Hammer

A hammer is a hand or mechanically driven tool that using its accelerated mass (mostly) exerts heavy blows to the body. When performed by hand hammering this is depending on its mass and unused stem length he is after lifting ( strike out ) from the hand, elbow or shoulder joint - accelerated out - or two-handed hold from the upper body.

The hammer belongs in a style -less variant as a hand ax ( from worked stone with a proven age of 1.75 million years ago ) is probably one of the oldest tools of humankind.

Active principles

For efficient transfer of momentum and energy, it is favorable to the driving part to the hammer mass - select adapted - as a nail, grains, pry bar or chisel. Only when hammered down support gravity. Carpenters and glaziers lead the side in accordance with ( slightly oblique ) plane hammers horizontal wooden or glass surfaces precisely in an inner edge. By means of short and stiff wire ( rope ) or chain pull bar can swing hammer also be transformed into traction for pulling out of the tent nails or contraction of engineered flooring planks.

To edit material directly to flatten, deform, such as driving and forging, or even to separate destructive or crushing, also a right head shape of fairly flat is required on spherical to a point. Hammer heads can be made ​​of hardened steel, but also of relatively soft copper, plastic or wood. A groove with bay and magnet on an upper side of the hammer head can be used for holding an iron nail for the first blow, allowing one-handed nailing. With a conical slot, a nail may be coated with the hammer head using as a lever.

Construction

The hammer is composed of a head and a stem. The hammer head has mostly a run and a Finn. As Finn is called the wedge- shaped tapering part of a hammer head. This part of the hammer is also called tiller or narrow web. The flat or spherically shaped striking face of a hammer is called path. The cross section of a track can be circular, oval, rectangular or rarely even octagonal.

Most the fin ( tiller ) runs transversely to the handle. If the fin extends along the stem, called the hammer Sledge hammer. The fin is located either centrally to the hammer head (eg peen hammer ) or displaced downwards (eg carpenters hammer ). The fin is usually rounded. The radius of curvature depends on the intended use. A blacksmith's hammer ( for joinery and metal sculptor ) has a large radius, the peen hammer he is much smaller, and the mason hammer over there has a cutting edge. The hammer head can have a mass from a few grams to several kilograms. Large mechanical hammers (eg, in industrial machining steel ) have a weight of several tons. The shaft is mounted in a forged or cast elliptical, occasionally circular (bricklayers hammer ) opening in the hammer head, the eye with a wedge. The middle part of the hammer head is called home.

In addition to classic hammers ( a car and a fin ), there are those with two paths ( for example, sledge hammers, hammers, Bossierhämmer, Polstererhämmer ) or with two fins ( scaling hammers ). Less common are purely single-track versions, such as by clamping, Pritsch and polishing hammers or forging hammers from East Asia such as Japan. American hammers often have a spherically shaped side instead of a dorsal fin, the hammer mass is cylindrical and the railway therefore circular round. Such hammers are ideal for blowing and riveting work.

History

The hammer is one of the oldest tools. The original form of the hammer is put into the hand of stone. Some monkeys use stones as percussion instruments to crack nuts. Primitive people are who behave similarly. The striking stones themselves were processed and found as bifaces over many thousands of years use. The first Hammers after today's definition originated in the Neolithic period with the development of stone axes.

In the Bronze Age, the stone head was replaced by a metal head. Since the smelting of metals hammers were used for forging. The mentioned in the creation story of Tubal- Cain is considered to be the progenitor of all blacksmiths. The Greek philosopher Pythagoras is said to have established on the basis of scientifically not appropriate legend, Pythagoras in the smithy on the basis of the observed by him sounds of hammers, the music theory.

Use

Usually hammers are used in various areas of production. Among other things, the battering, the hammering and shaping. So can be tucked into another body with a hammer an object such as a nail in a wall. By means of a chisel or punches can the re-formed with the hammer kinetic energy precisely and dosed onto the workpiece act.

Often workpieces are formed from sheet metal so when driving or of solid iron forging. When thinning, a narrow strip of the sheet is such as a scythe, sickle faces or expelled by the fin of the hammer on an anvil to a very thin edge and the scythe sharpened so.

But there are also hammers that do not serve the production. The uses are many and varied; they range from the purely acoustic perception in public areas to the symbolic- ceremonial use. Examples include the Gavel, the auction hammer ( at auction ), the lodges hammer and the foundation stone hammer. Another exception constitutes the reflex hammer of the physician

Species

Manually operated hammers

There are different applications for different hammer forms:

