What’s in a name?
Evan Zabawski | TLT From the Editor June 2019
That which we call a grease fitting. By any other name...
Why they are not called Alemites anymore, or were never called Bystrickys, is anyone’s guess.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. From the June 11, 1921, issue of the Saturday Evening Post.
Zerk fitting: a term widely recognized as a synonym for a grease fitting, particularly a style of fitting referred to as a grease nipple. Where its name originated is straightforward, but the greater story of the evolution of grease fittings suggests another name may be warranted.
The story begins with John Sterling Gollburg, a Swedish inventor who immigrated to New York in 1886. After a series of different jobs, along with Messrs. Stromberg, Carlson and Stiger, he developed his most famous invention in 1906—the Stromberg Carlson carburetor. Over the next six years he continued inventing and improving, eventually developing a new automatic die casting machine, which led to the organization of the Alemite Die Casting and Manufacturing Co. in 1912.
In 1916 John’s son, Arthur, was given the job of refilling the oil cups on the die casting machines. This task was performed several times a day in hot, dirty and unsafe conditions, causing a filthy and exhausted Arthur to begin to conceive an improved method for performing this task. Arthur’s alternative was to develop a fitting through which lubricants could be pumped using a hand-operated, screw-type pump mechanically connected via a short, flexible hose. The fitting was hollowed out and fitted with a small, spring-supported metal ball to act as a check valve. This fitting and pump combo were eponymously named The Alemite High-Pressure Lubricating System.
By 1918 father and son formed the Alemite Lubrication Co. and approached the U.S. Army with a pitch to use their system on the army’s fleet of trucks. The Alemite system was adopted on July 10 as standard equipment on all army trucks manufactured by the White Motor Co. in Cleveland and within months was added to other truck companies’ vehicles, quickly becoming an industry standard.
Prior to this time, most automotive manufacturers used a push-type lubrication system designed by another inventor, an Austrian who invented the first six-cylinder engine and a forerunner to the automatic transmission—Oscar Ulysses Zerkowitz.
Zerkowitz had traveled to Cleveland in 1907 to work as a consulting engineer for the Royal Motor Co.; when he returned and immigrated in 1913 (records show he shortened his surname to Zerk), he founded the Zerk Manufacturing Co. Later that year he lost control of his company and sold it. He was visiting his home country in 1914 when war broke out and he was called into military service.
After the war Zerk returned to America and moved to Chicago where he designed an even better lubrication system under his new company, the Allyne-Zerk Co. In 1922 he applied for patents for the overall system, which included an improved fitting (allowing for a more forgiving application angle and higher pressures) and a grease gun. The first patent was granted the following year. At the same time, Alemite introduced its famous button-head fitting for easier connecting and disconnecting of its grease gun.
The Alemite Lubrication Co. had been purchased by the Bassick Manufacturing Co. and renamed the Bassick-Alemite Corp. in December 1919. It was subsequently purchased by Stewart-Warner in April 1924. Later that year, Allyne-Zerk also was purchased by Stewart-Warner, and by May 1926 a new Alemite-Zerk fitting became standard equipment on all Farmall tractors.
In March 1933 a Stewart-Warner engineer named Joseph Bystricky applied for a patent for his improvement over the Zerk system, one that changed the fitting’s end to a small ball that could be gripped by annular, spring-loaded jaws inside the gun nozzle. This new system was adopted by 99% of cars built in 1934 and is near identical to current grease fittings.
Why they are not called Alemites anymore, or were never called Bystrickys, is anyone’s guess; perhaps if Zerkowitz had not shortened his name, would we have come up with something else?
Evan Zabawski, CLS, is the senior technical advisor for TestOil in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. You can reach him at ezabawski@testoil.com.