In a message dated 7/11/03 9:00:38 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
dbl@chicagolandmgclub.com writes:
> zerk fitting
I came upon an interesting little book at a used book store some time back:
101 Tips & Tricks For Car Restorers by William A. Cannon & Ron Bishop, printed
in 1979. In the book, Cannon and Bishop give a little history of the grease
fitting. It seems that what we all call a "Zerk" fitting isn't exactly
correct. He has pictures of the three pressure lube fittings as examples. The
first was invented by Mr. Arthur Gulborg in 1919 and was known as the Alemite
system. It looked like a thick tube with two pins on either side of the tube
onto
which the lube gun locked.
The Alemite company acquired the Zerk system which was developed after the
Alemite system, in 1924. The Zerk system employed a fitting that looked like
the
one we know, except it did not have a ball on the end onto which the gun locks
. The gun did not lock onto it, but it required a "push" to hold the gun
against the Zerk fitting while in use.
By 1933, the Alemite companydeveloped the Alemite "hydraulic" fitting--the
one we use every day, and refer to as a "Zerk" fitting--which rendered the pin
type and the zerk push type fittings obsolete. The Alemite "hydraulic" fitting
looked like the zerk, but had the familiar ball on the end onto which the
grease gun locks.
So, according to that source, what we call a "Zerk" fitting is actually an
Alemite "hydraulic" fitting.
The book, by the way, is a little gem. If you can find a copy, pick it up.
--David C.
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