quote from Wikapedia
"The beam type torque wrench was developed in the late 1920s/early 1930s by Walter Percy Chrysler for the Chrysler Corporation and a company known as Micromatic Hone. Paul Allen Sturtevant"”a sales representative for the Cedar Rapids Engineering Company at that time"”was licensed by Chrysler to manufacture his invention. Sturtevant patented the torque wrench in 1938 and became the first individual to sell torque wrenches."