A hand tool is any tool that is not a power tool – that is, one powered by hand (manual labor) rather than by an engine. Some examples of hand tool are garden forks, secateurs, rakes, hammers, spanners, pliers, screwdrivers and chisels. Hand tools are generally less dangerous than power tools.

Hand tools have been used by humans since the Stone Age when stones were used for hammering and cutting. During the Bronze Age tools were made by casting the copper and tin alloys. Bronze tools were shaper and harder than those made of stone. During the Iron Age iron replaced bronze, and tools became even stronger and more durable. The Romans developed tools during this period which are similar to those being produced today. In the period since the industrial revolution, the manufacture of tools has transitioned from being craftsman made to being factory produced.

The American Industrial Hygiene Association gives the following categories of hand tools: wrenches, pliers, cutters, striking tools, struck or hammered tools, screwdrivers, vices, clamps, snips, saws, drills and knives.

English weight and measures are even more confusing to a foreigner than money.

For general use the smallest weight is 1 ounce (oz.), and there are 16 ounces in a pound (lb). The English buy sweets, tobacco, and sometimes cigarettes by the ounce while most groceries or fruit, by the pound, half-pound or quarter-pound.

Fourteen pounds is 1 stone. The English always give people’s weight in stones and pounds. For example, a man weighs 11 stone and 9 lbs.

112 lbs make up 1 hundredweight and there are 20 hundredweights in a ton.

Liquids are measured in pints, quarts and gallons. There are 2 pints in a quart and 4 quarts in a gallon.

For length principal measurements are inches, feet, yards and miles.