Emil Schwarz Company

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Emil Schwarz Company operated briefly in Chicago in the early 1920s and is known only as the maker of a distinctive "All-in-One" socket set.

Although almost forgotten today, the company's "All-in-One" set turned out to be the catalyst for the founding of SWF, a major German auto parts maker which is still in operation more than 100 years later. The rediscovery of the connection between an obscure company in Chicago and its quasi-successor in Germany is a fascinating story, and we trust that our readers will enjoy the historical journey.

Company History

The Emil Schwarz Company was incorporated in Chicago in 1921 as a manufacturer and dealer in wrenches and tools.

Fig. 1. 1921 Notice for Emil Schwarz Company. [External Link]

Fig. 1 shows a notice reporting the incorporation of the Emil Schwarz Company, as published on page 513 of the August 25, 1921 issue of The Iron Trade Review.

The text notes the capital stock as $150,000 and the incorporators were listed as Emil Schwarz, C.A. Schommer, and Frank Wilenski.

The company address was listed as 217 West Illinois Street in Chicago. The facility at this address appears to have been a large industrial building with multiple tenants, and the adjacent 219 West Illinois address is believed to have been part of the same facility.

The eponymous founder was a German immigrant who had come to the U.S. in 1903 and became a naturalized citizen in 1916. The other two founders were employees at Schwarz's other company, as detailed in the next section.

The Sanitary Bottle Washing Company

Schwarz had previously founded the Sanitary Bottle Washing Company at 219 West Illinois Street in Chicago, which made specialty equipment for bottling companies and screw machine products.

Fig. 2. 1921 Directory Listing for Sanitary Bottle Washing Company. [External Link]

Fig. 2 shows a directory listing for the Sanitary Bottle Washing Company, as published on page 302 of the 1921 edition of the Directory of Illinois Manufacturers.

The directory entry notes Emil Schwarz as president and C.A. Schommer as secretary.

The inclusion of screw machine products in the company's production capabilities is highly relevant for the new wrench and tool business, as it shows that Emil Schwarz had access to production equipment that could make sockets and related parts.

Frank Wilenski was the superintendant of the Sanitary Bottle Washing operations, and we found a product testimonial from Wilenski with a photograph of an automatic screw machine in the company's shop.

The "ALL-IN-ONE" Trademark

In 1921, prior to incorporating his eponymous company, Emil Schwarz had operated as an individual to offer socket wrenches under the "All-in-One" brand. Schwarz probably used the machine shop facilities of his bottle-washing company for prototyping and limited production runs.

On April 7, 1921 Emil Schwarz filed a trademark application for "ALL-IN-ONE" for use with wrenches, with the first use date listed as March 8, 1921. The application received serial number 146,851 and was published on August 2, 1921, and the trademark was registered as #149,233 on December 6, 1921.

By June of 1921 Emil Schwarz was apparently doing business as the All-in-One Wrench Company, with a location at 21-25 South Desplaines Avenue in Chicago.

Fig. 3. 1921 Notice for All-in-One Wrench Set.

The composite scan in Fig. 3 shows a notice for the All-in-One Wrench, as published on page 41 [External Link] of the June 30, 1921 issue of Motor Age. (The text has been rearranged to fit above the illustration.)

The illustration shows a ratchet handle with a swiveling head, a cross-bar, and six standard sockets, with one socket repeated in a different orientation.

The socket set has some unusual features, including the swiveling ratchet head and the use of hexagonal drive tangs on the sockets.

Also note that the 5/8 socket (fourth from the left) has a chamfered lip, a modification needed for servicing the connecting rod bolts of the Model T.

We found a similar notice in the July 27, 1921 [External Link] issue of Motor World and in the September 1921 [External Link] issue of El automóvil americano, but haven't found any later advertisements for the wrench set.

Some of our readers will recognize this as similar to the "All-in-One" wrench set later sold by the German company Spezial Werkzeugfabrik Feuerbach (SWF) in the mid 1920s. We're still working on the connections between the two companies.

Near the end of the notice, the text mentions an optional "special extension socket" used for servicing the [Model T] Ford fourth connecting rod. This turns out to be a specialty tool better described as a stub-handle ratchet, as can be seen in Fig. 6 later in this article. The focus on servicing Model T connecting rods shows that the designer of the set had a keen understanding of the important service problems of that time.

Based on online photographs, the Emil Schwarz Company is known to have offered "All-in-One" socket sets like the one illustrated in the notice above. Although not mentioned in the notice, the sets were later available in two sizes: the smaller one as illustrated, and a larger version with additional components including an extension, a stub-handle ratchet (the "special extension socket" of the notice), and more sockets. The exact contents of the larger set are still somewhat uncertain.

