"A Worker may be the hammer's master, but the hammer still prevails...."
Milan Kundera, writer
Hammers—tools for striking or pounding—have been around for millions of years in the form of specially shaped stones used to break or shape other stones, bones, or wood. They are most commonly associated with woodworking. But after the invention of the nail, someone realized it would be very useful to be able to insert and remove nails with the same tool. Nails were valuable, and a carpenter who hammered one at the wrong angle would have rescued and reused it. Thus, the claw hammer was born.
A claw hammer has a two-sided head attached to a handle and can be said to be roughly T-shaped. One side of the head is the striking surface and is usually flat. The other side is a rounded or angled wedge and is used for removing nails. Archeologists found an iron claw hammer at Pompeii that was buried in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 C.E. First-century Romans were skilled at making nails; archeologists found almost 900,000 at the Roman fortress of Inchtuthil in Scotland that the garrison had abandoned in the late 80s C.E.
Various types of claw hammers were patented between 1867 and 1941. For many years, the hammer was the principal tool for carpenters and builders. However, since the invention of the nail gun in the 1950s, builders have increasingly been relying on them instead of hammers for their nailing needs because they are easier, faster, and more fun to use. The fact that they provide inexperienced home contractors with the capability to leave a plethora of nails in our walls is, of course, merely a side effect of the new technology.
