Patented & Distinctive Bit Braces
A Research Study
by George Langford, Sc.D.
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BRACE 1

William B. Ruger obtained a US Design Patent, No.D151,719, for the outline of a brace on November 9, 1948, with a duration of 3-1/2 years.  With that degree of protection, three models of brace were made, one marketed under the A.R.T.I.S.A.N trademark, another under Ruger's assignee, the Ruger Corp. of Southport, Conn., and the third marketed by the former Seymour Smith & Sons, Inc. of Oakville, Conn., a distributor of arborist tools.  The last of these is illustrated below as their No.2310. The chucks used in these braces follow the design of the John A. Leland's US Patent No. 912,582, assigned to the Millers Falls Company.  That patent would have run out in 1926, more than twenty years before the Ruger braces illustrated here were made.  Therefore, it is hardly a proof of Millers Falls parenthood that the Ruger braces' chucks were patterned after the Leland patent.

Brace 1: Seymour Smith & Son version of D151,719:	William B. Ruger's US Design Patent No. D151,719:	John A. Leland's US Patent No. 912,582 for the same chuck used in the Ruger-designed braces:

The inside of the ratchet isn't worn (49 teeth)	Parts mostly out:	The cover is marked, and the selector is, too, although that can't be seen here.  There is an extra part, the shim 2nd from left.  Also, the selector is now a die casting.

Pawls & springs back in:	Selector above slot:	Selector detents:	All back together:
			I could not resist peeking to see what else might be different in the Seymour Smith brace's ratchet, considering that the function of the selector is so much better marked.  What I found is that there's an extra part, the shim that acts as a dust shield below the selector.  Also, even though the selector has a better shape, it's just a die casting and there's nothing to stop an ignorant user from twisting it.

 

BRACE 2

Brace 2 - Ruger Corp., Southport, Conn.

The ratchet design is detailed below.  While I was thinking that the Pat. Pending marking on Brace 1 referred to the ratchet, I searched the USPTO website and found countless ratchet patents, none of them remotely like this design.

The ratchet selector on this brace is unmarked; as a result, when it needed lubrication, a cluless user tried to loosen it up by rotating with a crescent wrench, twisting it nearly all the way off.  I administered the coup de gras in order to take apart, clean & repair the brace.  The function of the selector is clearly marked on the Seymour Smith brace. There are no maker's marks on the head of the ratchet The chuck looks like a Leland design; the ratchet looks like no other. The firm is now named Sturm, Ruger, Inc. but is still located in Southport.

BRACE 3