The sets were supplied in a wooden box with a paper label providing an illustration of the components and instructions for use, with the Emil Schwarz Company identifed as the maker.

The most distinctive features of the set were the swivel-head ratchet and the use of sockets with a male hexagonal drive tang. The ratchet was typically stamped "Pat. Appld For", but the specific patent (if any) is not known. (It's possible that the "patent" could refer to the pending trademark, which was filed in April and issued in December of 1921.)

The curious choice to use hexagonal drive tangs on the sockets may have been inspired by the socket tools of the Edgar C. Guthard "Billmont" company, which was operating in Chicago at the same time. However, the "All-in-One" sets used 5/8 hexagonal drive tangs instead of the 3/4 hexagonal tangs in the Billmont sets, so the sockets from the two companies were not interchangeable. The "All-in-One" sets were the first known use of 5/8 hexagonal male drive sockets, and (except for the German continuation) the only known later use was in the H & G "Universal Wrench" sets made by the Eastern Machine Screw Corporation.

Every socket set needs to provide a means of securing the sockets to a drive tool, and for a standard set the typical choice is to install a spring-loaded friction ball on the (male) drive tools, which is also economical since drive tools are less numerous than sockets. But for a set with male drive tangs on the sockets and female drive tools, it's usually not possible to install a friction ball in the wall of the drive tools. The choices then become less favorable: either install a friction ball on every socket (expensive), or find some kind of a friction device for the drive tools (awkward or inconvenient).

As can be seen in the illustration above, Emil Schwarz made the expensive choice to install friction balls on every socket. This would have increased the production costs, which were already higher than usual due to the extra material and machining required for the drive tangs on the sockets.

Apart from the issue of the male drive tangs, the sockets in the set were machined and cold-broached, the emerging standard at the time. Other companies selling machined and cold-broached sockets in 1921 included Will B. Lane ("Unique") and R.F. Sedgley ("Hexall"), as well as Blackhawk Manufacturing, Walden-Worcester, and the Snap-On Wrench Company. The first two companies sold inexpensive sets based on 1/2 hexagonal drive tools and would have been the most direct competition for Emil Schwarz, while the latter three were the leading makers of standard 1/2 square drive socket tools for service garages and auto mechanics.

Despite having launched its product, the Emil Schwarz Company disappeared quickly, with the only references in the trade press confined to 1921. It seems unlikely that the company would have failed outright — the $150,000 capital at incorporation was a very significant sum in 1921. Thus we are left with a mystery as to why the company vanished.

Another mystery is how the company managed to sell any products at all, since at this time (2026) no advertisements or catalog listings for the "All-in-One" sets have been found. If any of our readers have seen listings for these sets, please send us an email with the details!

Filling in the Gaps

Currently we don't have much information on the Emil Schwarz Company, but in this section we'll summarize what we do know and then make some extrapolations to see how the early "All-in-One" sets relate to the known later versions.

In the years leading up to 1921 Emil Schwarz was the president of the Sanitary Bottle Washing Company, which built specialty equipment for bottling companies and also offered screw machine products.

In the spring of 1921 Emil Schwarz as an individual developed the idea of the "All-in-One" wrench sets, and in April filed a trademark application for "ALL-IN-ONE". By June he was offering wrench sets as the All-in-One Wrench Company, and the published notice in Motor Age shows a ratchet handle with a swivel head, a cross-bar, and six sockets. The illustration shows the sockets with an unusual feature, a hexagonal drive tang fitted with a friction ball.

Based on the published illustration, the components in the socket set would have been amenable to production by screw machine operations followed by light machining.

By August the Emil Schwarz Company had been incorporated by Emil Schwarz and two others, with a stated capital of $150,000. Wrench sets marked with the Emil Schwarz Company as manufacturer are known to have been produced, but no advertisements or other references to the company have been found in the trade press, apart from notices of the company's incorportion in 1921.

This is a fairly slim body of information, but let's explore it by trying to answer a few questions.

Q. Were the Emil Schwarz "All-in-One" sets actually made by SWF?
Socket sets very similar to the Emil Schwarz "All-in-One" sets are known to have been made by Spezial Werkzeugfabrik Feuerbach (SWF), a German company operating near Stuttgart. So it's obvious to inquire whether SWF also made the "All-in-One" sets introduced by Emil Schwarz in 1921.

This question has been explored on one of the tool message boards, and the implicit hypothesis is that Emil Schwarz would have been acting as the initial sales agent or distributor for the German manufacturer, who eventually decided to handle the marketing themselves.

