100 Fun Facts About Tools

According to a 2012 find near Kenya's Lake Turkana, the use of simple hammers dates back roughly how far?

Stone hammers and anvils at the Lomekwi 3 site are about 3.3 million years old, older than the earliest known Homo fossils; hafted hammers with handles only appear around 30,000 BCE.

The Oldowan stone tools are named after which site in Tanzania?

Louis Leakey found the first of these simple choppers and flakes at Olduvai Gorge in the 1930s; the industry is the oldest widespread stone-tool tradition, beginning about 2.6 million years ago.

The screwdriver was probably invented in the late 15th century in which two countries?

The first documented screwdrivers appeared in Germany or France around 1475-1500, turning the hand-made screws that held together plate armour and matchlock firearms.

The Phillips cross-head drive is widely criticised for which tendency under high torque?

Camming out, the driver riding up and out of the recess as torque rises, is the Phillips head's notorious flaw; Pozidriv and other later recesses were designed to resist it.

Which carmaker first adopted Henry Phillips's cross-head screws on its assembly lines in 1936?

General Motors put Phillips screws on its 1936 Cadillac line, drawn by a recess that self-centred power drivers; Phillips had bought the design from inventor John P. Thompson.

The square-socket Robertson screw is especially common in which country?

Canada took to Peter Robertson's 1908 square drive so completely that it remains the default there; Henry Ford used them on Canadian-built Model Ts but was refused a licence for his US plants.

The six-pointed star-shaped Torx drive was developed in 1967 by which company?

Camcar Textron, a Rockford, Illinois fastener maker, introduced Torx in 1967; its star recess resists slipping under torque, winning it a place in cars and electronics, and a security version adds a pin.

'Allen', the everyday name for a hex key, is a registered trademark of a company from which US city?

The Allen Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, trademarked the name around 1910; in Denmark and Norway the tool is often called an Unbrako key after a rival brand.

What do the British, Irish, Australians and New Zealanders call a wrench?

In American English, 'spanner' means a specialised wrench with pins or tabs around its rim.

The Swedish company Bahco credits which inventor with the modern adjustable wrench, patented in 1892?

Johan Petter Johansson patented his adjustable spanner in 1892 and built it at his Enköping works, which became Bahco; Americans know the type as a Crescent wrench after a later US maker.

According to the popular but false story, the monkey wrench was named after an inventor called what?

The Charles Moncky story has no patent or record behind it; 'monkey wrench' was already in print in the 1840s, and the name may simply liken the adjustable jaws to a monkey's face.

The first locking pliers, sold as Vise-Grip, were invented in 1924 by William Petersen in which state?

William Petersen, a Danish immigrant blacksmith in DeWitt, Nebraska, patented the locking pliers in 1924; the toggle action locks the jaws over-centre, and in Britain the tool is a Mole wrench.

A precursor of the modern chainsaw was developed around 1830 by Bernhard Heine for what purpose?

Heine's osteotome, a hand-cranked chain of cutting teeth, was a bone surgery instrument that cut without splintering; Aitken and Jeffray had used a chain saw for symphysiotomy in the 1780s.

Which company patented an electric chainsaw for logging sites in 1926 and a petrol one in 1929?

Andreas Stihl founded the firm to mass-produce them.

The first portable handheld electric drill was built in 1895 by the Fein brothers in which city?

Wilhelm and Carl Fein built the first portable electric drill at their Stuttgart firm in 1895, a heavy machine braced against the user's chest; the company dates from 1867.

Which Baltimore-born company patented the pistol-grip, trigger-switch electric drill in 1917?

Black & Decker, founded in a Baltimore machine shop in 1910, patented the pistol-grip drill in 1917 and later built cordless tools for NASA's Gemini and Apollo programmes.

Which company began making Swiss Army knives in Ibach, Switzerland, in 1891?

Karl Elsener's Ibach workshop delivered its first soldier's knives in 1891 and took the name Victorinox in 1921, from his mother Victoria and 'inox', stainless steel; rival Wenger was absorbed in 2005.

Who popularised the English term 'Swiss Army knife' in place of the German Offiziersmesser?

US soldiers after World War II bought the knives in PX stores and, unable to say Offiziersmesser, called them Swiss Army knives; the term stuck worldwide.

What was Tim Leatherman trying to repair on a 1975 trip when he thought up his multi-tool?

A Fiat 600 car he and his wife Chau bought in Amsterdam for $300 kept breaking down across Europe; the resulting Pocket Survival Tool first sold in 1983.

