Misplaced Pages

Mortar and pestle

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

Raqefet Cave ( Cyclamen Cave ) is a Late Natufian archaeological site located in Mount Carmel in the north of Israel .

#261738

67-445: A mortar and pestle is a set of two simple tools used to prepare ingredients or substances by crushing and grinding them into a fine paste or powder in the kitchen , laboratory , and pharmacy . The mortar ( / ˈ m ɔːr t ər / ) is characteristically a bowl, typically made of hardwood, metal, ceramic , or hard stone such as granite . The pestle ( / ˈ p ɛ s əl / , also US : / ˈ p ɛ s t əl / )

134-541: A suribachi and surikogi , respectively. Granite mortars and pestles are used in Southeast Asia , as well as Pakistan and India . In India , it is used extensively to make spice mixtures for various delicacies as well as day-to-day dishes. With the advent of motorized grinders, the use of the mortar and pestle has decreased. It is traditional in various Hindu ceremonies (such as weddings, and upanayanam ) to crush turmeric in these mortars. In Malay , it

201-513: A "Birth Choice tool": The tool encourages women to consider out-of-hospital settings where appropriate, and the idea of a "toolkit" is used by the International Labour Organization to describe a set of processes applicable to improving global labour relations . A telephone is a communication tool that interfaces between two people engaged in conversation at one level. It also interfaces between each user and

268-497: A 2010 study suggests the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis ate meat by carving animal carcasses with stone implements. This finding pushes back the earliest known use of stone tools among hominins to about 3.4 million years ago. Finds of actual tools date back at least 2.6 million years in Ethiopia . One of the earliest distinguishable stone tool forms is the hand axe . Up until recently, weapons found in digs were

335-647: A change in the environment, thereby facilitating one's achievement of a target goal. Anthropologists believe that the use of tools was an important step in the evolution of mankind . Because tools are used extensively by both humans (Homo sapiens) and wild chimpanzees , it is widely assumed that the first routine use of tools took place prior to the divergence between the two ape species. These early tools, however, were likely made of perishable materials such as sticks, or consisted of unmodified stones that cannot be distinguished from other stones as tools. Stone artifacts date back to about 2.5 million years ago. However,

402-469: A cheap tool could be used to occupy the place of a missing mechanical part. A window roller in a car could be replaced with pliers . A transmission shifter or ignition switch would be able to be replaced with a screwdriver. Again, these would be considered tools that are being used for their unintended purposes, substitution as makeshift. Tools such as a rotary tool would be considered the substitution "by-design", or "multi-purpose". This class of tools allows

469-615: A diverse array of objects and materials, many of which are specifically chosen by certain birds for their unique qualities. Woodpecker finches insert twigs into trees in order to catch or impale larvae. Parrots may use tools to wedge nuts so that they can crack open the outer shell of nuts without launching away the inner contents. Some birds take advantage of human activity, such as carrion crows in Japan, which drop nuts in front of cars to crack them open. Several species of fish use tools to hunt and crack open shellfish, extract food that

536-532: A localized or isolated manner within certain unique primate cultures , being transmitted and practiced among socially connected primates through cultural learning . Many famous researchers, such as Charles Darwin in his book The Descent of Man , mentioned tool-use in monkeys (such as baboons ). Among other mammals , both wild and captive elephants are known to create tools using their trunks and feet, mainly for swatting flies, scratching, plugging up waterholes that they have dug (to close them up again so

603-703: A major expansion in their use in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome with the systematic employment of new energy sources, especially waterwheels . Their use expanded through the Dark Ages with the addition of windmills . Machine tools occasioned a surge in producing new tools in the Industrial Revolution . Pre-industrial machinery was built by various craftsmen— millwrights built water and windmills, carpenters made wooden framing, and smiths and turners made metal parts. Wooden components had

670-471: A rougher surface which helps to reduce the particle size. Glass mortars and pestles are fragile, but stain-resistant and suitable for use with liquids. However, they do not grind as finely as the ceramic type. Other materials used include stone, often marble or agate , wood (which is highly absorbent), bamboo , iron, steel , brass , and basalt . Mortar and pestle sets made from the wood of old grape vines have proved reliable for grinding salt and pepper at

