AT&T lines carried transmissions from the Teletype, a machine that could send and translate written messages over long distances—so Labs engineers likewise found it necessary to invent a better teletypewriter oiler, a small square oil can, named the 512A tool. And the Labs engineers were not necessarily content with designing any oil can; this one had to be built with a complex inner mechanism for dispensing up to (but no more than) fifteen drops of lubricant.