Leatherman Tool Group is based in which US city?

Leatherman Tool Group has been based in Portland, Oregon, since its 1983 founding and makes its pliers-based multi-tools there; Tim Leatherman started it with partner Steve Berliner.

What does the name WD-40 stand for?

Water Displacement, 40th formula records the 40th attempt at a rust-preventing solvent by San Diego's Rocket Chemical Company in 1953; Convair first used it on Atlas missile skins, and it was never patented.

Which company's Revolite division developed the WWII cloth tape that became duct tape?

It has flown on every NASA mission since Gemini and helped jury-rig the CO2 filters on Apollo 13.

Which spiral wood-boring bit with a screw point is traditionally turned in a brace?

An auger bit's screw tip pulls it into the wood while its spiral flutes lift the chips; its square tang fits the chuck of a hand brace.

Why is a spirit level called a 'spirit' level?

Its vial is filled with alcohol, which has a lower freezing point and viscosity than water so the bubble moves freely; Melchisédech Thévenot devised the instrument by 1661.

The 'plumb' in plumb bob comes from the Latin word for which metal?

Lead is plumbum in Latin, the root of both 'plumb bob' and 'plumber'; the dense metal makes a compact weight that pulls the line straight down.

Which Greek mathematician said that with a long enough lever and a place to stand he could move the world?

Archimedes, who set out the law of the lever in On the Equilibrium of Planes, is quoted by Pappus of Alexandria: 'Give me a place to stand and I will move the Earth.'

Conrad Bahr, who claimed to invent the first torque-limiting tool in 1918, worked for which employer?

At the New York City Water Department, Bahr wanted flange bolts on water mains tightened evenly; he and George Pfefferle later patented an adjustable ratcheting torque wrench in 1935.

The vernier scale on a caliper is named after a French mathematician who invented it in which year?

Pierre Vernier described his secondary scale in a 1631 treatise on a new quadrant; the offset graduations let a reader interpolate between the main scale's marks.

The Dremel rotary tool company was founded in 1932 in which Wisconsin city?

Albert J. Dremel, an Austrian-born inventor, set up the Dremel Manufacturing Company in Racine, on Wisconsin's Lake Michigan shore, in 1932; the firm later passed to Emerson Electric and then Bosch.

Tabitha Babbitt, credited with inventing the circular saw in 1813, belonged to which religious group?

The Shakers of Harvard, Massachusetts, counted Babbitt among them; she reputedly attached a circular blade to her spinning wheel after watching men waste half their effort on the pit saw's return stroke.

'Sawzall', the generic American name for a reciprocating saw, was which company's trade name?

Milwaukee first produced one in 1951.

Raymond DeWalt, who founded his company in Pennsylvania in 1924, invented which machine?

Black & Decker bought DeWalt in 1960 and sold off the radial arm saw business in 1989.

The Stanley Works traces back to a bolt factory founded in 1843 in which Connecticut city?

New Britain was where Frederick T. Stanley opened his bolt and hinge shop in 1843; the company stayed in the city through its growth into a global toolmaker and its 2010 merger.

In the UK and Australia, a retractable box cutter is generically known by which brand name?

The name comes from Stanley Works' prominent brand; Americans say box cutter.

Makita, the Japanese power-tool giant founded in 1915, began by selling and repairing what?

Mosaburo Makita opened Makita Electric Works in Nagoya in 1915 to sell and repair lighting gear, motors and transformers; its first power tool, a portable electric planer, came in 1958.

Snap-on, the professional tool company, was founded in 1920 in which city?

Joseph Johnson and William Seidemann started Snap-on in Milwaukee in 1920 with interchangeable sockets that snapped onto five handles; the company moved to Kenosha, Wisconsin, in 1930.

Craftsman tools were originally a house brand of which retailer?

Sears registered Craftsman in 1927 and had outside makers build the tools to its specification; the brand was sold in 2017, leaving Sears with only a licence to keep stocking it.

The first nail gun, introduced in 1950, was powered by what?

Air pressure drove the 1950 pneumatic gun, which could sink 40 to 60 nails a minute into floor sheathing and sub-floors in house construction.

The conical projection on the end of an anvil, used for bending, is called what?

The horn, the tapering round end, gives the smith a curved surface for bending and drawing out; continental anvils often carry two, one round and one square.

The Pozidriv screw drive, an improved Phillips, was developed in 1962 by which company?

