admittedly, it was not easy to create such an exposition. The difficulty was in many different shapes and types of wrenches. The exhibition presents about 50 items which is not the limit. However, a beginner will understand the different types of keys depending on their shape, purpose, and material, additional information contained on the posters.
From the very beginning, the display helps the visitor understand the basic concepts: screw, nut, wrench, their invention history, implementation, and distribution. It turns out that even such simple items as nuts and screws are still improving today. Six patents by Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute Professor Ihor Mikulionok prove it for sure.
The exhibition reveals the evolution of the wrench according to its main types: monolithic and sliding (adjustable).
Monolithic wrenches are manufactured in large quantities since industrial production of various machines and tools. They are essential parts of tool kits. The exhibition presents diverse samples - from a small horse plow wrench to a huge seed drill wrench dating to the end of the XIX century.
Wrench with mandrel (wheel wrench) is a material legacy of the construction boom of the 30s of the twentieth century in the United States and industrialization in the USSR. Those were times when huge skyscrapers began to be built based on metal structures from steel trusses. Before riveting the trusses, builders temporarily bolted them together. To fix the hole for connecting multi-ton trusses, builders needed a mandrel. The mandrel was an extension of the wrench handle. You can see how the method works on the photo of a riveter on the beam of a skyscraper in New York.
New equipment, the aircraft technician’s responsibility, and flight safety - all this conveys a small box-end wrench for repairing aircraft. Cap wrenches securely fix the bolt or nut and allow you to tighten them with considerable effort. The stamped inventory number served to maintain either a plane or its engine. The technician took the keys to fix their number in a particular repair or maintenance book. And after using the tools, the technician brought back the wrenches and checked the number. This way, it was clear who was responsible for repairing particular components. Moreover, such a record system allowed not to forget the tools in the aircraft mechanisms.
An adjustable end wrench is the most common type of adjustable wrench in use today. It is a universal, single tool for various mechanisms and connections. The exhibition shows constructions considered to be one of the oldest: French, English, Swedish, and German wrenches. The display also tells about screw key inventors - Loring Coes, Johan Petter Johansson, Nils Larson, and others.
It might interest visitors to know that widely known plumber wrench, adjustable wrench, or Crescent wrench was invented by Johan Petter Johansson of Bahco. Johansson’s tool, just like a human hand, was capable of gripping different size nuts and bolts. He called it “The Iron Hand”. In addition, Johan Johansson invented the so-called “Swedish” wrench - now the most common type of adjustable wrenches. It has a hole under the jaws - a worm-screw which rotation changes the size of the keyhole.
The end of the twentieth century became especially fruitful in various types of adjustable wrenches.
Engineers who patented wrench designs endeavored to sell them to manufacturers. Those, in turn, tried to circumvent patents. As an example, there is an adjustable pipe wrench to McCormick cars. In these wrenches, the adjusting nut is located on the rod closest to the hole. But the placement of the nut far from the rod hole allowed bypassing the patent. These keys were mass-produced, including in Ukraine, at machine-building plants.
Few people know that Mauser first gained fame as a manufacturer of quality tools and only later - weapons. The exhibition has also wrenches from this manufacturer. The USSR and Germany in the 1920s signed agreements on the recognition of German patents in the USSR for 15 years (the relevant document is present). As a result, copies of wrenches from German manufacturers were mass-produced by Soviet factories and included the Mauser wrench.
To illustrate the phrase “Everything is new - it is well forgotten old”, the display can show you a universal automatic wrench made in China. The Chinese tools have now flooded stores. They are advertised as an original and of the new design. However, next to it, the exhibition presents a similar key of the Lviv association “Konveier”, made in the 1970s.
The history of the wrench is quite fun and even fascinating. So young visitors will probably remember the horse wrench, crocodile or monkey wrench, Crescent wrench, and the history of the origin of these names. Adults will learn about changes in the design of such a ubiquitous object as a wrench. And engineers at heart, i.e. visitors who are not only curious but also make wrenches with their hands and use displayed developments in their activities will be interested to learn more about the design of the presented tools. And then, having free time, inspiration, and relevant skills, make similar items, even without online instructions.
So don't miss the opportunity to learn more about the variety and history of wrenches. After all, any screw key is not just a lot of steel of bizarre shape but a unique embodiment of engineering ideas and inventive talent. The exhibition will run until the end of the year.