737-455: Is "makeshift" when human ingenuity comes into play and a tool is used for an unintended purpose, such as using a long screwdriver to separate a cars control arm from a ball joint, instead of using a tuning fork. In many cases, the designed secondary functions of tools are not widely known. For example, many wood-cutting hand saws integrate a square by incorporating a specially-shaped handle, that allows 90° and 45° angles to be marked by aligning

SECTION 10

#1732797396262

804-828: Is a blunt, club-shaped object. The substance to be ground, which may be wet or dry, is placed in the mortar where the pestle is pounded, pressed, or rotated into the substance until the desired texture is achieved. Mortars and pestles have been used in cooking since the Stone Age ; today they are typically associated with the pharmacy profession due to their historical use in preparing medicines. They are used in chemistry settings for pulverizing small amounts of chemicals; in arts and cosmetics for pulverizing pigments, binders, and other substances; in ceramics for making grog ; in masonry and other types of construction requiring pulverized materials. In cooking, they are typically used to crush spices, to make pesto , and certain cocktails such as

871-518: Is a motto of some importance for workers who cannot practically carry every specialized tool to the location of every work task, such as a carpenter who does not necessarily work in a shop all day and needs to do jobs in a customer's house. Tool substitution may be divided broadly into two classes: substitution "by-design", or "multi-purpose", and substitution as makeshift. Substitution "by-design" would be tools that are designed specifically to accomplish multiple tasks using only that one tool. Substitution

938-450: Is for example a combination of a measuring tool (the clock) and a perception tool (the alarm). This enables the alarm-clock to be a tool that falls outside of all the categories mentioned above. There is some debate on whether to consider protective gear items as tools, because they do not directly help perform work, just protect the worker like ordinary clothing. They do meet the general definition of tools and in many cases are necessary for

1005-473: Is known as batu lesung . Large stone mortars, with long (2–3 foot) wood pestles were used in West Asia to grind meat for a type of meatloaf , or kibbeh , as well as the hummus variety known as masabcha . In Indonesia mortar is known as Cobek or Tjobek and pestle is known as Ulekan or Oelekan . The chobek is shaped like a deep saucer or plate. The ulekan is either pistol-shaped or ovoid. It

1072-490: Is made with stone arches and lined with waterproof concrete. The earliest evidence of water wheels and watermills date back to the ancient Near East in the 4th century BC, specifically in the Persian Empire before 350 BC, in the regions of Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Persia (Iran). This pioneering use of water power constituted perhaps the first use of mechanical energy . Mechanical devices experienced

1139-586: Is often used to make fresh sambal , a spicy chili condiment , hence the sambal ulek/oelek denotes its process using pestle. It is also used to grind peanuts and other ingredients to make peanut sauce for gado-gado . Large mortars and pestles are still commonly used in developing countries to husk and dehull grain. These are usually made of wood, and operated by one or more persons. In the Philippines , mortar and pestles are specifically associated with de-husking rice . A notable traditional mortar and pestle

1206-545: Is out of reach, or clear an area for nesting. Among cephalopods (and perhaps uniquely or to an extent unobserved among invertebrates ), octopuses are known to use tools relatively frequently, such as gathering coconut shells to create a shelter or using rocks to create barriers. By extension, concepts which support systematic or investigative thought are often referred to as "tools", for example Vanessa Dye refers to "tools of reflection" and "tools to help sharpen your professional practice" for trainee teachers, illustrating

1273-575: Is the boat-shaped bangkang pinawa or bangkang pangpinawa , literally "boat ( bangka ) for unpolished rice", usually carved from a block of molave or other hardwood. It is pounded by two or three people. The name for the mortar, lusong , is the origin of the name of the largest island in the Philippines, Luzon . Large wooden mortars and pestles have been used to hull grain in West Africa for centuries. When enslaved Africans were brought to

1340-529: The Aztec and Maya , stretching back several thousand years, is made of basalt and is used widely in Mexican cooking. Other Native American nations use mortars carved into the bedrock to grind acorns and other nuts. Many such depressions can be found in their territories. In Japan , very large mortars are used with wooden mallets to prepare mochi . A regular-sized Japanese mortar and pestle are called

1407-426: The Industrial Revolution marking an inflection point in the use of tools. The introduction of widespread automation in the 19th and 20th centuries allowed tools to operate with minimal human supervision, further increasing the productivity of human labor . By extension, concepts that support systematic or investigative thought are often referred to as "tools" or "toolkits". While a common-sense understanding of