This is a tidy hypothesis, but under closer examination several problems emerge. It turns out that SWF is still in business as a maker of wiper blades and auto accessories, and the history of the company says that it was formed in 1922, after the Emil Schwarz saga had already played out.

Another problem is that the known examples of Emil Schwarz "All-in-One" sets are not marked with "Made in Germany" or equivalent, as required by country of origin laws. A third problem is that the German "All-in-One" sets are typically marked with the German equivalent of "Patented" or "Patent Pending", but the patents in question were filed in 1924 and 1925, well after the Emil Schwarz era.

The final problem is that Schwarz had another business, the Sanitary Bottle Washing Company, which had production equipment including automatic screw machines. These facilities probably would have been sufficent for protyping and modest production of the "All-in-One" sets, so that no outside assistance would have been needed in the initial stages.
A: The Emil Schwarz "All-in-One" sets were made in Chicago, not by SWF.

Q. Were the "All-in-One" sets made by Emil Schwarz or by a contract manufacturer?
Based on our most recent information, it's likely that the prototypes and early production of the sets would have been made by the facilities of Schwarz's other company, the Sanitary Bottle Washing Company.

The $150,000 capital raised by the Emil Schwarz Company suggests that the company planned to set up a substantial manufacturing operation. However, that would have taken time, and there should have been notices in the trade press for the construction of a new facility and purchases of machinery. No such notices have been found, suggesting that the company may have scaled back its plans and decided to use a contract manufacturer instead.

It's also possible that the volume of sales remained small enough that the bottle shop could handle the production, so that no outside help was needed.
A: Probably initially by the Sanitary Bottle Washing Company, but possibly later by a contract maker.

Q. Who was the contract manufacturer?
To explore this question further we have to assume that the anticipated volume of sales was such that a high-volume screw machine operator was needed. In 1921 there were many such operators, but we can offer an intriguing possibility by noting a possible connection with the Eastern Machine Screw Corporation, a major screw machine operator in New Haven, Connecticut.

The Emil Schwarz (and SWF) wrench sets use sockets with a 5/8 hexagonal drive tang, an unusual drive configuration with only one other known producer, the H & G Universal Wrench Set manufactured by Eastern Machine Screw.

The H & G set was announced in December of 1921 and advertised in early 1922, around the time that the Emil Schwarz Company was probably discontinuing its operations. This leads to the hypothesis that Emil Schwarz contracted with Eastern Machine Screw for the sockets (and possibly other components), and after the "All-in-One" sets were discontinued, Eastern Machine Screw decided to make their own set based on the same socket design.
A: If an outside manufacturer was used, it was probably the Eastern Machine Screw Corporation.

Q. Why did the Emil Schwarz Company cease operations?
With so little information to go on, this section will be based on generalities, and the short answer would be underwhelming sales and low profit margins due to high production costs.

The market for socket sets was already highly competitive in 1921. The "All-in-One" sets were probably intended as in-vehicle tool kits, and as such would have faced competition from inexpensive 1/2-hex drive socket sets, as well as legacy pressed-steel socket sets.

The choice to use 5/8 hexagonal male drive sockets with individual friction balls meant that the sets were more expensive to produce than 1/2-hex drive sets, and were also incompatible with other sets on the market.

When Emil Schwarz realized that his socket sets were unlikely to gain traction in the market, he may have chosen to quietly close the company and return money to the investors.

Another possible factor is that Schwarz's other business, the Sanitary Bottle Washing Company, also appears to have failed around 1921. In the years up to 1920, there were a number of references in the trade press for the bottle washing company, but we didn't find any mention of the company after 1922. Since the bottle washing company was probably providing the production facilities for the socket company, its failure could have had a cascading effect.
A: The company probably closed quietly after facing poor sales prospects.

Q. How did "All-in-One" wrench sets end up being made by SWF?
We are still doing research on this question and hope to find evidence of a connection between Emil Schwarz and the founders of SWF. Since SWF appears to have been founded in 1922, we suspect that the event leading to the company's establishment may have been the transfer of the designs and property rights for the "All-in-One" set from Emil Schwarz to SWF.

A genealogy search found that Emil Schwarz was born in Germany on February 8, 1875 and came to the U.S. on May 10, 1903, then became a naturalized citizen on April 7, 1916. No death records were found, suggesting the possibility that he might have moved back to Germany following the failure of his businesses.

At this point the leading hypothesis is that Schwarz himself helped to establish SWF after returning to Germany, with the intention of producing the "All-in-One" set.
A: It's complicated!

Continuation of the "All-in-One" Socket Set

Through a circuitous mechanism with some details not yet clear, after the failure of the Emil Schwarz Company the "All-in-One" sets reappeared as a product by SWF in Germany. The story continues in our article on Spezial Werkzeugfabrik Feuerbach (SWF).

