I acquired a Stanley 131A screwdriver from a relative last winter, and it has changed my life (I’m almost not joking). The Journey into Woodworking, Created to Improve Life and Ron’s Woodshop blogs nicely describe how the tool operates.
I’ve used and loved power drills for driving screws in the past, but we once had some guys deliver a dining room table and they power screwed the leg assembly to the main frame. When we moved house this summer we saw that the screw heads had been stripped almost beyond use! During the move I used the Stanley for everything: the dining table, installing towel racks, installing the french cleat for the tool cabinet in the garage, and the list goes on…
Now the screwdriver wouldn’t be all that much use if I had to find all the vintage bits to go with it, but Lee Valley had an adapter that allows standard hex bits to be attached to the end – now I have pretty much any screw type covered.
Pros: Silent; doesn’t strip screws; fun to use; doesn’t run out of batteries
Cons: Sometimes the hex bit remains with the screw rather than the screw driver; can get your hands oily; if you don’t engage the screw correctly it can slip and poke a hole in the wall next to the screw (true story).
I think this tool is fantastic and will be on the lookout for a smaller version that might be a little easier to handle.
T r i a l & E r r o r 
I’ve got all three sizes or Yankee but almost no bits so I’ve been looking at these adapters. Sounds like they are worth the money, even with the high shipping prices I’ll have to pay.
It could be worth it: you can also chuck hex-bits in a brace/eggbeater if you want to power drive screws without power.
My late father – who had a selection of these – always told me they were banned from any work near bank counters, presumably because a ‘hole in the wall’ moment like yours would tear up the polished counter in seconds
For sure. These things can be quite a hand-full in many ways: the first time I figured out how to release the mechanism, the driver end shot out and almost hit a glass cabinet. I guess you don’t make that mistake twice…