[Nixie] was tired of using whatever happens to be around to hold things in place while soldering and testing. It was high time to obtain a helping hands of some kind, but [Nixie] was dismayed by ...

When Howard Berkes began reporting for NPR in the 1980s, he carried a canning jar wrench with him in his recording kit. That allowed him to remove the mouthpiece from a telephone if it was glued shut.