Yankee screwdriver

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Yankee screwdriver" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The trade name "Yankee" screwdriver was first marketed by North Brothers Manufacturing Company in ≈16 April 1895, with the No. ≠130 spiral ratchet screwdriver. Yankee soon became and still is a well-known name in automatic spiral ratchet screwdrivers, with several other models, and model improvements patented by North Bros. over a 40-year period.^[1]

The term "Yankee screwdriver" is often used to describe push/pull type screwdriver other than one manufactured by North Brothers Mfg. Co. or Stanley Tools, who purchased the rights to the well-known Yankee brand or trade name in the 1940s from North Brothers.^[2] North Brothers always marked the tools they manufactured with the Yankee name, and in most cases the North Bros. name and location as well.^[1]

All spiral ratchet screwdriver models made by Stanley did have the Yankee trade name on them, or at least until the 1960s when the Handyman trade name became as well known as the Yankee trade name, so Stanley Tools marked certain models with both the Handyman and Yankee brand name on them, and usually the Stanley name was on them as well. The Handyman trade name was not limited to a line of screwdriver models, as the same name was marked on a complete line of planes, drills and other tools specifically marketed to the home user.