The Tweezer Pocket Implement: Knife, Rule, Hook, Calipers and File Hung Inside a Pair of Tweezers

"In construction I form my device of two pieces, A and B, riveted together near one end, and forming at the other a pair of tweezers working on the rivet C. Inside these pieces, and hung upon the same rivet, are several small instruments, namely, a knife-blade, a, having its shank continued and formed into a screw-driver, b, a rule, c, divided as desired, a crochet-hook, d, and an ear-spoon, e, formed of the same piece and working on the rivet at the junction of their shanks, and two pieces, f and g, which are formed at their ends so as to produce a pair of callipers and a pair of dividers" "In order that the pieces A and B shall be held firmly in place and not be liable to get out of place, I form the rivet with shoulders and square tenons, O O′, which fit in square slots through the pieces A and B, and are thus riveted and securely attached."

**Jaws.** Cut two 9 cm strips of spring steel 8 mm wide. Round their tips and bend them so they spring apart. File cross-cut teeth on the outside of one as the nail file. **Tools.** From stainless steel sheet cut: a small knife blade with its shank filed square as a screwdriver; a strip marked in millimetres with a scriber as the rule; a strip with a small hook filed at one end and a spoon dished at the other; and two narrow legs with points turned in at one end and out at the other, as calipers and dividers. Drill each near its shank for the rivet. **Rivet.** Stack the jaws with the tools between them on a short steel rivet with washers, and peen it so the tools swing out and fold back with light friction. **Test.** Pick a splinter from wood with the tweezers, measure a button with the rule, set the calipers to a thread spool, crochet a short chain, and file a rough edge.

**John A. Russ** of Springfield, Hampden County, Massachusetts, received US 63,102, dated 19 March 1867. The pieces f and g were arranged for inside or outside calipers, the file was cut on the outside of one of the jaws A or B for shaping the nails and like purposes, and the whole shut up between the jaws. His claim is the instrument as a new article of manufacture, consisting of the various tools mentioned, combined and arranged as described. **Honest limits.** Hand-cut spring and stainless steel stand in for his made pieces, and a round rivet with washers for his square-tenoned rivet unless you file it square. The notebook treats the jaws as rigid levers; its forces and lengths are examples. Your use of each tool is the result.