A New Way of Taking Pills A physician one night in Wisconsin being disturbed by a burglar, and having no ball or shot for his pistol, noiselessly loaded the weapon with small, hard pills, and gave the intruder a "prescription" which he thinks will go far towards curing the rascal of a very bad ailment.
-- Nevada Morning Transcript, January 30, 1861

"tool"

Definition: instrument used to shape, form, finish

Synonyms: apparatus, appliance, contraption, contrivance, device, engine, gadget, gizmo, implement, instrument, job, machine, means, mechanism, utensil, weapon, whatchamacallit

Credit: thesaurus.com

Tools represent Humanity's greatest achievement -- the desire and the ability to rise above the flesh, to enable each of us to create whatever we imagine. From the ealiest stick, digging out grubs from a fallen tree ... to the latest hand-held, head-held, or mentally-directed device, tools allow us to devise, revise, ruminate, communicate, work and play.

The following sampling are tools developed upon need for one purpose or another...