Monkey Wrench
Monkey Wrench
Usage conditions apply
- Description
- This heavy wrench was used in steam locomotive and railroad-car repair work. A skilled mechanic used a monkey wrench only when a solid, open-end wrench was not available to properly fit a bolt or nut in question, or when the head of the bolt or size of the nut was non-standard. The jaws of a monkey wrench were only grossly adjustable and usually made a poor or loose fit on the nut or bolt head. “Monkeying” off a nut or bolt with such a wrench often involved several tries to get the wrench to fit without its slipping off.
- This tool is part of a collection of hand tools used in the inspection and repair of steam locomotives in the early- to the mid-20th century, roughly 1900-1955. Light repairs on steam locomotives were usually done in roundhouses at the many small locomotive terminals throughout a railroad's system; heavy repairs were done in a large, centralized repair shop serving the whole system (often referred to as the "Back Shop").
- Object Name
- monkey wrench
- Date made
- 1940s
- date made
- ca. 1940s
- used date
- 1850s-Present
- Physical Description
- steel (overall material)
- Measurements
- overall: 12 in x 3 in; 30.48 cm x 7.62 cm
- ID Number
- 2002.0075.11
- catalog number
- 2002.0075.11
- accession number
- 2002.0075
- Credit Line
- Gift of National Park Service
- subject
- Railroads
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Transportation, Railroad
- Work
- America on the Move
- Transportation
- Exhibition
- America On The Move
- Exhibition Location
- National Museum of American History
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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