Proto Tools (formally Stanley Proto) is an American industrial hand tool company. Founded as Plomb, it is presently a division of Stanley Black & Decker. The company is credited with creating the first combination wrench in 1933.
History
Proto was founded in 1907 by Alphonse Plomb, Jacob Weninger, and Charles Williams as the Plomb Tool Company, a small
blacksmith
A blacksmith is a metalsmith who creates objects primarily from wrought iron or steel, but sometimes from other metals, by forging the metal, using tools to hammer, bend, and cut (cf. tinsmith). Blacksmiths produce objects such as gates, gr ...
shop making
chisels
A chisel is a tool with a characteristically shaped cutting edge (such that wood chisels have lent part of their name to a particular grind) of blade on its end, for carving or cutting a hard material such as wood, stone, or metal by hand, stru ...
in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
. In 1933, Plomb released what is commonly credited as the first combination wrench.
Plomb acquired a number of companies during the 1940s, including Cragin Tool of
Chicago, Illinois
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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in 1940, P&C Tool of Oregon in 1941, Penens Tool of Cleveland, Ohio in 1942, and J.P. Danielson of Jamestown, New York in 1947. Penens Tool would produce tools under the Fleet and Challenger brand names after its acquisition.
In 1946, Plomb was sued by another tool manufacturer— Fayette R. Plumb, Inc., now a brand of Apex Tool Group—for trademark infringement. The company began manufacturing its tools with the Proto name, a
portmanteau
A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsIngersoll-Rand, and in 1984, it was acquired by Stanley and became Stanley Proto Industrial Tools.
Gallery
Image:1933 Plomb Combination Wrench.jpg, A 1933 5/8" Plomb combination wrench.
Image:Proto Big Dawg ratchet.jpg, A Proto "Big Dawg" ratchet.
Image:Western Forge Proto adjustable wrench.jpg, A Proto adjustable wrench.