Sacramento daily record-union., 1882-12-23
WONDERS OF SIMPLE TOOLS.

A complicated engine, like the common
wood. worker, the printing press, a COM
pound lathe or various forms OF spinning
and weaving machines, is really one OF the
most wonderful things in the world. Most
of such contrivances are the product OF the
combined thought, study, experience and
ingenuity of generations and ages; yet
some of the simplest tools, either in their
construction or use, represent degree OF
ingenuity and manual skill which is aston
ishing. 4 common file is one of the sim.
plest Of tools to look at, and to careless
view one OF the easiest to make. Files
have been in use from the beginning and
rank with the hatchet and hammer In SIM
plicity and usefulness. From the time the
naked savage smoothed his arrow head
with bit of sharp, gritted stone, and the
handle of his clab with piece of dried fish
skin, to these days of finely finished work,
the race of man has employed some form
of file TO accomplish mechanical results
Yet the making of the hardened steel file
which is now SO universal requires a
delicacy of touch and exactness of
movement that is wonderful. The diagonal
cut upon the sides of common three.
cornered" file appear to the eye to be alb.
solutely regular. uniform in their relative
distance and alike in depth the keenest
vision is unable to detect any irregularity,
and their cutting seems to be the work OF
a delicate and accurate machine. A close
scrutiny also shows that the cuts grow
finer, closer and shallower by almost in-
perceptible degrees of variation as they
approach the tapering point. Upon the
smaller files of the regular sizes there are
more than 200 of these parallel cuts to the
inch, and in some Of delicate make, for
special purposes, this degree OF fineness is
greatly exceeded. Yet this wondrously
delicate and accurate work is done, not by
the aid OF machines with minute microme-
ter screws and gauges, but with a simple
hammer aud chisel in the workmans hand,
The advance OF the chisel upon the blank
at each cut of the 250th part of an inch,
neither more or less, is regulated simply
by the unaided sense of touch. The weight
OF the blow, also diminishing or increasing
at each stroke by fraction of an ounce as
the cutting approaches or recedes from the
point, is regulated solely by the Judgment
OF the workman. All this is done without
pause or hesitation to correct or re. lust,
and with rapidity which shows itself in
the cheapness of the finished file File
cutting is rendered still more delicate and
difficult by the varying hardness of the
same bit of steel at different points In its
surface, which would cause blows of equal
force to make cuts OF varying depth and
width. This unequal hardness must be
perceived as the cutting progresses, and
allowance must be made for it all through
the operation. Doubtless all this seems
easy enough to the practiced file-cutter,
and he does his work without even think
ing of these difficulties. Ye. the educa-
tion of hand, nerve and brain to such per-
lection of movement is certainly most
wonderful illustration of perfection at
tanned in the use of tools. For more than
one hundred years efforts have been made
to cut files by machinery, with only par.
tial and moderate success, the process,
simple as it appears, being too delicate for
less perfect instruments than the human
hand and brain.-[Builder and Wood
worker.