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Originally Posted by glatt
I also see lots of problems with this. The major one being that there is nothing to hold the rock against while you hit it with the long nail. Nail hits rock, rock hits badder. Then you have all these smaller pieces and you're going to just go stabbing around randomly trying to break them all up into even smaller ones?
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See
here for way more information than I ever intended to find. Short answer: it's not just a stabby thing, it's a gripping tool, like a pair of forceps with a little hammer jack built into the middle. Before starting, they reverse-fill the bladder with extra liquid so everything is nice and floaty, then they just wiggle around grabbing and smashing until there's nothing big enough to grab anymore.
Also, for the squeamish gentlemen, it's worth keeping in mind that this was the
new and improved treatment because it didn't require surgery, which was also done without anesthetic in those days.