the.com/allen wrench
The L-shaped key that assembles your furniture and ends your marriage, hexagonally.
means A small L-shaped hexagonal hand tool that fits into hex-socket screws and bolts, used to tighten or loosen them.
from Named for the Allen Manufacturing Company of Hartford, Connecticut, which patented and popularized the hexagonal socket screw system in the early 1900s — the wrench inherited the company's name the way some tools do, becoming a generic term (a small act of branding immortality, similar to how 'thermos' and 'kleenex' slipped into everyday speech).
- real name
- Hex key, Allen is a brand name
- origin
- Named after Allen Manufacturing Company, 1910s
- design genius
- Six contact points, no stripped corners like screws
- ikea's secret
- One size fits nearly all their furniture