Construction is often the harbinger of great innovations that transform how we live our lives.
The ability to use, create and develop tools is one of the defining aspects of the human race, and few developments have been as transformative as the invention of the power tool and the effect it had on society.
The power tool is a rather broad concept that can include the kinds of electric cordless equipment that nearly every garage houses, as well as far more advanced and specialised equipment that is more likely to be a tool hire than a purchase outside of specialist construction.
Power tools are over a century old. However, their roots can be traced back to the dawn of civilisation itself.
The First Drills
The very first rotary tools actually predate the wheel by some time, with the Encyclopaedia Britannica citing the earliest example of holes being bored into objects happening tens of thousands of years ago.
The first drill machine is believed to be the bow drill, a device mostly used for starting fires that essentially involve tying a bowstring to a sharpened stick and turning a back and forth motion into a rotary motion more efficiently than attempting to drill by hand.
A more complicated version of this tool, the pump drill, would be first developed in Ancient Rome, and converted downward pushes on a crosspiece into rotations of a drill, which was an easier method than the sawing motion used in bow drills.
For the longest part of civilisation, drilling holes was undertaken like this, with the crosspieces eventually replaced by a hand crank by the 15th century, and a larger auger being used to drill larger holes.
It would take until the development of a completely new type of power generation before we would see the next major evolution in power tools.
Powering Construction
Electric motors capable of powering machinery would be invented by William Sturgeon in 1832 after over a century of experimentation into the properties of electricity. However, it would take until 1886 for the first direct current electric motor to actually become usable.
Whilst electric motors would transform transportation, agriculture, hygiene, food storage and almost every aspect of modern life, they would also have a profound effect on construction.
William Blanch Brain and Arthur James Arnot would patent the electric drill in 1889 as a means to improve rock cutters and industrial drilling tools, but it would not take long for a handheld drill to be invented.
Stuttgart brothers Wilhelm and Carl Fein created the world’s first portable electric drill in 1895, which resembles a drill press, except with the secure base removed. Fein still exists to this day, specialising in oscillating tools, grinders and electric screwdrivers.
Just 19 years later, Samual Black and Alonzo Decker would patent the pistol grip handheld electric drill that we still use with minor adjustments to this day. This design was easier to hold more accurately and featured a trigger switch which improved the safety of power tools whilst in use.
Since then, advancements in battery technology and cheaper mass production has made power tools available to a wide part of the population.