A Duff Jack from Pittsburgh

I am now the proud and grateful owner of a proper Model T jack.  Jacking up a rear wheel on a Model T is a frequent and tedious business.  Jacking up the back end when cold starting lessens transmission drag and makes success much more certain.  It is not easy though.   The back axle is high up by today's car jack standards.  I have used either a heavy and oil-leaky trolley jack, an extended screw jack or a Ford Transit van scissors type of jack but none has been ideal - or indeed absolutely safe as once the engine fires there is a tendency for the car to creep forwards via the rear wheel which remains on the ground, energised slightly by the drag in the thick and cold differential oil.

Should the jack topple over and both rear wheels are on the ground the driver-less car will shoot forwards of course.

A Pittsburgh firm with the nowadays problematic name of Duff made a range of 'automobile' jacks back in the day with the Model T firmly in mind.   They worked with a ratchet mechanism, levering the car up almost effortlessly with each stroke of a short wooden handle.  A small lever reversed the process for lowering.   Furthermore the top of the jack was curved to fit round axles.

The Duff Jack actually came to us via an occasional local resident Peter Yates - a teacher, indeed Principal of a school in Namibia.  Some commute that!  The jack had been in his family since forever and he was disposing of his late mother's effects.   He had wanted to see the jack put to good use and local enquiries led him our way, I having a bit of a reputation for appreciating old things. . . ..

These jacks are highly valued in the USA, where something from 1914 is truly ancient.   They fetch $$$ silly on E-bay.   Peter knew this for he had done his er, homework on it.  He had even tracked down a 1914 catalogue where the jack was listed:

Ours is the one in the middle.   They were made in the UK by a firm of Barretts under licence from Duff of Pittsburgh.  Duff's specialised in jacks for the railway industry and later, automobile jacks.

We jacked up the back of the car and it worked an absolute treat.  Gladys was in need of a road-test as it happened so Peter and his wife had a ride round Settle as part of a deal which was quickly done.