production dates

I have a question about production dates concerning the ball& chain. The Bean ball & chain has a patent date of Nov.28 1882 but what about the Towers?Does anyone out there know when the earliest ad for the Towers appears?I was under the impression that the Towers were offered first but this may not be the case. Can anyone help?

I have a Tower # 4 Ball and chain ( 22 lb / 19 kg ) with attached leg iron . I have never seen any information about when it was made , I just assume anytime between 1870 to about 1920 's or 30 's . most likely they were advertised in police supply catalogs or magazines . maybe sometime a good one will turn up to shed new light on this subject .

I have a question about production dates concerning the ball& chain. The Bean ball & chain has a patent date of Nov.28 1882 but what about the Towers?Does anyone out there know when the earliest ad for the Towers appears?I was under the impression that the Towers were offered first but this may not be the case. Can anyone help?

I would like to buy a Bean ball and chain if anyone has one for sale on this forum, I am interested in any other types of ball and chain also.

I have a question about production dates concerning the ball& chain. The Bean ball & chain has a patent date of Nov.28 1882 but what about the Towers?Does anyone out there know when the earliest ad for the Towers appears?I was under the impression that the Towers were offered first but this may not be the case. Can anyone help?

Still for sale or trade.

E-mail me at mindhunter42 @ hotmail.com if interested.

Cheers, Mike D~C/

I have a question about production dates concerning the ball& chain. The Bean ball & chain has a patent date of Nov.28 1882 but what about the Towers?Does anyone out there know when the earliest ad for the Towers appears?I was under the impression that the Towers were offered first but this may not be the case. Can anyone help?

The way I understand old advertisements, you could actually order your choice of chain length and weight. That suggests they were actually made to order, at least for Tower and Bean. I suppose they would have had the most common types, or weights, readily available.

I have three European sets of Ball & Chains (not for sale), but no US types. Transcontinental shipping is a bitch with these.

As with with Michael's, my guess is they sometimes improvised balls and chains locally from irons where one side might have had a defective locking mechanism.


Nils

I have a question about production dates concerning the ball& chain. The Bean ball & chain has a patent date of Nov.28 1882 but what about the Towers?Does anyone out there know when the earliest ad for the Towers appears?I was under the impression that the Towers were offered first but this may not be the case. Can anyone help?

Nils and others, thanks for your input. While I agree that both Bean and Tower custom made ball & chains to order I think this was more prevalent in the later years of production, at least according to old adds I've seen. I'm under the impression that commercial ball & chains were available to just prior to the outbreak of WW2 and that's when commercial productin ceased.
But I was trying to find out if Tower copied Bean or was it the other way around?