![]() The wrench wasn’t Johnson’s only invention. “Monkey wrench” was used on patents dated 1881, 1883, 1891, 19 – years before Johnson’s 1922 patent. In 1880, when he was two years old, a tool was patented with the name “ monkey wrench”. They have been patented in the US since 1835. His five-page patent (#1,413,121) is available on the US Patent and Trademark Office website.īut Johnson wasn’t the first to invent an adjustable wrench. The confusion may come from the fact that Johnson – full name John Arthur Johnson – did invent an adjustable wrench, in 1922. “ Monkey was used in the 19th century, especially by sailors, as a modifier for various types of small equipment made for specific work ( monkey-block, monkey-boat, monkey-spar, etc.), and the same notion probably is behind the name of the tool,” the dictionary says. The Online Etymology Dictionary of word origins says “monkey wrench” has been used as the name of an “old style of wrench with a jaw adjustable by a screw mechanism on the handle” since the 1800s. The term “monkey wrench”, it says, simply means it’s a wrench ready for immediate use. This means it can be used on bolts of almost any size. The website ToolPowers explains that a monkey wrench is a “wrench with two straight metal jaws” that can be moved up and down by twisting a screw mechanism. ‘Monkey’ used for small, specialised tools since 1800s In fact, white people still found a way to tarnish this great accomplishment by dubbing it the ‘monkey wrench’. But, did you know he was also an inventor? While in Jail in Kansas, he invented the wrench! In 1922 he received a patent for his invention. It reads: “On FebruJack Johnson became the first ‘negro’ heavy weight title champion. ![]() Is the term “ monkey wrench” racist because it’s the name given to tool invented by a black man – legendary US boxer Jack Johnson? That’s the claim in a meme shared on Facebook in Kenya.
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