GKN Screws and Fasteners developed Pozidriv in 1962, adding small radial ribs so the driver seats deeper and slips less under torque; a Phillips driver fits a Pozidriv screw only loosely.

In professional wrestling, the sledgehammer is the signature weapon of which star?

Triple H made the sledgehammer his trademark weapon in WWE from the turn of the century, swinging it in feuds with Mick Foley, The Undertaker and Batista.

Wooden hammer handles are traditionally made from ash or which other shock-absorbing wood?

Hickory, dense yet springy, absorbs shock and resists splitting, which is why it shares handle duty with ash; fibreglass handles resist rot but transmit more vibration.

A dead blow hammer barely bounces back because its hollow head is filled with what?

The loose filling keeps moving after the face stops, spreading the impact over a longer moment and killing the rebound.

Some of the oldest illustrations of pliers show which Greek god at work in his forge?

Hephaestus, the Greek smith god, appears in ancient vase paintings gripping hot metal with tongs, the ancestors of pliers, which developed from the Bronze Age onward.

Gunsmiths traditionally call a screwdriver by which old name?

Turnscrew mirrors the French tournevis; gunsmiths kept the word because the tool was refined by armourers who constantly needed to replace the pyrites in wheellock guns.

The Russian nickname for an angle grinder honours which country, which supplied the USSR's first ones?

Bulgaria supplied the Soviet Union's first mass-market angle grinders in the 1970s, so Russian speakers call the tool a 'bolgarka'; Germans say 'Flex', after the firm Ackermann + Schmitt, which built the 1954 original.

Which Shakespeare play includes the line 'Get me an iron crow', meaning a crowbar?

Romeo and Juliet has Friar Laurence demand 'Get me an iron crow' to break into the Capulet tomb; the tool's name likely comes from its beak-like or claw-like end.

Non-sparking hammers for coal mines and refineries are made of aluminium or which alloy?

Beryllium copper and aluminium bronze heads are too soft and low in iron to strike a spark that could ignite methane or fuel vapour, which is why mines and refineries pay extra for them.

Surveyors' measuring tapes may be made of which alloy for its very low thermal expansion?

Invar is a nickel-iron alloy that barely changes length with temperature, so a long tape reads the same on a hot afternoon as at dawn.

Which hand plane, with a low-angle bevel-up blade, is the standard choice for end grain?

A block plane carries a single bevel-up iron at a low angle, typically 12 to 20 degrees, so it shears end grain cleanly; jack and jointer planes are for long faces.

Which bathroom tool did confectioner John Hawley invent in 1874, naming it a 'vent-clearer'?

Plunger sales began under the name 'force cup', and the flattened rim that seals against a drain was added two years after the original design.

Which primatologist proved animals make tools by watching a chimpanzee fish for termites with grass?

Jane Goodall's report led her mentor Louis Leakey to reply that science would have to rethink its definitions of both 'tool' and 'man', or else count chimpanzees as human.

Which small hole-boring hand tool for wood shares its name with a cocktail of gin and lime?

Gimlet may have reached the bar because the drink was thought as piercing as the tool, though a rival story credits a Royal Navy surgeon named Gimlette.

Which DIY retail giant was founded in 1978 by two executives newly fired from the Handy Dan chain?

The Home Depot was the comeback of Bernard Marcus and Arthur Blank, Handy Dan's chief executive and vice president, who lost their jobs in a corporate power struggle.

Which ceremonial hammer of American judges and auctioneers has never been used by judges in Britain?

Gavel-banging British judges exist only on screen: across the Commonwealth and Ireland the bench has never used one, an error spread by American-influenced TV dramas.

Which sharpening stone is named after an old verb for sharpening, not after water as many assume?

Whetstone comes from the verb 'whet', to sharpen a blade, not from 'wet', even though many of the stones are lubricated with water or oil.

Which self-locking nylon fastener was invented in 1958 to bundle the wiring inside aircraft?

Cable ties were dreamed up by Maurus Logan after a 1956 tour of a Boeing plant, and first went on sale under the brand name Ty-Rap.

Which household adhesive was stumbled upon in 1942 by chemists seeking clear plastic for gunsights?

Super glue was rejected at first because it stuck to everything it touched; Harry Coover's team rediscovered it in 1951 and it went on sale in 1958.

Which one-handed axe gave English a peacemaking idiom, after a custom attributed to the Iroquois?

Hatchet heads differ from a plain axe by carrying a hammerhead on the back, and the peace idiom recalls an Iroquois tradition of putting weapons away after a treaty.

