US Patent: 148,656 
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| Devices for Ringing Swine
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	        Patentee:
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 | Elias Blair (exact or similar names) - Bucyrus, OH |  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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        Patent Dates:
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| Applied: | 
Feb. 07, 1874 | 
 
| Granted: | 
Mar. 17, 1874 | 
 
 
 
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		  Patent Pictures:
	      
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			1 | 2
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Elias Blair patent March 17, 1874  |  
 
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                        Stan Schulz 
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        Description: |  
| "The object of my invention is construct an instrument ... which will insert large and small rings, and which will also serve as a nut-cracker and a cork-compressor.." 
The grooves in the jaws are for hog rings; the teeth are to hold nuts. 
Blair's Ringers and Rings were still shown in hardware wholesale catalogs in the mid-20th Century. See patent no. 156,125 for a different Blair hog ring pliers & the ring. 
An 1881 "History of Crawford County" noted Blair was producing 60,000 hog rings per day. |  
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