Using an object to make it easier to accomplish a task has been part of human behavior for millions of years. Creating an object to help accomplish a goal – sharpening a stone to hunt with, for instance – came later in the evolutionary line, but is still as old as drawing on cave walls.
And while millions of years passed between the sharp-edged stone and the first forged instrument, developments in recent history have advanced quite rapidly.
Particularly the tools of the trade for vehicle service technicians which today provide unparalleled levels of productivity, safety and ergonomics.
Tools have kept pace with the rapid advances in technology during the last 100 years. It wasn’t long after the first gasoline-powered horseless carriage hit America’s dirt, rutted streets that the need to service those vehicles arose, and the corresponding tools to do so.
As vehicles advance technologically, so do the tools, as is evident by the familiar sight of laptops and handheld computers used daily in service shops to diagnose and assist in repairing trucks.
The development of hand tools is no exception.
“If I looked at a technician’s toolbox today, I would find dozens, if not a hundred, specialty tools that would not have been there 25 years ago,” says Carl “Bud” Bolt, who founded Bolt’s Antique Tool Museum about 35 years ago.
Bud and his wife, Laila, donated the museum to the city of Oroville, Calif., about three years ago and now work there as volunteers. The 5,000 square-foot museum opened in a new building in Oroville when the city took ownership and has approximately 8,400 tools on display, about 40 to 50 percent Bolt estimates are from the vehicle service sector.