Ron Hickman, who invented the Workmate workbench, designed the Elan sports car for which marque?

Lotus designer Hickman got the Workmate idea in 1961, when he used an expensive Swedish chair as a sawhorse while building a wardrobe and sawed its leg off.

Which nail-driving tool with a forked prying end appears in Albrecht Dürer's print Melencolia I?

Claw hammer leverage grows with a longer handle and a deeper curve, while its heavier cousin for house framing has a checkered face that stops it skidding off the nail.

Which American folk hero beat a steam-powered drill with his hammer, then died from the effort?

John Henry may have been real: records traced by one historian point to a contest at Virginia's Lewis Tunnel, where prisoners worked beside steam drills night and day.

Which workshop abrasive was first recorded in 13th-century China, made of crushed shells and seeds?

Sandpaper that can be used wet came much later: an ink maker from Philadelphia, Francis Okie, invented the waterproof kind, which 3M released in 1921.

Plumber's tape, wound around threaded joints to seal them, is a film of which material?

Teflon tape is usually white, but in some countries coloured versions match what the plumbing carries: yellow for natural gas and green for oxygen.

Which handheld device locates hidden wall framing by sensing nails or changes in density?

Stud finder models were purely magnetic until 1977, when Robert Franklin's capacitor-based design began sensing density changes inside the wall.

Which car tool for loosening wheel nuts is known in the UK and Australia as a wheel brace?

Lug wrench designs kept in car boots are often L-shaped with a flat prying tip, which is there to lever off the hubcap hiding the nuts.

Which marking tool has a flat, rectangular body that helps stop it rolling away?

Carpenter's pencil makers have used the flat shape since about 1560, when graphite was pushed into hollowed juniper sticks; most users sharpen one with a knife.

Which marking tool leaves a straight guide when its dye-coated string is pulled taut and snapped?

Chalk line reels can mark guides far longer than any straightedge, and they work even on rough timber that has no squared edge to measure from.

Which Finnish company, founded as an ironworks in 1649, is best known for orange-handled scissors?

Fiskars settled on orange by an internal vote in 1967, after making prototype scissors with handles in three other colours.

Which psychologist is linked to the adage that someone with only a hammer sees every task as a nail?

Abraham Maslow put the idea in a 1966 book, though philosopher Abraham Kaplan had said much the same two years earlier about a small boy given a hammer.

Which mechanism lets a socket driver turn a nut with back-and-forth swings, without lifting off?

Ratchet handles with swappable sockets go back to 1863, when J. J. Richardson of Woodstock, Vermont, patented the idea.

Which plumber's tool with hardened, serrated jaws was patented in 1869 by Daniel Stillson?

Pipe wrench teeth are harder than the metal they grip, so they bite into a round surface instead of slipping; Stillson licensed the design to several makers.

Which brand of adjustable hand tool did Lindbergh carry, with pliers, on his 1927 Atlantic flight?

Crescent was only twenty years old as a tool company, founded in 1907, when its wrench joined sandwiches and a bottle of water on Lindbergh's very short packing list.

An axe blade and a chisel tip are both examples of which of the six classical simple machines?

Wedge-shaped edges trade distance for force: a long push on the blunt end becomes a short, powerful shove sideways, which is what splits wood fibres apart.

Which decorating aid did 3M's Richard Drew create in 1925 after watching frustrated car painters?

Masking tape came from Drew seeing body-shop workers fume as they peeled off butcher paper stuck to cars they were painting; he saw the need for a gentler adhesive.

Which part of a drill grips the bit in its jaws and is traditionally tightened with a small key?

Chuck designs that tighten by hand need no key at all, a convenience that is bought at the cost of some gripping force.

Which long-jawed gripping tool do jewellers and electricians use to bend and cut wire?

Needle-nose pliers are also known as snipe-nose pliers, and a cutting edge near the joint lets them sever wire as well as bend it.

Which long-handled tool uses compound hinges to slice through padlocks, chains and steel rebar?

Bolt cutters pair long handles with short blades, and the compound hinges multiply the leverage; the tool is also known as a bolt cropper.

Which early human species, long linked with stone tools, has a Latin name meaning 'handy man'?

Homo habilis was placed in our own genus partly because its fossils lay with stone tools, which were then taken as proof of advanced thinking.

Which hand tool, once just a metal bit heated in a fire, melts filler metal to join wires?

Soldering iron production went electric on a large scale in Detroit in 1894; before that the bit had to be reheated over a fire or a charcoal brazier whenever it cooled.