SECTION 20

#1732797396262

1474-690: The Kebaran culture ( the Levant with Sinai ) from 22000 to 18000 BC to crush grains and other plant material. The Kebaran mortars that have been found are sculpted, slightly conical bowls of porous stone, and the pestles are made of a smoother type of stone. Another Stone Age example is the rock mortars in the Raqefet Cave in Israel , which are natural cavities in the cave floors, used by Late Natufians around 10000 BC to grind cereals for brewing beer in

1541-462: The Old Testament (Numbers 11:8 and Proverbs 27:22). In Indian mythology, Samudra Manthan from Bhagavata Purana creates amrita, the nectar of immortality, by churning the ocean with a pestle. Since medieval times, mortars would be placed or carved on the gravestones of pharmacists and doctors. In Russian and Eastern European folklore, Baba Yaga is described and pictured as flying through

1608-732: The Rod of Asclepius , the Green Cross, and others, is one of the most pervasive symbols of pharmacology. For pharmaceutical use, the mortar and the head of the pestle are usually made of porcelain , while the handle of the pestle is made of wood . This is known as a Wedgwood mortar and pestle and originated in 1759. Today the act of mixing ingredients or reducing the particle size is known as trituration . Mortars and pestles are also used as drug paraphernalia to grind up pills to speed up absorption when they are ingested , or in preparation for insufflation . To finely ground drugs, not available in

1675-646: The Swiss Army knife represents one of the earliest examples. Other tools have a primary purpose but also incorporate other functionality – for example, lineman's pliers incorporate a gripper and cutter and are often used as a hammer; and some hand saws incorporate a square in the right-angle between the blade's dull edge and the saw's handle. This would also be the category of "multi-purpose" tools, since they are also multiple tools in one (multi-use and multi-purpose can be used interchangeably – compare hand axe ). These types of tools were specifically made to catch

1742-422: The mojito , which requires the gentle crushing of sugar, ice, and mint leaves in the glass with a pestle. The invention of mortars and pestles seems related to that of quern-stones , which use a similar principle of naturally indented, durable, hard stone bases and mallets of stone or wood to process food and plant materials, clay, or minerals by stamping, crushing, pulverizing and grinding. A key advantage of

1809-413: The 14th century, bronze mortars became more popular than stone ones, especially for use in alchemy and early chemistry. Bronze mortars would become more elaborate than stone ones, had the advantage to be harder, and were easily cast with handles, knobs for handling, and spouts for easier pouring. However, the big disadvantage was that bronze would react with acids and other chemicals and corrode easily. Since

1876-618: The Americas, they brought this technology—and knowledge of how to use it—with them. During the Middle Passage , some slave ships carried un-hulled rice, and enslaved African women were tasked with using mortars and pestles to prepare it for consumption. In both colonial North and South America, rice continued to be primarily milled by hand in this way until around the mid-1700s when mechanical mills became more widespread. Good mortar and pestle-making materials must be hard enough to crush

1943-528: The English pestle . Stemming from the pistillum, the word pesto in Italian cuisine means created with the pestle. The Roman poet Juvenal applied both mortarium and pistillum to articles used in the preparation of drugs, reflecting the early use of the mortar and pestle as a symbol of a pharmacist or apothecary. Mortar as a synonym for cement in masonry came from the use of mortars and pestles to grind

2010-653: The Medieval Ages. In various Asian mythologies and folklores, there is a common theme of a Moon rabbit , making use of a mortar and pestle to process the ingredients for the Elixir of life (or rice for making mochi ). Modern pharmacies, especially in Germany, still use mortars and pestles as logos. Mortars and pestles were traditionally used in pharmacies to crush various ingredients before preparing an extemporaneous prescription . The mortar and pestle, with

2077-449: The appropriate part of the handle with an edge, and scribing along the back edge of the saw. The latter is illustrated by the saying "All tools can be used as hammers". Nearly all tools can be used to function as a hammer, even though few tools are intentionally designed for it and even fewer work as well as the original. Tools are often used to substitute for many mechanical apparatuses, especially in older mechanical devices. In many cases

Mortar and pestle - Misplaced Pages Continue

2144-450: The cavities. These rock mortars are large enough for a person to stand upright by them and crush the cereals inside the cavity with a long wooden pestle. Ancient Africans, Sumerians, Egyptians, Thai, Laos People, Polynesians, Native Americans, Chinese, Indians, Greeks, Celts, and countless other people used mortars and pestles for processing materials and substances for cooking, arts, cosmetics, simple chemicals, ceramics and medicine. Since

