Crescent Manufacturing Company

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Crescent Manufacturing Company was a maker of automobile accessories, tools, and hardware items, located in New York City and operating during the early part of 20th century.

Company History

We haven't yet discovered the founding date for the company, but public references to Crescent Manufacturing of New York City exist from late 1913 into the early 1920s.

Fig. 1. 1915 Advertisement for Crescent Manufacturing Company. [External Link]

Fig. 1 shows an ad for Crescent Manufacturing, as published on page 103 of the June 12, 1915 issue of American Artisan and Hardware Record.

1918 Catalog

A 1918 catalog for the company lists a wide variety of items, including mirrors, grease guns, tire pumps, shock absorbers, automobile bumpers, valve spring compressors, chisels and punches, and socket wrench sets.

Many of the tools offered by Crescent Manufacturing were made as malleable iron castings.

The company address is given as 129 Reade Street in New York City.

Fig. 2. 1921 Advertisement for Crescent Manufacturing Company. [External Link]

Fig. 2 shows a later advertisement for Crescent Manufacturing, as published on page 1207 of the January, 1921 issue of the Automobile Trade Directory.

Patents

We haven't found any patents for Crescent Manufacturing.

Trademarks

Crescent Manufacturing is not known to have registered any trademarks.

References and Resources

Photographs and observations of particular tools are based on items in the Alloy Artifacts Collection.

Selected Tools

Crescent Manufacturing 12 Inch Bearing Scraper

Fig. 3. Crescent Manufacturing 12 Inch Bearing Scraper, with Inset for Side View and Marking Detail, ca. 1910 to 1920s.

Fig. 3 shows a Crescent Manufacturing 12 inch bearing scraper, stamped with "Crescent Mfg. Co." and "New York, N.Y." on the shank.

The overall length is 12.4 inches, and the finish is polished steel.

Crescent Manufacturing 15/16x1-1/16 Offset Spark Plug Wrench

Fig. 4. Crescent Manufacturing 15/16x1-1/16 Offset Spark Plug Wrench, with Inset for Side View, ca. 1910 to 1920s.

Fig. 4 shows a Crescent Manufacturing offset box-end wrench with measured hexagon openings of 15/16 on the straight end and 1-1/16 on the offset end. The wrench is marked with "Crescent Mfg. Co." forged into the shank.

The overall length is 8.4 inches, and the finish is plain steel, with traces of black paint.

The 1918 Crescent Manufacturing catalog identifies this as a spark plug wrench, with the smaller opening intended for servicing 1/2 inch or metric spark plugs, and the larger opening intended for 7/8 inch or A.L.A.M. spark plugs.

The construction appears to be a malleable iron casting.

Crescent Manufacturing No. 5 "Crescent Ratchet Wrench"

Fig. 5. Unmarked 11/16-Drive Ratchet Matching No. 5 "Crescent Ratchet Wrench", ca. 1910 to 1920.

Fig. 5 shows an unmarked 11/16-drive ratchet, identified as the No. 5 "Crescent Ratchet Wrench" by a listing in the 1918 Crescent Manufacturing catalog (see next figure).

The overall length is 10.0 inches, and the finish is nickel plating, with extensive losses due to wear and rust.

Although not marked with a patent notice, the construction of this ratchet is very similar to the description in the 1907 Miller patent 845,716. Other examples of the Miller patent ratchet are known to have been made by the Miller Combination Tool Company, but it seems likely that Crescent had licensed the patent and adapted the design for their own production.

The three major parts of the ratchet (the body, cover plate, and drive gear) are all made of malleable iron castings.

Fig. 6. Catalog Listing for No. 5 "Crescent Ratchet Wrench", 1918.

Fig. 6 shows a catalog listing for the No. 5 "Crescent Ratchet Wrench", scanned from the 1918 Crescent Manufacturing catalog. The text notes that the ratchet was designed to work with the sockets made by Crescent Manufacturing, as well as the standard pressed-steel sockets available from Mossberg, Walden, and others.

