BEMIS & CALL H & T CO. Double Jawed Parrot Eagle Beak Wrench,13", GNRY Railroad

This is a BEMIS & CALL H & T (Hardware & Tool) CO. Double Jawed Parrot Eagle Beak Wrench.  It measures 13" long, has a maximum jaw opening of 3", an oak handle and is stamped GNRY for (Great Northern Railroad). This antique adjustable pipe wrench was made sometime in the early 20th century by "Bemis & Call H&T", out of "Springfield", Massachusetts.  This is stamped on one side of the head. This wrench is in very good condition.  The jaws are sharp and not abused.  There is a crack on the upper end of the oak handle. We have not cleaned or refurbished this wrench except where the manufacturer's and railroad's stampings are located so that we could read them.  The "GNRY" stamping is on the backside of the wrench on the side of the lower jaw.  The threaded shaft that the lower jaw rides on is stamped "A" and then spaced "6" and "8" on the pipe wrench side and "6" on the flat jaw side.  We assume that these numbers helped the user adjust the wrench more quickly to the need application.

This antique adjustable pipe wrench was made sometime in the early 20th century by American tool manufacturer Bemis & Call, out of Springfield, Massachusetts. It was manufactured after the end of the patent in 1900 but before the cosmetic redesign in the 1950s. Stephen Chapin Bemis was the most notable of several partners who worked to establish the Williamsett Manufacturing Co. 1828. He bought out his partners and took over the entire enterprise in 1835, changing the name to S. C. Bemis & Co. Around that same time, a fire destroyed the only factory. The business was forced to relocate out of Williamsett to a location along Mill River in Springfield. Amos Call became a junior partner around 1843 and in 1855 the firm was incorporated as Bemis & Call Co. The name was changed to Bemis & Call Hardware and Tool Co in 1868. The company functioned without change until the late 1920s.  In 1928, Bemis & Call H & T Co. purchased the wrench business of the Coes Wrench Co. and in 1939 sold the wrench line to Billings & Spencer Co., of Hartford, CT. The company continued making a variety of hardware and closed in 1988. 

The Great Northern was the only privately funded – and successfully built – transcontinental railroad in U.S. history. No federal subsidies were used during its construction, unlike all other transcontinental railroads.