Cosmo Chronicle19c.Indd
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smopolitan Chronicl CoTrue tales from the annals of history, archaeology, construction, and e restoration of the Casa de Bandini and Cosmopolitan Hotel. Old Town San Diego State Historic Park VOL. I, No. 20 San Diego, Alta California, July 25, 2008 Price: Free Tools and Materials, Now and for use with chisels, and driving backed steel serrated blade with Then.. Part 3 in trunnels (wooden pegs or a wooden handle, was introduced WILLIAM F. MENNELL dowels, literally meaning “tree in the 1600s. Today’s saws are San Diego Coast District nail.”) Trunnels were used in ship almost identical to the ones used District Services Manager building, and mortise and tenon to build Bandini’s home, and joints during the construction of the lthough many tools The chisel is almost as old as Cosmopolitan. have been improved or the hammer. Early chisels made The square is another very old tool A invented recently, the out of fl int dating back 10,000 of extreme importance. A military fundamental tools of the carpenter years have been discovered. As formation described in a fourth have been used for centuries: the hammers are often used jointly century B.C. Chinese military hammer, chisel, saw, square, level, with chisels, it is not surprising manual, is called “carpenter’s measuring device, drill, and plane. they evolved together, made of square formation.” The square The hammer: Multi-purpose the strongest materials available. was used in all areas of the ancient hammerstones have been used world, just as it is today. As the for millions of years, and there The saw is so important that right angle of the square gives is no doubt the hammer was the both the ancient Greeks and it its importance, great care has fi rst tool used by humans. In Chinese had a hero accredited always been exercised in its use California, hammerstones for with its invention. The hand saw and storage. making other chipped stone tools, as we know it today, i.e., a non- The laser level coming into its own and for pulverizing meat and today was obviously not available plants, have been around for at to carpenters in the 19th century. least 12,000 years. But the “spirit level” a glass tube Around the fourth century B.C., with a bubble in it, attached to a wooden handles were added to very straight piece of wood may hammers. Handles were initially have been. There are many ways tied to the head, and much later to fi nd level. One of the earliest a hole was bored into the head and simplest is a bowl fi lled with to secure it to the handle. The water. Another early method hammer has evolved through the is an A-frame level, which has Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron a weight attached with a string Age to today’s alloys. There are at the apex of the A, and lines over 250 types of hammers in up to marks on the cross piece. production today. A-frame levels were used from Carpenters during the time of ancient times to the mid 1800s. both Bandini, and Seeley, also Both Bandini’s and Seeley’s commonly used a mallet—a builders may have employed hammer with a wooden head-- them. .