2211-521: The communication network at another level. It is in the domain of media and communications technology that a counter-intuitive aspect of our relationships with our tools first began to gain popular recognition. John M. Culkin famously said, "We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us". One set of scholars expanded on this to say: "Humans create inspiring and empowering technologies but also are influenced, augmented, manipulated, and even imprisoned by technology". Raqefet Cave Raqefet Cave

2278-409: The completion of the work. Personal protective equipment includes such items as gloves , safety glasses , ear defenders and biohazard suits. Often, by design or coincidence, a tool may share key functional attributes with one or more other tools. In this case, some tools can substitute for other tools, either as a makeshift solution or as a matter of practical efficiency. "One tool does it all"

2345-459: The connection between physical and conceptual tools by quoting the French scientist Claude Bernaud : we must change [our ideas] when they have served their purpose, as we change a blunt lancet that we have used long enough. Similarly, a decision-making process "developed to help women and their partners make confident and informed decisions when planning where to give birth" is described as

2412-549: The definition of what constitutes a tool and therefore which behaviours can be considered true examples of tool use. Observation has confirmed that a number of species can use tools including monkeys , apes , elephants , several birds, and sea otters . Now the unique relationship of humans with tools is considered to be that we are the only species that uses tools to make other tools. Primates are well known for using tools for hunting or gathering food and water, cover for rain, and self-defense. Chimpanzees have often been

2479-407: The development of several machine tools . They have their origins in the tools developed in the 18th century by makers of clocks and watches and scientific instrument makers to enable them to batch-produce small mechanisms. Before the advent of machine tools, metal was worked manually using the basic hand tools of hammers, files, scrapers, saws, and chisels. Consequently, the use of metal machine parts

2546-416: The dinner table. Uncooked rice is sometimes ground in mortars to clean them. This process must be repeated until the rice comes out completely white. Some stones, such as molcajete , need to be seasoned first before use. Metal mortars are kept lightly oiled. Since the results obtained with hand grinding are not easily reproducible, most laboratories use automatic mortar grinders. Grinding time and pressure of

2613-636: The disadvantage of changing dimensions with temperature and humidity, and the various joints tended to rack (work loose) over time. As the Industrial Revolution progressed, machines with metal parts and frames became more common. Other important uses of metal parts were in firearms and threaded fasteners, such as machine screws, bolts, and nuts. There was also the need for precision in making parts. Precision would allow better working machinery, interchangeability of parts, and standardization of threaded fasteners. The demand for metal parts led to

2680-473: The early centuries of recorded history, but archaeological evidence can provide dates of development and use. Several of the six classic simple machines ( wheel and axle , lever , pulley , inclined plane , wedge , and screw ) were invented in Mesopotamia . The wheel and axle mechanism first appeared with the potter's wheel , invented in what is now Iraq during the 5th millennium BC. This led to

2747-444: The eye of many different craftsman who traveled to do their work. To these workers these types of tools were revolutionary because they were one tool or one device that could do several different things. With this new revolution of tools, the traveling craftsman would not have to carry so many tools with them to job sites, in that their space would be limited to the vehicle or to the beast of burden they were driving. Multi-use tools solve

Mortar and pestle - Misplaced Pages Continue

2814-426: The forest standing inside a large wooden mortar (stupa), holding the long wooden pestle in one hand to remove obstacles in front of her, and using the broom in her other hand to sweep and remove her traces behind her. This seems as a trace of some ancient rituals connecting the witch symbols of Baba Yaga with the use of mortars in alchemy, pharmacy, and early chemistry, which were all seen as magic by uneducated people in

2881-474: The function of small, mobile, hand-operated mills that do not require electricity or fuel to operate. Large wooden mortars and wooden pestles would predate and lead to the invention of butter churns , as domestication of livestock and use of dairy (during the Neolithic ) came well after the mortar and pestle. Butter would be churned from cream or milk in a wooden container with a long wooden stick, very like

2948-467: The invention of the wheeled vehicle in Mesopotamia during the early 4th millennium BC. The lever was used in the shadoof water-lifting device, the first crane machine, which appeared in Mesopotamia c.  3000 BC , and then in ancient Egyptian technology c.  2000 BC . The earliest evidence of pulleys date back to Mesopotamia in the early 2nd millennium BC. The screw ,

