Locking pliers (Vise-Grip)
Alicates de presión (Vise-Grip)
- Date
- 1924 · confidence high
- Place
- DeWitt, Nebraska, United States
- Credited to
- William Petersen
- Field
- Tools
What it is
Pliers whose jaws lock onto the workpiece by a toggle-lever mechanism, adjusted with a screw in the handle. Petersen patented them in 1924 and made them in his workshop in DeWitt, Nebraska, under the name Vise-Grip.
Petersen filed the first patent in 1924 and further improvements during the decade; 'mole grips' is the generic British English name for the invention.
What it led to
- holding workpieces in welding, workshop and repair
- locking pliers for pipe and sheet metal
- locking-pliers varieties such as chain, forging and needle-nose