Akron Brass Mfg Inc — No. 10 Fireman’s Spanner Wrench
Museum Collection, Ohio Foundry Heritage Collection, Ohio Foundry Corridor, Industrial Cast Iron, Industrial & Fire Service Cast Iron, Patent Era, Wooster, Wayne County Ohio, Akron Brass, Fire Service Tools, Marked Ohio Iron Steve Thaman Museum Collection, Ohio Foundry Heritage Collection, Ohio Foundry Corridor, Industrial Cast Iron, Industrial & Fire Service Cast Iron, Patent Era, Wooster, Wayne County Ohio, Akron Brass, Fire Service Tools, Marked Ohio Iron Steve Thaman

Akron Brass Mfg Inc — No. 10 Fireman’s Spanner Wrench

Wooster, Ohio built this tool for a firefighter's belt. The Akron Brass Mfg Inc No. 10 fireman's spanner wrench — patented February 24, 1925, cast in Wayne County iron, marked AKRON BRASS MFG INC · WOOSTER OHIO on one side and PATENT FEB. 24 1925 ★ NO. 10 on the other — is eleven inches of compound S-curve cast iron engineered to do four things at once: pull a hydrant cap, operate a valve, make a hose connection, and pry a door. Akron Brass started in a leased cereal factory in Akron in 1918, moved to Wooster in 1921, and never left. The company that cast this wrench is still in Wooster today, still making fire equipment, a century later. This tool came first.

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M. Hose & Lyon Cast Iron LadlePatented Smelting & Pouring Ladle — PAT'D AUG. 15, 1871
Museum Collection, Ohio Foundry Heritage Collection, Industrial Cast Iron, Patent Era Steve Thaman Museum Collection, Ohio Foundry Heritage Collection, Industrial Cast Iron, Patent Era Steve Thaman

M. Hose & Lyon Cast Iron LadlePatented Smelting & Pouring Ladle — PAT'D AUG. 15, 1871

Some cast iron pieces carry a cookware pedigree. This one carries a patent date.

The M. Hose & Lyon smelting ladle — cast in Dayton, Ohio and patented August 15, 1871 — is a primary-source document of Ohio's mid-19th century industrial iron trade. Embossed in raised block capitals along the full length of its handle: M HOSE & LYON / DAYTON O / PAT'D AUG 15 / 1871. The mark is crisp. The iron is sound. The piece is 154 years old.

The patented design solved a real problem. Standard smelting ladles of the era had a single pour spout — to redirect the flow, the operator had to rotate the ladle over open flame with liquid metal in the bowl. The Hose & Lyon solution was three equidistant spouts cast around the bowl rim, so any one could be oriented toward the target without shifting the grip. It was practical, elegant, and worth the trip to the Patent Office.

Dayton in 1871 was already one of the most inventive cities in America — the foundry and machine shop culture of the Miami Valley was two generations deep before NCR and the Wright brothers made it famous. M. Hose & Lyon worked in that world. This ladle is what that world made.

The trade it served is gone. The tool is here.

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Union Mfg Co Cast Iron Cover / Face Plate
Museum Collection, Ohio Foundry Heritage Collection, Industrial Cast Iron Steve Thaman Museum Collection, Ohio Foundry Heritage Collection, Industrial Cast Iron Steve Thaman

Union Mfg Co Cast Iron Cover / Face Plate

Toledo, Ohio cast its iron with industrial purpose. This Union Mfg Co circular cover plate — 7¾ inches of gray iron marked UNION MFG CO · TOLEDO O in crisp raised relief around the rim — is not cookware. It is the other side of the Ohio foundry record: the fittings, covers, and closures that sealed furnace ports, boiler inspection openings, and gas line flanges in the buildings of a city that grew from 31,000 people in 1880 to over 168,000 by 1910. Somebody cast this piece in Toledo, bolted it over an opening, and left it to do its work. The Union Mfg Co foundry that made it has left almost no trace in the historical record. This cover plate survives to say it was there.

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