3015-490: The last of the simple machines to be invented, first appeared in Mesopotamia during the Neo-Assyrian period (911–609 BC). The Assyrian King Sennacherib (704–681 BC) claims to have invented automatic sluices and to have been the first to use water screw pumps , of up to 30 tons weight, which were cast using two-part clay molds rather than by the ' lost wax ' process. The Jerwan Aqueduct ( c.  688 BC)

3082-510: The late 17th century, glazed porcelain mortars became very useful, since they would not be damaged by chemicals and would be easy to clean. The English word mortar derives from Middle English morter , from old French mortier , from classical Latin mortarium , meaning, among several other usages, "receptacle for pounding" and "product of grinding or pounding"; perhaps related to Sanskrit "mrnati" - to crush, to bruise. The classical Latin pistillum , meaning "pounder", led to

3149-419: The liquid dosage form are used also if patients need artificial nutrition such as parenteral nutrition or by nasogastric tube . Mortars are also used in cooking to prepare wet or oily ingredients such as guacamole , hummus , and pesto (which derives its name from the pestle pounding), as well as grinding spices into powder. The molcajete , a version used by pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican cultures including

3216-413: The material faster and more efficiently. Working over a large mortar that a person can stand next to is physically easier and more ergonomic (by ensuring a better posture of the whole body) than for a small quern, where a person has to crouch and use the uncomfortable, repetitive motion of hand grinding by sliding. Mortars and pestles predate modern blenders and grinders and can be described as having

3283-546: The materials for creating cement. The short bombard cannon was called "mortar" in French because the first versions of these cannons looked like big metal mortars of the Medieval Ages and they required to be filled with gunpowder, like a mortar would be full of powdered material. The antiquity of the mortar and pestle is well documented in early writing, such as the Egyptian Ebers Papyrus of around 1550 BC (the oldest preserved piece of medical literature) and

3350-483: The meaning of tool is widespread, several formal definitions have been proposed. In 1981, Benjamin Beck published a widely used definition of tool use. This has been modified to: The external employment of an unattached or manipulable attached environmental object to alter more efficiently the form, position, or condition of another object, another organism, or the user itself, when the user holds and directly manipulates

3417-426: The mortar can be adjusted and fixed, saving time and labor. The first automatic Mortar Grinder was invented by F. Kurt Retsch in 1923 and named the "Retschmill" after him. The use of mortar and pestle, pestling, offers the advantage that the substance is crushed with low energy so that the substance will not warm up. Tool A tool is an object that can extend an individual's ability to modify features of

SECTION 50

#1732797396262

3484-429: The mortar is that it presents a deeper bowl for confining the material to be ground without the waste and spillage that occur with flat grinding stones. Another advantage is that the mortar can be made large enough for a person to stand upright and adjacent to it and use the combined strength of their upper body and the force of gravity for better stamping. Large mortars allow some individuals with several pestles to stamp

3551-480: The object of study in regard to their usage of tools, most famously by Jane Goodall ; these animals are closely related to humans. Wild tool-use in other primates, especially among apes and monkeys , is considered relatively common, though its full extent remains poorly documented, as many primates in the wild are mainly only observed distantly or briefly when in their natural environments and living without human influence. Some novel tool-use by primates may arise in

3618-412: The only tools of "early man" that were studied and given importance. Now, more tools are recognized as culturally and historically relevant. As well as hunting, other activities required tools such as preparing food, "...nutting, leatherworking , grain harvesting and woodworking..." Included in this group are "flake stone tools". Tools are the most important items that the ancient humans used to climb to

3685-427: The problem of having to deal with many different tools. Tool use by animals is a phenomenon in which an animal uses any kind of tool in order to achieve a goal such as acquiring food and water, grooming , defense, communication , recreation or construction . Originally thought to be a skill possessed only by humans , some tool use requires a sophisticated level of cognition. There is considerable discussion about

3752-549: The shells of prey, as well as for scratching. Corvids (such as crows , ravens and rooks ) are well known for their large brains (among birds ) and tool use. New Caledonian crows are among the only animals that create their own tools. They mainly manufacture probes out of twigs and wood (and sometimes metal wire) to catch or impale larvae . Tool use in some birds may be best exemplified in nest intricacy. Tailorbirds manufacture 'pouches' to make their nests in. Some birds, such as weaver birds , build complex nests utilizing