Patents

The "All-in-One" ratchet was marked with a patent pending notation, but the corresponding patent has not been found after an extensive search, and the patent application is presumed to have been rejected.

However, the Emil Schwarz ratchet is exactly described by German patent DE402843, filed in 1922 and granted in 1924. The document for this patent can be viewed on the Espacenet patent search site as DE402843 [External Link], and is also noted on the DATAMP site as DE-402,843 [External Link].

Emil Schwarz is known to have patented apparatus related to bottle-washing, and was also the assignee of some patents in this area.

Trademarks

References and Resources

Photographs and observations of particular tools are based on items in the Alloy Artifacts Collection.

Catalog Resources

The company is not known to have published any catalogs.

Selected Tools

We have an example of a socket set identified as the Emil Schwarz version of the "All-in-One" set.

Socket Sets

Emil Schwarz "All-in-One" Socket Set

Some decades ago we picked up a set of socket tools with male hexagonal drive sockets, an unusual design that we had previously seen only on an "H & G" Socket Set. With the extensive backlog here at Alloy Artifacts it was quite a while before we were able to study the set closely, but we can now see that the tools have an interesting place in the early history of socket tools.

We were able to identify the set as an Emil Schwarz Company "All-in-One" socket set based on notices in the trade press and online photographs of a similar set. The "All-in-One" sets were made in two versions, and our example is the larger of the two, as it includes a small stub-handle ratchet and more than six sockets.

Our set was acquired as just a bag of loose tools without the original box, so we can't present it with the full context that a box would provide.

Fig. 4. Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex Drive "All-in-One" Socket Set, 1921.

Fig. 4 shows a group photo of the tools from the Emil Schwarz 5/8-hex drive "All-in-One" socket set, consisting of a swivel-head ratchet, a stub-handle ratchet, a 5/8 hexagonal to 1/2 square adapter, and eight sockets from 7/16 to 1 inch.

The socket sizes are, from the left in the front row, 1 inch, 15/16, and 7/8, then in the back row 11/16, 5/8, 9/16, 1/2, and 7/16. (Two sockets are believed to be missing, the 3/4 and 13/16 sizes.)

The sockets are unmarked and the stated sizes were based on measurements with digital calipers, which were typically about 0.02 inch oversize.

The tools in the set are unmarked, except for "PAT APPLD FOR" stamped on the shanks of the ratchets.

The presence of a patent notation on both ratchets suggests that the desired patent was for the ratchet mechanism, rather than than for the novel swivel-head of the larger ratchet. The patent in question has not been found after an extensive search, suggesting that it probably wasn't issued.

We haven't yet found documentation for the full contents of the larger Emil Schwarz set, but it is thought to be similar to the later "All-in-One" sets from SWF, except for the absence of a spark-plug socket. Based on a comparison with the SWF sets, our set is missing the cross-bar, extension, 3/4 socket, 13/16 socket, and possibly the screwdriver socket.

Note that our set does include a 5/8 hex to 1/2 square drive adapter (also included in the SWF sets), which would have allowed the set to use standard 1/2-drive sockets.

Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex Drive Swivel-Head Ratchet from "All-in-One" Socket Set

Fig. 5. Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex Drive Ratchet from "All-in-One" Set, with Insets for Side View, Marking Detail, and Construction Detail, 1921.

Fig. 5 shows the 5/8-hex drive ratchet from the "All-in-One" socket set, marked with "PAT APPLD FOR" stamped on the shank.

The middle inset shows a side view of the ratchet. Note how the flange on the handle fits into the slotted ratchet head, allowing 180 degrees of swivel motion.

The top inset shows a close-up of the end of the handle, which has been hollowed out to reduce weight and to allow tool storage.

The ratchet head is locked into place by a spring-loaded "J" hook, which fits into holes in the handle flange.

The ratchet handle has a hole drilled for a cross-bar to allow use as a Tee-handle.

The overall length (fully extended) is 11.5 inches, and the finish is nickel plating.

One detail to note is that the inner bore at the end of the handle is smooth, without notches on the side (see top inset). Later sets from SWF included a spark-plug socket with raised ridges on the side, which fit into two opposing notches at the end of the handle. This unusual arrangement effectively turned the handle into a deep socket with clearance for the tip of the spark plug.

The ratchet mechanism is very coarse, with only four positions, and the 5/8 socket is permanently attached to the ratchet head.

