Anvil
From Freepedia
- For other uses, see Anvil (disambiguation).
Image:Blacksmith at work02.jpg
An anvil (from Anglo-Saxon anfilt or onfilti, either that on which something is "welded" or "folded," cf. German falzen, to fold, or connected with other Teutonic forms of the word, cf. German amboss, in which case the final syllable is from "beat," and the meaning is "that on which something is beaten") is a manufacturing tool, made of a hard and massive block of stone or metal used as a support for hammering or chiseling other objects (see forging).
The common blacksmith's anvil is made of wrought iron, often in America of cast iron, with a smooth working face of hardened steel. It has at one end a projecting conical beak or bick for use in hammering curved pieces of metal; occasionally the other end is also provided with a bick, which is then partly rectangular in section. There is also a square hole in the face, into which tools, such as the anvil-cutter or chisel, can be dropped, cutting edge uppermost. For power hammers the anvil proper is supported on a massive anvil block, sometimes weighing over 200 tons for a 12-ton hammer, and this again rests on a strong foundation of timber and masonry or concrete.
Anvils have been used since late neolithic times by smiths of all kinds for metal work, although the tool was also used in much earlier epochs for stone and flint work.
There are many designs for anvils, which are often tailored for a specific purpose or to meet the needs of a particular smith. A typical metal-worker's anvil has a flat face where the metal is shaped, a softer pad for chisel work, and a horn for bending the metal. Some anvils have a tail. Most anvils made since the late 1700's also have a hardy hole and a pritchel hole, which allow the smith to insert various tools to be held by the anvil. Some anvils have several hardy and pritchel holes, to accommodate a wider variety of hardy tools and pritchels.
A typical metalworker's anvil, with horn at one end and flat face at the other, was a familiar sight at a blacksmith's shop, but is now more familiar to many as one of the standard props for animated cartoon gags. For example, in one episode of the Road Runner cartoon, a falling Wile E. Coyote overtakes the anvil he has just dropped from a balloon, arriving at the ground first to then have the anvil arrive on top of him. The visual hyperbole of overtaking the falling anvil accentuates the speed of the coyote's descent. Such gags were celebrated in the Tiny Toon Adventures series when anvilology, the study of the improbable physics of falling anvils, was a subject taught by Yosemite Sam.
There are many references to anvils in ancient Greek and Egyptian writing, including Homer's works. The anvil was perfected during the Middle Ages when iron working was commonplace.
Anvils have been used as percussion instruments in several famous musical compositions, including Verdi's Il Trovatore (1853), Wagner's Das Rheingold (1854), the theme from the movie The Terminator, and pieces by Lully. There are at least two notable compositions titled Anvil Polka, one by Albert Parlow and the other by Strauss; the latter traditionally features a percussionist wearing a leather apron.
In anatomy the term anvil is applied to one of the bones of the middle ear, the incus, which is articulated with the malleus.
References
- This article incorporates text from the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, which is in the public domain.
See also
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