3819-530: The strong flavor of a past ingredient to be tasted in food prepared later. Also, the food particles left in the mortar and on the pestle may support the growth of microorganisms . When dealing with medications , the previously prepared drugs may interact or mix, contaminating the currently used ingredients. Rough ceramic mortar and pestle sets can be used to reduce substances to very fine powders, but stain easily and are brittle. Porcelain mortars are sometimes conditioned for use by grinding some sand to give them

3886-417: The substance rather than be worn away by it. They cannot be too brittle either, or they will break during the pounding and grinding. The material should also be cohesive so that small bits of the mortar or pestle do not mix in with the ingredients. Smooth and non-porous materials are chosen that will not absorb or trap the substances being ground. In food preparation , a rough or absorbent material may cause

3953-406: The surrounding environment or help them accomplish a particular task. Although many animals use simple tools , only human beings, whose use of stone tools dates back hundreds of millennia, have been observed using tools to make other tools. Early human tools, made of such materials as stone , bone , and wood , were used for the preparation of food , hunting , the manufacture of weapons , and

4020-476: The tool during or prior to use and is responsible for the proper and effective orientation of the tool. Other, briefer definitions have been proposed: An object carried or maintained for future use. The use of physical objects other than the animal's own body or appendages as a means to extend the physical influence realized by the animal. An object that has been modified to fit a purpose ... [or] An inanimate object that one uses or modifies in some way to cause

4087-530: The top of the food chain ; by inventing tools, they were able to accomplish tasks that human bodies could not, such as using a spear or bow to kill prey , since their teeth were not sharp enough to pierce many animals' skins. "Man the hunter" as the catalyst for Hominin change has been questioned. Based on marks on the bones at archaeological sites, it is now more evident that pre-humans were scavenging off of other predators' carcasses rather than killing their own food. Many tools were made in prehistory or in

SECTION 60

#1732797396262

4154-402: The use of one tool that has at least two different capabilities. "Multi-purpose" tools are basically multiple tools in one device/tool. Tools such as this are often power tools that come with many different attachments like a rotary tool does, so one could say that a power drill is a "multi-purpose" tool. A multi-tool is a hand tool that incorporates several tools into a single, portable device;

4221-872: The use of wooden mortars and pestles. Mortars and pestles were invented in the Stone Age when humans found that processing food and various other materials by grinding and crushing into smaller particles allowed for improved use and various advantages. Hard grains could be cooked and digested more easily if ground first, grinding potsherds into grog would vastly improve fired clay, and larger objects such as blocks of salt would be much easier to handle and use. Various stone mortars and pestles have been found, while wooden or clay ones would perish much more easily over time. Scientists have found ancient mortars and pestles in Southwest Asia that date back to approximately 35000 BC. Stone mortars and pestles have also been used by

4288-524: The water does not evaporate), and reaching food that is out of reach. Many other social mammals particularly have been observed engaging in tool-use. A group of dolphins in Shark Bay uses sea sponges to protect their beaks while foraging. Sea otters will use rocks or other hard objects to dislodge food (such as abalone ) and break open shellfish . Many or most mammals of the order Carnivora have been observed using tools, often to trap or break open

4355-427: The working of materials to produce clothing and useful artifacts and crafts such as pottery , along with the construction of housing , businesses , infrastructure , and transportation . The development of metalworking made additional types of tools possible. Harnessing energy sources , such as animal power , wind , or steam , allowed increasingly complex tools to produce an even larger range of items, with

4422-425: Was discovered in 1956. The site indicates plants were already used as food here before the advent of agriculture. Remains in one of the chambers of the cave suggest the production of beer during the occupation of the cave. The earliest archaeological evidence of fermentation consists of 13,000-year-old residues of a beer with the consistency of gruel , used by the semi-nomadic Natufians for ritual feasting, at

4489-491: Was kept to a minimum. Hand methods of production were very laborious and costly and precision was difficult to achieve. With their inherent precision, machine tools enabled the economical production of interchangeable parts . Examples of machine tools include: Advocates of nanotechnology expect a similar surge as tools become microscopic in size. One can classify tools according to their basic functions: Some tools may be combinations of other tools. An alarm-clock

#261738