• Anreibhammer ( for floorings and veneers )
• Orange crate hammer ( for opening shipping boxes made ​​of wood)
• Auction hammer with shock block
• Pecker ( body work )
• Ball Hammer ( special form of the set hammer )
• Lead hammer
• Dengel hammer
• Fäustel
• Rockhammer
• Meat hammer
• Tiles hammer
• Veneer hammer
• Geologist's hammer (pick- and shovel hammer )
• Goldsmith hammer
• Foundation stone hammer
• Rubber mallet
• Driving Hammer ( for driving and pulling horseshoe nails )
• Engineer Hammer ( English peen hammer )
• Japanese hammer ( Genno )
• Cap hammer ( for loosening and opening of valve and hydrant caps in the water supply and the fire brigade )
• Scaling hammer to remove scale
• Claw hammer ( carpenter's hammer, common in Anglo-Saxon )
• Mallet ( wooden hammer of the carpenter or carpenter )
• Knüpfel or mallet ( wooden hammer stonemason or sculptor )
• Sledge hammer (see description flatter and sledgehammer )
• Warhammer
• Ball-peen hammer ( for driving metal)
• Plastic hammer ( mallet )
• Copper hammer
• Roofing hammer ( carpenter's hammer )
• Lodges Hammer ( in Freemasonry )
• Mason hammer
• Emergency Hammer
• Percussion hammer ( used in the medical field reflex hammer )
• Pflastererhammer
• Plattenleger Hammer
• Poldi hammer
• Polishing hammer
• Polstererhammer
• Gavel
• Röhrenabklopfhammer
• Schellhammer ( special form of the set hammer )
• Slate Hammer (Tool the roofer / slater )
• Chipping hammer (also welders hammer ) to remove the slag during manual metal arc welding
• Hammer and chisel in mining
• Planishing hammer ( a hammer auxiliary ) for finishing the refinement of a coarse- forged material to achieve a flat surface as possible.

• Peen hammer
• Forging hammer (often forged by the blacksmith himself)
• Carpenter hammer
• Shoemakers hammer
• Sensenhammer
• Flatter
• Sick hammer
• Maul (different types of wood or stone)
• Clamping hammer
• Driving hammer ( for driving metal)
• Watchmaker hammer
• Sledgehammer ( Mottek, Lehmann, Bello )
• Ziselierhammer (often with a rounded turret handle)
• Sugar hammer ( for breaking the Sugar Loaf )
• Sliding hammer
• Hammer hammer

Mechanically operated hammers

Already through the use of hydropower, but no later than with the industrialization they invented also machines that understand the function of the hand hammer:

• Demolition Hammer
• Rotary Hammer
• Monkey ( Schabottenhammer, Vertical Hammer)
• Spring Monkeys

• Retaliation Hammer
• Hammer mill
• HiFIT hammer (pneumatic hammer for post-weld grinding procedure)
• Hydraulic hammer
• Air hammer ( the blacksmith takes the hard physical work in open die forging from )
• Pochwerk
• Jackhammer
• Tail hammer

Hammer works

After drive technology:

• Steam hammer
• Water hammer

By product:

• Iron hammer, hammer mill of iron smelting
• Beilhammer
• Drahthammer
• Shovel hammer
• Sensenhammer
• Rod and Zaineisenhammer, fine forging hammer
• Waffenhammer

In acoustics, there is also the Tapping Machine, which is used for impact sound measurements.

Symbolism

The hammer is a symbol of strength and activity. As the typical tools and equipment, the forge, can deform the iron, it is also a powerful, fearsome aura but shall be attached at the same time.

The Germans interpreted the flash as a visible sign that thunder god Thor had thrown his hammer ( Mjolnir ) to Earth. But as the thunder god was also considered a protector of legal transactions and Keepers of the Land, the hammer was also used as a sacred device, such as for the determination of the right to land ( hammer throw ). In addition, Thor was considered responsible for the consecration of marriage, so that the hammer was also considered on the fruitful importance was attached to the thunderstorm as a symbol of fertility.

As mallet hammer is part of the miner character hammer and chisel, which symbolically for mining or work generally stands today.

In the flag of the former Soviet Union ( hammer and sickle ), the hammer is a symbol for the industry. In the state emblem of the GDR, the hammer was included as a symbol of the working class, as in the Republic of Austria, there for the workers without communist reference.

Hammer and spike in the state emblem of the GDR

Hammer, Sickle and mural crown in the federal coat of arms of Austria

Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, furnished in contemporary jewelry

The hammer is common coat of arms, see hammers in heraldry, Commons category

Idioms and proverbs

There are some phrases that relate to the hammer. Here would first know where the hammer hangs and show someone where the hammer hangs mentioned. While the former is means that the order signified in some very well knows, the latter is used as a synonym for it, if someone is reprimanded.

The second group of idioms revolves around auctions. Since these are finished in its original form with a hammer, you use the formulations come under the hammer or bring for things that will be auctioned under the hammer.

If the mind of a person is in doubt, is sometimes said that he had a hammer, which means that he behaves as if he had received a blow with the hammer on the head. A silly thing or person is referred to as " behämmert ".

Something that is particularly striking, impressive or shocking good " strikes " is also often referred to as the hammer.

The term sledgehammer approach refers to a clumsy and very direct style of mediation.

Drop the hammer is a euphemism for timely closing time.

If someone wants to circle his hammer, then he will usually start a fight. The origin comes from the forges, where it quickly went forth to edit the glowing workpiece quickly.

Be anvil or hammer from the poem " A andres " by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe from the cycle " Convivial Songs", which states that one must choose in life between: suffering or triumph (quote from the poem ).

The anvil lasts longer than the hammer. A proverb from Italy

Who only has a hammer, for every problem as a nail. Indonesian proverb

Last is still the phrase caught between hammer and anvil to mention stating that anyone caught between two fronts and quasi could be crushed with the force of a hammer is struck on the anvil forging. Or as saying: Who is between the anvil and hammer, which is not lacking in misery.

Since the Middle Ages (probably extinct ) twist is the slegel ( = hammer ) toss documented. Their meaning is not entirely clear, but it seems to refer to a farewell ritual.