On 8/15/2015 12:09 PM, J. Clarke wrote:
In article ,
says...

I'm finding it difficult, so far, to pin down the first tool driven by
other than hand, but here's something relevant to what we commonly call
power tools:

[snip]
(maybe that's why they are so expensive... A company that old, if it
didn't properly fund its pension debt could have quite a bill coming due
120 years down the pike.g)

Interesting, but that's a very narrow definition of "power tool". Steam
locomotives are tools and the first of those went into service around
1804. And then there was John Henry and the steam drill . . .

I don't know when the first powered tool went into service, but the
Romans had a sawmill running around 300 AD.

I agree, but the OP's question was rather vague and the followup answers
wandered all over the place as well.

Just to throw some more sh*t in the game, the first time a human hooked
an animal to any device that performed some sort of work on behalf of
said human could probably be said to be a power tool driven by other
than the user's hand power.

When were the Pyramids built? Inca temples? Surely if a system of
ropes and pulley or levers were employed they would be classed as tools.
Add one animal to the equation and we're talking power tool in the
context of the OP's questiong