Which DIY insert, letting screws grip brick or plaster, first won fame at the British Museum?

Wall plug sales took off after the First World War, when fitting electric lights into old buildings coincided with a labour shortage; John Rawlings had launched it in 1911 as the Rawlplug.

Which cone-shaped cutter lets a flat-head screw sit flush by widening the mouth of a drilled hole?

Countersink cuts are conical, unlike a counterbore, which leaves a flat-bottomed hole of the kind used for socket-head cap screws.

Which pointed steel tool is struck to leave a dimple in metal, so that a drill bit will not wander?

Center punch tips are ground to between 60 and 90 degrees, and automatic versions do the job without any hammer blow at all.

Which coarse filing tool with individually cut teeth do farriers use to trim a horse's hoof?

Rasp grades run from the finest, called 'cabinet', to the coarsest, called 'wood', and the tool comes in rectangular, round and half-round shapes.

Which machinist's striking tool has one flat face and one domed face for rounding off rivets?

Ball-peen hammer blows from the rounded face harden a metal surface by impact, a process called peening, while the flat face is the one for striking chisels.

Which pair of architect's tools forms the single most recognisable emblem of Freemasonry?

Square and compasses have no single official meaning in Freemasonry; one 1866 manual says they teach members to act squarely and to keep within bounds.

Which hand-squeezed tool, also called a trigger tacker, fastens carpet, insulation and house wrap?

Staple gun springs store the energy of each squeeze, whereas the related hammer tacker is swung so that its own momentum does the driving.

Which slotted woodworking guide holds a hand saw at a fixed angle, usually 45 degrees?

Miter box slots are cut into the sides at the exact angle needed; wooden versions are fixed, while metal ones can be set anywhere between 45 and 90 degrees.

Which thread-cutting tool works inside a drilled hole, while its partner, the die, threads a rod?

Tap threads are the 'female' half of a pair, like those in a nut, and medieval builders cut the same kind of thread in huge wooden nuts for windmills and winches.

What is the term for the slot a saw leaves, whose width woodworkers must allow for when measuring?

Kerf adds up: cut an eight-foot board into one-foot lengths with a blade an eighth of an inch thick and the last piece comes out seven-eighths of an inch short.

What is the name for the tail of a file, chisel or knife blade that extends into the handle?

Tang length matters to knife buyers: a 'full' one runs the whole length of the handle, with the two halves of the grip pinned or glued on either side of it.

Which metal band binds a paintbrush's bristles to the handle and holds a chisel blade in place?

Ferrule is a corruption of the Latin for 'small bracelet', with its spelling pulled towards ferrum, the Latin word for iron.

Which small nail-pulling pry bar takes its name from the shape of its notched head?

Cat's paw heads are driven into the timber around a sunken nail to lever it out, which tears up the surface, so the tool suits demolition far better than finish work.

Which sheet-metal cutters have red, green or yellow grips showing which way they cut?

Aviation snips were first developed to cut aluminium for aircraft; red grips cut curves to the left, green to the right, and yellow in a straight line.

Which small woodworking tool is named after the cart-wheel rods that it shapes and smooths?

Spokeshave blades also shape chair legs, paddles, bows and arrows, and the name goes back at least to the 16th century, when the body of the tool was still made of wood.

Which wildfire hand tool, an axe backed by a digging blade, is named after a US forest ranger?

Pulaski heads pair an axe with an adze for cutting firebreaks; ranger Ed Pulaski, credited with the design in 1911, was famous for saving his crew in Idaho's Great Fire of 1910.

Which Pennsylvania plier maker renamed itself in 1963 after its best-known tongue-and-groove design?

Channellock began as the trademark for one design of pliers, and the name grew so synonymous with the product that the Champion–DeArment Tool Company adopted it.

Which lightweight tool has a magnetised face that upholsterers spit small nails onto from the mouth?

Tack hammer makers were patenting magnetised versions as early as 1861, and some split the magnetic face in two to strengthen its hold.

Which long-shafted plumbing tool has a pivoting jaw for reaching the nuts behind a kitchen faucet?

Basin wrench jaws tighten their grip as the shaft is turned harder, and the head swivels so the tool can work in recesses that no ordinary wrench can reach.

Britons call locking pliers after which UK toolmaker, which began producing them in 1955?

Mole grips followed an American invention closely: M.K. Mole and Son, managed by Tom Coughtrie, began making nearly identical pliers some three decades after the original.