Leon Wallace Brown

Leon Brown received a patent (536,067) on March 19, 1896 for a police nipper. This device incorporated a length of chain between two ends that could be wrapped around a prisoner's wrist. Such devices are also called twisters and several had been patented by others including Baldwin, Bean and Tower. In all of these other nippers the ends of the chain were attached to "T" shaped handles. What makes the Brown patent interesting is that the chain is attached to a single handle at one end and a ball at the other, requiring the police officer to wrap the chain around the wrist and catch the ball in the recess of the handle.  From a practical standpoint this seems to me to be a very hard thing to achieve and therefore a questionable improvement over existing designs. Nevertheless these nippers were manufactured and sold, To date I have only seen them advertised in The Detective, a police journal.  Brown was born on January 12, 1860 in Buffalo, New York, but by 1891, if not earlier, he had moved to Chicago. He became a police officer with the Chicago Police Department on April 4, 1891 and was with them to at least 1910. The 1920 and 1930 Census lists his occupation as "Police - bank", which may mean a security guard. Brown died on September 5, 1933.  His nipper is rarely encountered and a real find for the collector.

Matt

Matt, as always, great post with great information on a very interesting item! I wanted to correct an error, i found in your information, though. The patent was actually issued one year earlier on Mar 19th 1895, for Brown's Police Nipper. Here is a picture of his patent I was able to get from Yosie's Website  (www.blacksteel.com). I would also like to share a nipper/chain twister that I have in my collection. I believe the origins of this one to be French and was told by the seller it was around 1920s, for age. Now, that estimate, may be wrong and my nipper/twister, may be an earlier piece? . It uses the same idea of the handle and the chain with the ball, but the handle on it is fully closed. It can be awkward to apply at first, but once cinched, it is quite effective!
-Richard Knip-

Richard

Thanks for the date correction, it was a typo on my part and I did not catch it.  I had not seen your nipper before, but have one similar to the Brown patent that is of German origin.

Matt

The Brown chain nipper is truly a rare item and in thirty years of looking I’ve only seen a photo of exactly one original item and I’ve attached a picture of the best that I could find  but if you look closely you’ll see that it has been altered.

Spencer

                                       Brown Nipper

I got these from the Netherlands.  Handle is very heavy.

Ron

Here is an old Swedish one of a similar design.

Lars