# Help me identify this tool, please. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 17, 2003, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116 "2003-01-17T00:47:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/141 "2003-01-27T08:22:38Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. B \* > \*\*Dear mhendo, > > It looks as if you’ve gotten ahold of a Detroit Regional Power (now Edison) fuse/breaker puller. The pincers help grip an industrial, old-fashioned box-type Square D fuse panel. \*\* Well, that certainly sounds like a logical explanation, but i’m not quite ready to ignore the significant number of replies that suggest that D.R.P. indicates a tool of German origin, and that the NORM-MESS on the other side is also probably German. Have you used such a tool yourself? Do you know of anywhere i might look to confirm that the tool is indeed a fuse breaker? cheers, michael. ---
**Author:** ![Truth\_Seeker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5fc32e/32.png) [@Truth\_Seeker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truth_Seeker)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/142 "2003-01-27T09:03:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. B \* > \*\*Dear mhendo, > > It looks as if you’ve gotten ahold of a Detroit Regional Power (now Edison) fuse/breaker puller. The pincers help grip an industrial, old-fashioned box-type Square D fuse panel. \*\* All metal with conductive handles? :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Sn-man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8dc957/32.png) [@Sn-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sn-man)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/143 "2003-01-27T14:38:52Z")
I would have to say it’s a spring compressor instead of any kind of expander. My guess at operation would be you open the jaws by squeezing the handles, insert the spring in and release the handles. Now the springs of the tool keep it compressed. You positions the compressed spring where it needs to go and then you squeeze the handles to release the spring. The tool is probably very specific to a manufacture or an assembly line. I don’t think it would be considered a mainstream tool. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/144 "2003-01-27T17:27:18Z")
This looks like it would come in handy for scraping off oxidation from the leads of electronic components (resistors, et al.). The leads tend to oxidize quickly and you can’t get solder to bond well until you scrape off the leads. I used to used a regular pair of needlenose pliers for this, but this tool would do both leads at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Jamoross](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jamoross/32/3241_2.png) [@Jamoross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamoross)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/145 "2003-01-27T19:07:01Z")
Here are my observations that might help others rule out the erroneous guesses: First the tool is obviously designed to act in stretching or separating something. The claims that the coil springs are to pull something together don’t make sense. You need those springs to generate tension on the jaws so they will grip whatever the tool is designed to manipulate _before_ they start to move apart. Notice too the spring between the handles. That is to open the tool fully. This is similar to many tools I have seen and used. Next, I believe this tool was mass produced, not custom made. The jaw parts have been stamped out of flat metal stock. All four parts (jaws) are identical and bear similar tooling marks. A tool designed for use in a factory for a specific operation on a specific product would probably not justify gearing up for mass production. So this item must have had many brothers, at least hundreds it not thousands. The marking “NORM-MESS” was stamped with a single die. (Notice the depth of the mark increases evenly from left to right showing also that it was not done overly precisely.) The “D.R.P.” on the other side shows similar attributes although less clearly. So if these are the owner’s intitials, a whole bunch were sold to the same buyer/company. Notice the wear patterns (and lack thereof) on the faces and sides of the jaws. This tool has seen repeated use but not so much that its handles have become polished. The precision of the parts leads me to believe that it is older than I am, but not older than my father. (I’m early forties, he is early seventies.) This should help us figure out what it’s not, and maybe by elimination, what it is. Personally, I favor the spring- installer hypothesis. But while mine is an educated guess –as opposed to a WAG-- it is still a guess. - jam ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/146 "2003-01-27T19:09:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by mhendo \* > \*\*Henderson is my last name, but i don’t want anything to do with that device. :eek: \*\* Mr. Henderson, I’d like to introduce you to…Mr. Henderson. I’m very tempted to get that ad framed and sent to my brother’s ex 😃 :eek: ---
