On Friday 15 Jul 2011 14:56:32 gene heskett wrote: > On Friday, July 15, 2011 09:43:31 AM Anne Wilson did opine: > > On Friday 15 Jul 2011 00:37:58 Alex Schuster wrote: > > > dict.leo.org suggests [screw] wrench or spanner. Or 'monkey wrench' > > > for 'englischer Schraubenschl�ssel'. Ah, 'der Engl�nder'! An > > > adjustable wrench. Oh, and there even is 'crescent wrench' for 'Swiss > > > spanner'. > > > > I love these essays into language comparisons :-) Although all English > > recognise the word "wrench", "spanner" is the more commonly used here. > > OTOH, "monkey wrench" I associate with heavy-duty contexts, such as > > motor- engineering. Then there's that thing that I know of as an > > "adjustable spanner" - apparently the English spanner to you LOL > > > > Anne > > Chuckle. That adjustable spanner, is a "Crescent Wrench" here in the US, > because the Crescent people owned the long since expired patent, and it has > been the generic term for such a tool for at least 70 years that I know of. > > Similarly, the "monkey wrench" we use here, represents a wrench/spanner > that was also adjustable by a similar means, but the forces against the > adjuster were essentially direct, where the 'Crescent' version used jaw > motion wedging friction to aid the adjuster in holding position much > better. The end result is that I can buy generic crescent wrenches almost > anyplace, but a genuine monkey wrench will likely be sold at an estate > auction as its likely both in excess of 100 years old, and worth 25x what > it cost new just as an antique. They are also commonly called knuckle > busters on this side of the pond, because they were very good at it. > We have two types of adjustable spanner (not sure if both types are still available) - one that is adjusted by thumbing a wheel, and the other has separate jars, which are adjusted by putting in a pin, rather like a belt buckle. I've never known what that one was called. I think they are not made any more, but David, my husband, still likes that one for some jobs. Is that similar to your crescent wrench, or something different? Ane -- New to KDE Software? - get help from http://userbase.kde.org
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