John Martin wrote:

snip

One of their most interesting tools, in my opinion, was the
eggbeater-style hand drill with five-way ratchet. Also available as a
breast drill. You still see them occasionally. The ratchet had five
positions: plain (no ratchet), right hand (which allowed you to drill
in cramped areas with only a partial sweep of the handle), left hand
(same thing but to the left, which I don't know the use of as we all
know that when backing a drill out you continue to turn in the same
direction), lock (which locked the spindle to make changing bits
easier) and, best of all, right hand double (which turns the drill in
the proper direction no matter which way you turn the crank).

John Martin

Interesting. I have a large old hand cranked drill (a little smaller
than most breast drills) with a gear shift mechanism that allows two
speeds (or torques), and rotation in either direction, but no ratchet
action as you describe. There sure were a wide variety of hand tools
that you can't get new any longer. Some are truly obsolete today, but
others are still very usefull (like the push drills)... they've just
gone out of style.

Dan Mitchell
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