Scope and Contents

Catalog and Salesman's Fact Book, 1921-1925, and "A Story of Shears and Scissors". The book includes a 1925 Wiss Catalog of scissors, snips, and shears and a 1925 catalog of Kraeuter and Company Inc., Newark,manufacturers of pliers, wrenches, chisels, automobile and machinists' tools and ticket punches. Also, numerous price lists and advertisements for the tools, apparently clipped from publications.

Biographical / Historical

J. Wiss & Sons Company was founded in 1848 by Jacob Wiss, a thirty-one-year-old immigrant from Switzerland who was an experienced cutler and gunsmith. The company, headed by Wiss and his descendants in Newark, N.J., emphasized high quality in its products, which became known world-wide and sold to the U.S. Government in the Civil War and the two World Wars. In 1914, Wiss acquired the manufacturing facilities of a competitor and became the largest producer of fine scissors and shears in the world. Following World War I, Wiss weathered a severe depression in scissors markets, partly caused by dumping of European products. Increased U.S. help remedied this situation. Cooper Industries purchased the company in 1976. After the purchase, the factory remained in Newark for a few years, then was moved south, and finally manufacturing was done overseas. According to a message from Don Wiss (April 22, 2010), Cooper bought the product line and the Wiss name to add to the other names they use in their Hand Tool Group (e.g., Weller, Lufkin, Crescent, Nicholson, etc).