ANVIL: a small piece of ground and lapped steel attached to the frame of a micrometer; serves as a flat, fixed point from which measurements can be taken.

Now the reality was in my hold, I only felt that I was dusty with the dust of small coal, and that I had a weight upon my daily remembrance to which the anvil was a feather.

At the back of his wagon he set a little anvil, and out of an oily tool box dug a small machine hammer.