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This article celebrates the centennial of the arrival on the market of patented water pump pliers-angled adjustable pliers sometimes known as slip-joints or channellocks (after two joint types) Examples are shown on the back cover. They soon proved to be perfect for access to hard-to-reach nuts and bolts, and were invaluable to auto mechanics working on engine water pumps-hence their name. From invention and manufacture in Illinois, these tools found widespread acceptance. This paper is based on information published previously,' together with recently acquired detail of early manufacture and more recent developments.
The Industrial Revolution was initially powered by water, which drove the wheels, pulleys, and belts of the mill. The care and maintenance of this power depended on the traditional skills of the millwright. The invention of steam engines was first applied in Cornish tin mines in the south of England. The use of steam spread rapidly during the eighteenth century, most particularly in the processing of the product that provided the massive economic growth of the Western economy-cotton. The early replacement of horse-drawn heavy transport by steam locomotion is probably best known through Stephenson's Rocket. The phenomenal growth of rail transport gave rise to huge demands for steel for locomotives, rolling stock, rails, and later bridges. Additionally, the mid-nineteenth century witnessed the demise of wooden ships and a huge increase in steel shipbuilding. The first trans-Atlantic crossing on an iron-hulled steamship was in 1846. Along with the urbanizatin of the West came the demand for agricultural machinery to replace the diminished rural workforce. These factors had a major impact in North America with the opening up of vast areas of country for agriculture and the need for reliable rapid transport over great distances. In something like fifty years, the skills in demand for stationary and motive power moved largely from woodworking, via blacksmithing, to factory engineering-hence, the huge rise in the number of implements to service the man-made power generation replacing millennia-old wind, water, and animal power.
Steam generation was fuelled largely by coal. Coal was in demand, also, for the smelting of metals-via coke. This relieved the pressure on the forests of Britain that had provided charcoal for the early build-up of the iron and steel industries. Other fossil fuels, oil and...