The construction of the ratchet resembles the style produced by the Miller Combination Tool Company, which were based on the 1907 Charles Miller patent 845,716.

Crescent Manufacturing Four-Way Socket Wrench

Fig. 7. Crescent Mfg. Four-Way Socket Wrench, with Insets for Side View and Back Side Detail, ca. 1910 to 1920.

Fig. 7 shows a Crescent four-way socket wrench, marked with "Crescent Mfg. Co" cast into the shank, with "New York" and "U.S.A." on the back side.

The overall length is 7.8 inches, and the finish is plain steel, with traces of black paint.

The opening sizes were measured as 13/16 and 15/16 on the left socket, with 1 inch and 1-1/8 on the right socket. We're not sure of the intended application, though it might be a spark plug socket.

The construction of the wrench appears to be a malleable iron casting.

Crescent Manufacturing "Pick-Up" Socket Set

Our brief article on New Britain Manufacturing mentions that the company produced socket sets built around the patented "Pick-Up" ratchet, initially in the 1909-1910 time frame. Sometime later the manufacturing responsibility for the sets was transferred to Crescent Manufacturing, and we were able to acquire an example of a "Pick-Up Ratchet Wrench" set made by Crescent.

Thus far we haven't found any advertisements or other public references to the "Pick-Up" set as a Crescent product, so the manufacturing dates for the Crescent version are still uncertain. We do know that New Britain Manufacturing was listed as a maker of the sets until 1916 or 1917, and that the "Pick-Up" set was not listed in a 1918 Crescent Manufacturing catalog. We think it's unlikely that Crescent would have started making the set after 1918, as the "Pick-Up" ratchet is fairly primitive and the set wouldn't have been competitive.

Our current hypothesis is that Crescent was acting as a contract manufacturer and supplied sets to New Britain Manufacturing, as well as marking them for its own brand. With this assumption a 1911-1917 production time frame would mesh well with the known information, and we will use that estimate unless additional information becomes available.

The set we acquired seems to be fairly complete, but the hinges of the box were broken and the top cover had only a part of the original label. Strangely enough, we were later able to acquire a fragment of the box from another example of the same set, with no tools but including the top cover and part of the lower box, with working hinges and a partial label missing different parts than our original set.

Fig. 8. Label for a Crescent Mfg. Pick-Up Ratchet Wrench Set, ca. 1911-1917.

Fig. 8 shows the paper label for a Crescent Mfg. "Pick-Up Ratchet Wrench" socket set. (This is our "backup" label.) The label has deteriorated badly and is only partially legible, but still conveys valuable information about the set.

Note that the line below the top states "Formerly Manufactured by New Britain Mfg. Co.", providing a positive connection with New Britain Manufacturing.

Fig. 9. Label for Crescent Mfg. Pick-Up Ratchet Wrench Set, ca. 1911-1917.

Fig. 9 shows the partial paper label on the lid of our Crescent Mfg. socket set. Although a large part of the label is missing, the remaining portion is in reasonably good condition.

In particular, the illustration in the center is clear and provides the layout of the sockets in the set.

The label with the set itself is less complete but more legible than the "backup", and at some point we may be able to combine the two to make a digital reconstruction.

Fig. 10. Crescent Mfg. "Pick-Up" Socket Set, ca. 1911-1917.

Fig. 10 shows our Crescent Mfg. "Pick-Up Ratchet Wrench" socket set in its lower box.

The set originally consisted of a "Pick-Up" ratchet, a drive plug, a 9 inch extension, a universal, two screwdriver blades, 27 hexagon sockets, three square sockets, and one spark-plug socket.

Our set as acquired was missing one standard socket (No. 11), the spark plug socket, and one screwdriver blade. (The drive plug does double-duty as the screwdriver blade holder.)

The sockets in the set were made as malleable iron castings, an unusual method of fabrication only known to have been used by two other companies, Syracuse Wrench and Chicago Manufacturing and Distributing. The hexagon sockets have sequential cast-in numbers from 1 (the smallest) up to 27, but were not marked with the fractional size.