One novel feature of the ratchet is the attachment of the head by means of a flange on the handle fitting into a milled slot on the ratchet head, allowing 180 degrees of motion. This construction brilliantly anticipates the "Outside Head" design of the P&C Flex Head Handles introduced five years later, and the ratchet could be considered as a flex handle with a permanently attached ratchet adapter.

Another novel feature is the use of a spring-loaded "J" hook to lock the position of the head. The hook is installed through an axial hole in the pivot screw, and the tip of the "J" drops into holes in the flange at the 0°, 45°, and 90° positions.

We noted shows signs of extensive use of this ratchet, such as marring of the edges of the cross-bar hole, and wear on the tip of the "J" hook to the point that it no longer engages the locking holes. Despite the heavy use, the tool has held up well and the ratchet mechanism is still functional.

Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex Drive Stub-Handle Ratchet from "All-in-One" Socket Set

Fig. 6. Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex Drive Stub-Handle Ratchet from "All-in-One" Set, with Insets for Top View and Marking Detail, 1921.

Fig. 6 shows the 5/8-hex drive stub-handle ratchet from the "All-in-One" socket set, marked with "PAT APPLD FOR" stamped on the shank.

The top inset shows the interior of the 5/8 socket on the ratchet head, with the screw securing the ratchet visible. Note that the outer wall of the socket has been turned down near the service end, in order to provide extra clearance.

This ratchet was included in the set as a specialty tool for servicing the infamous fourth connecting rod bolts on the Model T. In this application the 5/8 ratchet socket would engage the connecting rod bolt directly, rather than using an inserted socket.

The end of the stub handle is fitted with a 5/8 hexagonal stud, which at first seems a bit odd, since there would be no reason to rotate the tool around this axis. The explanation is that the hex stud allowed the extension in the set to be connected as a handle for extra leverage, leading to this tool being called a "special extension socket" in the company's early public notices.

However, from an engineering standpoint, the idea of connecting an extension as a handle is a bit dubious. Drive tools are designed for torsional loads, and placing lateral forces on a drive connection would concentrate strain on one or two walls of the female connector, possibly leading to failure.

An example of another tool designed for servicing the Model T fourth connecting rod bolts can be seen as the Mossberg 624 Ratcheting Socket Wrench. Note that the socket on the Mossberg tool has been chamfered on the service end, a requirement due to the small clearance around the connecting rod bolts.

Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex to 1/2 Square Drive Adapter from "All-in-One" Socket Set

Fig. 7. Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex to 1/2 Square Drive Adapter from "All-in-One" Set, with Inset for Top View, 1921.

Fig. 7 shows the 5/8-hex to 1/2 square drive adapter from the "All-in-One" socket set.

The overall height is 1.4 inches, and the finish is plain steel.

This small tool was an important addition to the set, as it meant that the drive tools could be used with standard 1/2-drive sockets, thereby providing access to additional socket sizes or replacements.

Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex Drive Hexagonal Sockets from "All-in-One" Socket Set

Fig. 8. Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex Drive Hexagonal Sockets from "All-in-One" Set, with Inset for Top View, 1921.

Fig. 8 shows the three largest 5/8-hex drive sockets from the "All-in-One" socket set. Note that the hexagonal drive tangs are each fitted with a friction ball.

The nominal socket sizes are, from the left, 7/8, 15/16, and 1 inch. The sizes are not marked on the sockets, so we measured the across-flats sizes with digital calipers as 0.89, 0.96, and 1.01 inches.

The top inset shows the interior of the sockets, illustrating the cold-broached construction. Note that the shaved metal from the broaching forms an irregular shelf below the broached area.

Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex Drive 5/8 Hexagonal Socket from "All-in-One" Socket Set

Fig. 9. Emil Schwarz 5/8-Hex Drive 5/8 Hexagonal Socket from "All-in-One" Set, with Insets for Bottom and Top View, 1921.

Fig. 9 shows the 5/8-hex drive 5/8 hexagonal socket from the "All-in-One" socket set. This socket differs from the others in that the outside of the service end has been chamfered slightly in order to provide extra clearance.

The left inset shows a bottom view of the socket, revealing that a clearance hole has been drilled through the drive tang, thereby exposing the spring for the friction ball.

The right inset shows the interior of the socket, illustrating the cold-broached construction.

Close examination of the illustration in Fig. 3 reveals the same chamfered lip on the 5/8 socket, indicating that this feature had been planned for the "All-in-One" set from the beginning. This special modification of the 5/8 socket would have allowed it to be used for servicing the connecting rod bolts of the Model T.

We're not sure why this socket has a hole through the drive tang, as it doesn't seem to have any functional purpose. But the 11/16 socket also has a clearance hole, and we've seen this odd feature reported for another Emil Schwarz set.