We explain what a tool is, its types, history and characteristics. Also, differences with a machine.
What is a tool?
We commonly call tools to certain artifacts that serve to make more easily, precision or intensity certain mechanical work, for which they require the application of certain levels of strength physical on our part.
These are elaborate utensils that constitute an extension or a complement to our body. In other words, a tool is an instrument that maximizes our natural abilities and allows us to perform certain tasks in a better way.
Thus, where the human hand cannot drive the nail into the wood (or cannot do so without hurting itself in the process), the hammer does the job perfectly; or where the screw no longer tightens between the fingers, the screwdriver allows it to be tightened to the desired point.
The word tool comes from the Latin hardware (“tools”), a word used to refer in general to all kinds of utensils and which is made up of two voices: iron (“iron”) and the suffix mentum (“instrument”), given that the discovery of handling this metal was what allowed the manufacture of new and powerful tools in Antiquity.
However, the current concept of tool extends beyond metal utensils, and even beyond those used for manual tasks. Today it is possible to refer by that name also to pieces of software (like the spreadsheets either text processors), as long as they have a practical utility and make our work easier.
Tool Features
Broadly speaking, the tools have the following characteristics:
- They are human artifacts, that is, they must have been manufactured by the humanity in order to be used. This is true even for the most primitive tools, made of stone, as they had to be sharpened and trimmed before they could be used.
- Their mission is to facilitate human work, which they do by taking advantage of an initial push of physical force that they maximize or transform into another type of Energy. The more complex and developed the tool, the lower the initial physical force required from the user.
- Tools are indispensable for the vast majority of trades Y jobs, and in some cases are designed exclusively for them. Thus, the workers They tend to use certain tools, shoemakers others, artisans others, etc.
- They are usually made of metals and other materials of great hardness and resistance.
history of tools
Metal tools replaced stone tools.
The history of tools is as old as humanity itself. In fact, its manufacture is one of the first signs of our appearance on the face of the Earth, although we were not exactly the Homo sapiens, but other ancestral human species that lived around 3 million years ago.
The first tools that appeared were lithic tools, that is, made of stone or, at most, of solid animal bones. Their earliest uses were likely to separate the meat from the bone of prey, grind plant fibers, or crush bones left behind by large predators to gain access to the nutrient-rich marrow.
Later, these same tools allowed the appearance of stone weapons: axes, spears and other instruments of attack and defense, also useful for hunting wild animals.
These primitive tools were carved from rocks such as flint or obsidian. They were beaten and molded with other harder minerals, and combined with wood and fibers.
These materials were later replaced in a good part of the ancient cultures by metal, once the art of forging and iron and steel was known, to obtain more powerful tools. versatile and complex from copper, bronze and finally iron.
The impact of these metals on the making of human tools was such that the prehistory traditionally studied based on its appearance in different cultures: the Stone age, the Bronze Age, the iron age, etc.
tool types
Tools, roughly speaking, can be classified into three types: manual, mechanical and technological.
- Hand tools are those that use the physical force of the Body as a starting point, augmenting or focusing it in such a way that highly demanding tasks effort are done more easily. A perfect example of this is hammers (the human arm must make the blow), screwdrivers (the human hand must induce the rotation) or knives (the human arm must conduct the cut).
- Power tools, on the other hand, are those that use an external energy source as a starting point, and convert that energy into worked, either in combination with some degree of human physical exertion, or without it. For example, a hydraulic hammer uses electricity to crush cement, but still requires a person to hold and direct it; and a torch burns and melts the materials thanks to the combustion of certain flammable chemicals, but human strength must aim and hold it.
- Technological tools, finally, have a higher degree of complexity that allows them a higher level of automation, partially freeing the human body from its participation in the work. For example, Applications that we install on our phone and allow us to comfortably carry out tasks such as taking photos, scanning documents, timing time, etc.
In addition to this classification, tools can also be classified according to the specific function they perform, as follows:
- Assembly tools, used to assemble (or disassemble) furniture, parts or devices, such as screwdrivers or keys.
- Clamping tools, which are used to hold parts or materials and thus allow their safer handling (for the hands) or give them greater force. Examples of this are tweezers and pliers.
- Impact tools, which serve as their name indicates to impress force on a surface, maximizing the impact that the human hand could have. Examples of this are the hammer and the pickaxe.
- Cutting tools, used to separate or cut materials, such as scissors, knives or hacksaws.
- Joining tools, which are used to join parts or materials that are difficult to join, such as torches or silicone guns.
- Tools of measurement or layout, which serve to, precisely, to size and compare surfaces or compare magnitudes with others. This is the case of compasses, tape measures and squares.
Differences between machine and tool
The difference between tools and machines may not be so clear cut, especially when we consider the rapid advance of technology. technology from the 20th century.However, this distinction is mostly based on the fact of automation.
That is, a machine is an automated tool, which does not require the intervention of the user's body. Username (or requires very little intervention) to perform its tasks, as tools do to varying degrees.
In addition, the machines have a higher degree of complexity, since they usually involve components of a different nature, and have an immensely greater capacity for work. In general, tools are used to repair or maintain machines, and at the same time it is the machines that allow any type of tool to be mass-produced.