In trying to list the socket sizes for the set, we're hampered by the barely legible label, plus the fact that the label has 28 sizes for 27 hexagon sockets. Our best guess is that this set would have been modeled after the Mossberg large Auto-Clé set, which also had 27 hexagon sockets and 3 square sockets, and which was probably the most popular socket set at the time when the "Pick-Up" set came out.

With that assumption, the sizes corresponding to the hexagon socket numbers would be 1 (5/16), 2 (11/32), 3 (3/8), 4 (13/32), 5 (7/16), 6 (15/32), 7 (1/2), 8 (17/32), 9 (9/16), 10 (19/32), 11 (5/8), 12 (21/32), 13 (11/16), 14 (23/32), 15 (3/4), 16 (25/32), 17 (13/16), 18 (27/32), 19 (7/8), 20 (29/32), 21 (15/16), 22 (31/32), 23 (1 inch), 24 (1-1/32), 25 (1-3/32), 26 (1-5/32), and 27 (1-9/32).

These sizes are based on pressed-steel specifications and include a 1/32 inch oversize allowance for the manufacturing tolerance. (Readers not familiar with this oversize allowance should check our section on Pressed-Steel Size Conventions.)

Crescent Mfg. "Pick-Up" Ratchet from Socket Set

Fig. 11. Crescent Mfg. "Pick-Up" Ratchet, with Inset for Top View, ca. 1911-1917.

Fig. 11 shows the unmarked Crescent Mfg. 1/2-drive "Pick-Up" ratchet from the socket set. The inset provides a top view, showing the 1/2 inch opening for a drive plug or extension.

The overall length is 7.8 inches, and the finish is nickel plating, with substantial losses from the handle.

The "Pick-Up" ratchet was actually a splined clutch rather than a true ratchet. The drive barrel had seven slots in the top that could be intermittently engaged by lifting the handle, providing a coarse ratchet-like operation.

The ratchet was covered by patent 847,601, filed by G.B. Pickop in 1907 and issued later that year.

Crescent Mfg. 1/2-Drive Short Extension (Drive Plug) from "Pick-Up" Socket Set

Fig. 12. Crescent Mfg. 1/2-Drive Short Extension, with Inset for End View, ca. 1911-1917.

Fig. 12 shows the unmarked Crescent Mfg. 1/2-drive short extension (or drive plug) from the "Pick-Up" socket set. One side of the extension is fitted with a bowed strip of spring steel to help secure the connection with the ratchet and socket.

The overall length is 1.7 inches, and the finish is plain steel, with traces of black paint.

This tool also served as the holder for the screwdriver bits, and the inset shows the hole and pin in the end of the extension.

Crescent Mfg. 1/2-Drive Universal from "Pick-Up" Socket Set

Fig. 13. Crescent Mfg. 1/2-Drive Universal, ca. 1911-1917.

Fig. 13 shows the unmarked Crescent Mfg. 1/2-drive double-male universal from the "Pick-Up" socket set. Note that the drive tangs are fitted with bowed spring clips to help hold the tools together.

The overall length is 3.6 inches, and the finish is black paint.

Crescent Mfg. 1/2-Drive Sockets from "Pick-Up" Socket Set

Fig. 14. Crescent Mfg. 1/2-Drive Sockets, with Inset for Top View, ca. 1911-1917.

Fig. 14 shows the three largest sockets from the Crescent Mfg. 1/2-drive "Pick-Up" socket set.

The socket numbers and sizes are, from the left, 27 (1-9/32), 26 (1-5/32), and 25 (1-3/32). The sockets are marked only with the sequential number.

The finish is black paint.

To check the sizing of the sockets, we made three measurements across the flats using digital calipers. The results are given in the table below, and show that the manufacturing tolerances for these sockets was even sloppier than for pressed-steel sockets. (When interpreting the results, keep in mind that the nominal sizes already had a built-in 1/32 oversize allowance.)