**Author:** ![zapp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a88e4f/32.png) [@zapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zapp)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/147 "2003-01-27T19:28:07Z")
Although the images are quite crisp, it’s difficult to determine if the letters are D.R.P. or D.RP. If it’s D.R.P., wouldn’t that probably rule out the Deutsche Reichspost ? Deutsche Reichspost would be abbreviated just D.R., I’d think. I like the fuse puller theory. While it’s odd that such a device would be all metal, maybe the utility workers simply wore insulated gloves when using the tool. Plastic or rubber insulation (especially on tools designed back in the day) would probably wear away rather quickly. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/148 "2003-01-27T19:37:00Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Truth Seeker \* > \*\*All metal with conductive handles? :dubious: \*\* It’s all fine and well to be dubious, but please keep in mind when my great-uncle was using a tool such as this, it wasn’t possible to simply run out and buy a rubberized one at Home Depot. Or rubber grips. Maybe they should have made the tool out of cedar? Originally, such tools were wrapped with leather banding on the grips – not much protection, but more stability at least. Also keep in mind the circuits being manipulated in this manner were already dead, so the only way to make a grievous mistake was to pull one whose safety “diodes” were still illuminated. The spring action in the tool would have simultaneously released the two recessed clips that held the old-fashioned breaker in place. Just imagine two miniature deadbolts on either side releasing in tandem so that the box could then be pulled out of the panel. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/149 "2003-01-27T20:42:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jamoross \* > \*\*Here are my observations that might help others rule out > the erroneous guesses: > > You need those springs to generate tension on the jaws so they > will grip whatever the tool is designed to manipulate _before_ > they start to move apart. Notice too the spring between the handles. That is to open the tool fully. This is similar to many tools I have seen and used. \*\* Look at action\_1 closeup2.jpg, then at final\_action.jpg. You’ll notice the spring is _stretched_ when the tool is squeezed from 75% to 100% closed. When a spring is stretched, it exerts force against the outward motion. Thus, when the outward force is relieved and the tool is released from the 100% position, its pincers will be forcefully pulled back into the center. Note if it were the other way around and this were, as you seem to think, an “un-spring,” wouldn’t the tool at rest be permanently in the open position? ---
**Author:** ![Jamoross](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jamoross/32/3241_2.png) [@Jamoross](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamoross)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2003, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/150 "2003-01-28T09:08:19Z")
Mr. B - I didn’t say the coil springs open the tool. But we may have a semantic problem here. I consider the tool “closed” when the handle has been squeezed. This causes two actions: the jaws in opposition come together (grip, if you like) front-to-back and the four jaws move _ **outward** _ (open?) right-to-left. I call this state “closed” even though the pairs of jaws are further apart (more open) than in the tool’s at-rest state. If those coil springs weren’t there, the tool would still move the same way, but there would be no control over which motion went first. And there would be no pressure between the jaw pairs at the mid-point. Your hand pressure has to overcome those beefy springs before the second motion occurs and that squeeze force is leveraged across the opposing jaws to make them grip. This is similar to what happens in a double-action wire stripper which is probably why a lot of people thought to identify this tool as a stripper. - jam ---
**Author:** ![femtosecond](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f08c70/32.png) [@femtosecond](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/femtosecond)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2003, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/151 "2003-01-30T14:41:54Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by zapp_ > **Deutsche Reichspost would be abbreviated just D.R., I’d think.** Compound words, again. Both “Reich” and “Post” get their own letter. I don’t want to rule out that it means “Deutsches Reichspatent” and that it’s not a mark of the governmental institution which the tool may have belonged to. Or something completely different. Still, it’s more likely than a double-action nut-pincher used by the “Deutsche Reichspartei” to torture their political enemies. 🙂 Does anybody know the measurements of the jaws that would be required for a breaker puller? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/152 "2003-02-01T19:46:42Z")
Having concluded that i had just about exhausted the resources of the able folk at SDMB, i decided to look further afield in my search for answers. After some searching around on the web, i decided to send an email to a few of the potentially-relevant staff at the Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany. About a week later i received the following reply from Karl Allwang, of the Power Machinery and Machine Tools section of the museum. > [@](#): > > \*\*Dear mhendo, > > the work tool is a special soldering tweezers that is used to weld together two pieces of work materials. The tweezers were patented (Deutsches Reichspatent - German Imperial Patent) and were fabricated by Norm-Mess company. We know nothing about this company, for we do not have their papers. It is a pity that we can’t tell you more about this most interesting work tool.\*\* > > (translated from German by my friend Dirk) Well, if this is correct it seems that the tool is used to hold two pieces of metal while they are soldered or welded together. I’m still not quite sure, then, what would be the use of the stretching action at the end - maybe someone familiar with welding and soldering could shed some light on the situation. It also seems that NORM-MESS is the company, rather than an indication of “standard measure” as some have suggested. Many thanks to all the Dopers who have put their minds to work on this problem, and thanks to Herr Allwang also. Any other comments or suggestions are, of course, still appreciated. cheers, michael. ---
