Monkey wrench

[1] Adjustable coach wrenches for the odd-sized nuts of wagon wheels were manufactured in England and exported to North America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

After 1939, its successor companies manufactured monkey wrenches from Coes designs until the mid-1960s, a production run of over 120 years.

It is thought to be called so because it was useful for the less common imperial ("English") screws and nuts in continental Europe when only metric open-end or ring wrenches were available.

"Monkey" is not its name at all, Charles Moncky, the inventor of it, sold his patent for $5000, and invested the money in a house in Williamsburg, Kings County, where he now lives.

[11][12] Although this story was refuted by historical and patent research in the late 19th century,[3] it appears to have been inspired by a real person.

Similarly, the Engineer class in Team Fortress 2, also published by Valve, uses a monkey wrench as his base melee weapon.