✅ SOLVED Table crank part

[pepperj]

We had to take an old table apart to move the thing upstairs.
On the leaf crank underneath was this patent piece.
Hard to read as this table went through a fire, top refinished at one time.

Joseph Pitts
Crank patent
? Works cheap
Birmingham
I know what the item is, but am trying to figure out the vintage.

 

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[Tony in SC]

Cool old mechanical piece. That design has been in use a long time. Just a guess, but I would say that one is from around 1890/early 1900? I've heard them called jackscrews/screw jacks. The newer ones are sometimes called actuators.

 

[Red-Coat]

The crown on the royal arms is of the style used up until 1901, so that at least says it's Victorian.

Could you just examine more closely and confirm that it is actually 'Pitts' (with an 's' and no apostrophe) and not 'Pitt's' or 'Pitt'?

There was a Joseph Pitts operating a foundry with Joseph Butler (and then his son John Butler) in the mid 1800s but they were in Leeds, not Birmingham, and made big industrial stuff (for bridges, canals and railways etc.) No record of them in Birmingham and no other likely possibilities in Birmingham trade directories that I can find. 'Pitt' has more possibilities. The word beginning 'Cheap...' may be 'Cheapside' in full, which was (still is) a street close to central Birmingham that was home to many industrial premises during the 1800s.

 

[DCMatt]

Joseph Fitter

 

[DCMatt]

Patented 1861.

 

[pepperj]

Joseph Fitter

View attachment 1907110

Thanks Matt! Great ID
Mine was a rush job getting the table reassembled to put the computer and things back on, so no cleaning of the maker's name. The underside turned our hands and clothing black from the soot from the fire. We finally figured out why we seemed to get these black fingers every once in a while-only been 7yrs-dah.