By Clifford D. Fales
In In this journal in 1996,1 in the article, “Spiral Screwdrivers of Decatur, Illinois” — I presented information on spiral screwdrivers of the Decatur Coffin Company and H. Mueller Manufacturing Company, both of Decatur, Illinois. The portion of the article relating to the Decatur Coffin Company included information on authentic, documented handle styles because there are a variety of handles that a collector may see, including user-replaced handles.
The information in the 1996 article was based upon observed Decatur Coffin
Company screwdrivers. Even though these screwdrivers had been made with
different handle styles at different periods of time, they were all of the
same mechanical model and were all based on the same 1884 C. H. Olson
patent. The article also included information on the four patents of C. H.
Olsen, the patentee, and an additional patent of O. Z. Greene who was
associated with the Decatur Coffin Company. In the intervening time I have
found additional information relating to screwdrivers produced by the
Decatur Coffin Company and it is offered now.
Figure 1. Decatur Coffin Co. original handle styles which appeared on the cover of "The Chronicle, March 1996 (Vol. 49, No. 1).
ADDITIONAL STYLES OF ORIGINAL HANDLES
Figure 2. Additional original handle styles. Documentation has not been
found for these
additional styles, but they are believed to be original.
EUREKA
IMPROVED SPIRAL SCREWDRIVER
EAIA
member Ed Mahoney has provided information on a model which appears to be
based mainly on Olson’s 1884 patent (Figure 3, No. 306,096), the most common
model. But, Mahoney’s model also had one feature taken from O. Z. Greene’s
1890 patent (Figure 4, No. 422,520), of which no examples have been found to
date.
Although Mahoney’s model (Figure 5) follows very
closely the 1884 patent, it does incorporate a chuck/bit holder for holding
a removable, double-ended bit, the same feature claimed in O.Z. Greene’s
1890 patent.
It is marked:
EUREKA IMPROVED / PAT. MAR.- 4 1890 / DECATUR COFFIN CO. / DECATUR, IL.
This model was obviously intended as an
upgrade to the common Decatur Coffin Company screwdriver, which was
sometimes marketed as the
“The Eureka Screwdriver.”
Another feature of Mahoney’s model, which does
not appear in the Greene patent or in any of the four Olson patents, is a
pair of lugs on the rear of the chuck/bit holder.
These lugs engage in notches at the front
of the barrel for positive engagement to produce counter-clockwise motion to
remove screws without forcing the handle to move longitudinally. This
function is accomplished on the common Decatur Coffin models by notches at
the rear end of the internal “nut” or clutch, which engage with a lateral
pin at the rear of the brass tube to produce a positive lock. (The bit
pictured in Figure 5 is a reproduction. The handle on this example is not
shown since it is not original.)
Figure 3. Patent illustration for the C. H. Olson patent of 7 October 1884.
This is the
patent for the most commonly observed Decatur Coffin Company screwdriver.
Figure 4. Patent illustration for the O. Z. Greene patent of 4 March 1890. O. Z. Greene was a founder
and presidentof
the Decatur Coffin Co. Note chuck and removable, interchangeable bit.
Except for the
chuck/bit-holder and the positive engagement lugs, this model follows more
closely the common version, based on the 1884 patent (#306,096) of C. H. Olson, than it does the 1890 patent
(#422,520) of O. Z. Greene.
While in the
patent the clutch is enclosed within the bit-holder/chuck, in this example the
clutch is enclosed in the tube at the rear of the shaft as in the common version.
It is marked: EUREKA IMPROVED / PAT. MAR.
- 4 1890 / DECATUR COFFIN CO. / DECATUR, IL.
INTERCHANGEABLE
BIT MODEL
A seldom seen
variation on the usual model incorporates a chuck/bit holder for the removable,
interchangeable, double-ended bit similar to the above model (but without the
locking lugs) and also similar to the chuck/bit holder in Greene's 1890 patent.
Otherwise, this model is mechanically similar
to the c
Figure 5.
Bit holder and locking lugs on a variation of the usual Decatur Coffin Co.
screwdriver.
Marked:
EUREKA IMPROVED / PAT. MAR. - 4
1890 / DECATUR COFFIN CO. / DECATUR, IL.
The bit is a reproduction.
Figure 6. (above) Variation on the usual Decatur Coffin Co. spiral screwdriver featuring a bit holder
for a removable, interchangeable, double-ended bit.
The bit is a reproduction.
EXTRA
LONG MODEL
Information
regarding an extra long model has been made available by member Bruce
Cynar.
This variation, which is the same
in all other mechanical aspects as the common model, has a longer blade which
results in a closed length of 18 inches and an extended length of 24 1/2 inches"
ꟷ
compared to the usual 12 inches and
19 inches. The blade in this example does not appear to be a longer substitution
for the original blade.
This conclusion
comes after observing that the grinding of the tip is in the distinctive
original long hollow-ground taper.
This
model also bears the usual marking: DECATUR COFFIN CO. / DECATUR, ILLS. /
PAT. OCT. 7 - 1884. (Figure 4)
Figure 7. Extra long variation on the usual model. It's length closed: 18 inches; open it's 24.5 inches.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Ed
Mahoney and Bruce Cynar for providing information for this article.
References
Author
EAIA member Cliff Fales is retired after a thirty-year career as a public cshool instrumental music teacher. He also has had an active part-time carrer in orchestral string instrument repair. He currently serves as secretary of Rocky Mountain Tool Collectors and is past president and past newsletter editor for the organization. After primarilycollecting rules for twenty years, Cliff has in recent years also concentrated on spiral screwdrivers and research related to them. In addition to writing on spiral screwdrivers, Cliff also prepared the index for volumes 41 through 46.