Plier Plier Pants on Fire

In the early 18th century the scissor-and-plier was the tool of choice for both cutting and gripping - although it excelled at neither. It was not until 1721 that inventor Eli Muckleroy had the brilliant idea of combining a right-handed scissor with a left-handed one to create a new tool - the pair of scissors.
The considerably less useful pair of pliers was not invented until nearly 50 years later, when Benjamin Franklin acquired several warehouses full of unused single pliers. Always looking for a way to make a quick buck, Franklin assembled the surplus pliers into pairs and foisted them on the unsuspecting public.