**Author:** ![BF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b5ac83/32.png) [@BF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BF)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/153 "2003-02-01T20:22:27Z")
**mhendo** , Thanks for your persistence. I was surely hoping for someone to come up with a plausible answer. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/154 "2003-02-01T20:30:24Z")
Any chance of doing a German patent search to see what patents were held by Norm-Mess? Or would all those documents have been destroyed in the war? ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/155 "2003-02-01T20:31:28Z")
I think I have it, no, really! The clamps are designed to hold something in place, whilst the main jaws pull the two halves of the job together. It looks to me that you close the handles and the jaws and clamps open, you the place in each clamp the two ends to be soldered together.The two ends must overlap each other. Next you release the handles a little, this allows the jaws pull together, but the clamps remain closed. Looking at the clamps themselves, and now knowing that soldering is involved, I’d say that this tool is designed to hold two ends of flat copper bar, around 1/4" thick and probably around an inch wide. This has to be fairly low temperature soldering, not silver solder or brazing as the tool is in much too good condition to have been exposed to red heat. Such a tool would be very useful in the electrical installation industry where the use of flat copper bar is common in earth bonding rails, and lightening conductors. When you are halfway up the side of a building and trying to joint a lightening conductor whilst balanced precariously on a ladder, you tend to not have enough hands to hold the work, the gas torch and the ladder. I’ve convinced myself anyway, it really does look like such a tool. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/156 "2003-02-01T20:35:39Z")
Ah, looking again I see that this is not a double action tool where the jaws and clamps work seperately. I still think this tool is for holding flat copper bar ends together for soldering, pretty sure of it. ---
**Author:** ![Ficer67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Ficer67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ficer67)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2003, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/157 "2003-02-02T11:16:38Z")
Early on in WWI, they used carrier pigeons, and this tool was used to spread open the metal rings that attach the message(s) to the carrier pigeons leg. You could spread the metal casing open easily, and then clamp down on it to secure it to the bird. Ficer67 ---
**Author:** ![Doc\_Nickel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5fc32e/32.png) [@Doc\_Nickel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doc_Nickel)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2003, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116/158 "2003-02-08T00:36:06Z")
Not to flog a dead horse, but I might have additional info: I asked an electrician I know, and he said the action sounds like a “Cadweld” mold handle. This follows the mentions earlier of copper busbar or grounding bar soldering, and the translated German mention of soldering. Cadweld welding uses a graphite or ceramic mold that is clamped around the cables. The mold is filled with a powdered mixture of metals much like Thermite, and is ignited by a small flint sparking device. The powder ignites, melts and forms a fast, quick braze-like weld on the cables. I’m told it works for many combinations of metals, some of whom couldn’t be attached any other way but mechanically (IE, with screws or clamps.) I did a quick Google and came up with [this](http://www.microflect.com/images/product/large/B2473.GIF) drawing of a modern tool. It’s only superficially similar, but note the direction the four tongs move when the handle is squeezed. There’s also [this page](http://www.conductortrain.com/conductor/programs/apprentice/level1/topic4/doc5.shtml) showing a mold with handles, and an example welded cable junction. [Here’s another](http://www.corrpro.com/catalog/itm_idx/111.htm) pic with a mold, handles, sparker and such. Neither one are the same as the OP tool, but the action is similar. Are we getting close? Many of the references brought up by Google have to do with railroad and railway uses- grounding connections, heavy-power cables for electric trams, etc. I suppose it’s possible the Deutches ReichsPost was railway-based at the time the tool was made? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-tool-please/149116.md?page=7)