Pliers

Our pliers are exhibited alongside the heads of trout.

Pliers. Severely oxidized. Open jawed. Late 20th century, c.e. Exhibited alongside trout, common name given to a number of species of freshwater fish, family: Salmonidae.

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Pliers appear in many renaissance paintings during eras of Classicism and its revival. At these times, Pagan deities were no longer worshipped, they were merely fashionable. Below we see tongs as they were utilized by blacksmiths in 17th century Spain in The Forge of Vulcan. (Diego Velasquez. Museo del Prado. Madrid.) His Greek equivalent was Hephaestus, the son of Hera and Zeus. Hepaestus was lame, which gave him a grotesque appearance to the Greeks. He served as the blacksmith of the gods. The center of his cult was Lemnos, but he was worshipped in all of the manufacturing and industrial centers of Greece, especially Athens, where there is a Temple of Hephaestus, the Hephaesteum miscalled the "Theseum", located near the Athenian agora, or marketplace.

On the island of Lemnos, his consort was the sea nymph Cabeiro, by whom he was the father of two metalworking gods named the Cabeiri.

The Forge of Vulcan. Diego Velasquez. Museo del Prado. Madrid.

History

Pliers were invented in Europe around 2000 b.c.e. to grip hot objects (principally iron as it was being forged on an anvil). Among the oldest illustrations of pliers are those showing the Greek god Hephaestus in his smithy. Today, pliers intended principally to be used for safely handling hot objects are usually called tongs.

Design

Relatively simple in action, pliers function by normal (oppositional) force, and leverage (a fulcrum or pivot for mechanical force, or lever, one of the six simple machines.)

Vulcan forging the Beams of Jupiter. Rubens.

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