Zerk Trivia !!

["Wayne Graefen" <wgraefen@xxxx>]

Just a little bit of trivia about the "grease zerk" and why in the world the thing got the name "zerk".

Well it seems there was a man in Wisconsin who was looking to improve on the truly antique style of lubrication fittings used on the early cars up until about 1931 or 1932. Those were a much larger protruding fitting that did not make a very good seal to a grease gun. They had two prong ears like a park or tail light bulb and they were so large they occasionally got broken off by road debris.

This Wisconsinite was an inventor of sorts and he did design an improved grease fitting. It was patented and very quickly adopted by the US auto industry. The man's name was Otto Zerk. I wouldn't know this if I had not been business partners with an older man from Wisconsin named Harold Jornt (now deceased) who had known Otto personally in his younger years.

And now you know the rest of the story....

Wayne


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