From The Register:
Cool.
And there you were tinking that the Leatherman or Swiss Army Knife in your pocket was a relatively modern invention. Not so - the Romans had multi-tool gadgets too.
Case in point: the "compound utensils" held in the collection of Cambridge's Fitzwilliam Musuem, snaps of which were recently posted on the institution's website and subsequently spotted by Neatorama.
Doesn't surprise me none. Smart folks the Romans were. They invented a lot of stuff for which they don't get proper credit.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like a perfectly practical tool, too. I expect the only real improvments since have been metallurgy and manufacturing rather than the basic engineering.
ReplyDeleteJim
THAT is cool....
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to Neatorama. We appreciate it.
ReplyDeleteEvery useful component of a modern multitool that isn't on that one is designed specifically for frobbing a bit of modern technology that didn't exist then.
ReplyDeleteThe Romans were indeed a commendably practical and inventive lot.
Wolfwalker says it all. Well, except that many years ago when I was in England I was told that after the Roman's left Britain almost 1,000 years for the technology to get back to the point it was at when the Romans ran the place. And in some areas, that still hadn't happened.
ReplyDeleteExcept for the motorways, the straightest roads in England were still the ones engineered and built by the Romans.