54 Business View Magazine - August 2016
Grease Monkey
Car care company continues on a roll
The term “grease monkey” is said to have originated in
Great Britain during the Industrial Revolution. Prior to
the widespread use of electric motors small enough to
be connected to each piece of machinery on a factory
floor, power was distributed from a centralized steam
engine to the individual work stations through the use
of line shafts and their many component parts - gears,
belts, axles, pulleys, and bearings. The line shaft ran
along the building’s ceiling and all of its elements had
to be continually lubricated. The small boys whose job
it was to crawl amid the tight spaces in the ceilings
to do this dirty job seemed to resemble a bunch of
grease-covered monkeys to the workers toiling below
them.
Years later, the term began being applied to mechan-
ics, and more specifically to car mechanics, who like
their factory forebears, were oftentimes stained with
the various greases and oils needed to keep the com-
ponent parts of an automobile running smoothly.
But that was then. Today, the term “grease monkey” is
more widely known as the corporate brand of Grease
Monkey International, Inc. the nation’s largest, inde-
