1920s Iron C-Clamp & Ratchet Nutcracker-USA

In 1912, an inventor named Frank W. Moser made a "nutcracker" with a base designed to clamp on a bench or worktable. The mechanism would operate by a lever pushing against a pawl that rests on a notched bar. This along with a movable jaw would adjust by rocking the lever fully backward which lifts the pawl free creating a "ratchet" style way of cracking nuts with little hand pressure instead of using the gripping tools requiring full hand strength and pressure to crack the shells of nuts. Moser received a US patent on September 10, 1912 (no. 1,037,966).
That same year, Texas hardware inventor Wiley N. Cradick made a similar design of a nutcracker based off Moser's invention. Cradick was making goods for a close friend of his who owned a Grocery Store and a Hardware Store in Tyler, Texas...Alex Woldert. Wiley N. Cradick received his nutcracker US patent on May 13, 1913 (no. 1,061,470) and named his ratchet version the SQUIRREL NUTCRACKER for the Alex Woldert Co.
Alex Woldert had Cradick's nutcrackers manufactured in Chicago then shipped to his grocery and hardware store in Tyler, Tx.
Alex Woldert was a businessman who came from a prominent family in East Texas. Alex's father, John G. Woldert was a German immigrant who came to Texas after the Texas Revolution in 1839 and was a prosperous businessman in his own right. John was the patriarch of 2 daughters and 4 sons in which Alex was one of them. Alex's oldest brother Will A. Wodert became a civil engineer and actually made the first map of Tyler, Texas and Smith County in which Tyler is the seat. The youngest of the brothers Albert became Tyler's city physician and pioneered advances in the United States to fight and cure malaria. Alex's brother Theodore O. Woldert was a prominent lawyer in Tyler and later a judge in Houston.
Alex started out with a canning factory in nearby Lindale, Texas along with a groundnut farm. After founding the Woldert Canning Co. and Woldert Peanut Company (The Woldert Co.) Alex opened a grocery and hardware store in Tyler. Alex would later combine his business into one company...Alex Woldert Co.
Now about this nutcracker sold by the Alex Woldert Co., even though the Cradick patent was granted in 1913, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted a divisional application to the Alex Woldert Co. on December 29, 1925, for this model P200 Squirrel Nutcracker for patent protection.
Alex Woldert died in 1939 leaving several generous contributions and landmarks in Tyler, Tx including his three-story Classic Prairie home (mansion) that was built in 1906. The house was renovated and approved as a Historical Landmark in Tyler on June 11, 1985.
Nutcracker is in excellent condition and includes the original box and five picking tools.
Weighs 1 pound 12 ounces
C-clamp measures 4.75" X 5.5"
Lever is 8" Long

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