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Speaker 1: Guy with the story of the screwdriver wars.
Speaker 2: Screws as fasteners were not apparently produced until around the
Speaker 2: fifteenth century. There's no mention as in the late fifteenth
Speaker 2: century manuscript. Their initial use was as a fastener for
Speaker 2: parts of medieval jousting armor, and in nearly the same
Speaker 2: period for early firearms. The earliest screwdrivers were built to
Speaker 2: service these weapons, and they were called either a screw
Speaker 2: turner or a turn screw, and they had a pair
Speaker 2: shape wooden handle and looked a lot like a modern
Speaker 2: flat headed screwdriver. But these screws and screwdrivers would have
Speaker 2: been custom made and used on very expensive devices like
Speaker 2: wheel locks and jousting armor, and so screws were not
Speaker 2: for the common folk. In seventeen sixty, brothers Job and
Speaker 2: William Wyatt of Staffordshire patented a screwmaking machine that used
Speaker 2: a file to cut in the threads. Following the pitch
Speaker 2: of a lead screw. This allowed mass production of screws
Speaker 2: and was a precursor to industrial mass production machines. The
Speaker 2: idea of using a lathe of some sort of cut
Speaker 2: threads was variously improved upon until the process for cold
Speaker 2: rolling threads was perfected in the eighteen eighties. But virtually
Speaker 2: all of these screws used just a few turning methods,
Speaker 2: either a hexagon or square that was turned externally or
Speaker 2: a flat slot cut to turn internally, and as anyone
Speaker 2: who has ever used one knows, flat headed screws and
Speaker 2: screwdrivers have their problems, but solutions were on the horizon.
Speaker 2: Peter L. Robertson was born and hauled Men County, Ontario,
Speaker 2: Canada in eighteen seventy nine. Tinkerer Robertson produced a number
Speaker 2: of inventions, including a new design for cufflins and even
Speaker 2: a better mouse trap. In nineteen oh five, received a
Speaker 2: patent in Canada for a new design of a corkscrew
Speaker 2: that centered itself on the bottle. Around the turn of
Speaker 2: the century, Robertson was working through Eastern Canada is what
Speaker 2: was called a high pitchman, meaning a traveling salesman for
Speaker 2: a Philadelphia tool company. High pitchmen would sell their wares,
Speaker 2: say on a street corner at County Fair, calling out
Speaker 2: their wares. Among the things that he was selling was
Speaker 2: the device of his own design. Robert's twentieth century wrench
Speaker 2: brace was a multi tool that could be used as
Speaker 2: a monkey wrench, as a brace, as a bench vice,
Speaker 2: as a screwdriver. While demonstrating the screwdriver, which was flat bladed,
Speaker 2: the blade slipped and seriously cut his hand. That gave
Speaker 2: him the idea of a new type of screwdriver head
Speaker 2: that was less likely to slip or cam out. In
Speaker 2: eighteen seventy five, Alan Cummings of New York City had
Speaker 2: been granted a patent for a screw that used a
Speaker 2: cavity either a square or triangle, rather than a slot,
Speaker 2: to address the same problem. Cummings description noted, it is
Speaker 2: well known that the ordinary screwhead provided with a slot
Speaker 2: is very susceptible to injury caused mainly by the slipping
Speaker 2: of the screwdriver from the slot when the screws being
Speaker 2: set home in wood or metal. By admitting the usual
Speaker 2: slot and using the proper shaped cavity and screwdriver, perfect
Speaker 2: safety is insured to the metallic cap, but Cummings design
Speaker 2: had a flaw. The way that you made the cavity
Speaker 2: that the screwdriver fit into was by stamping it with
Speaker 2: a die and stamping it deeply enough that the screwdriver
Speaker 2: would set inside, it would deform or weaken the screw head.
Speaker 2: Robertson had a better solution, to which he applied for
Speaker 2: a patent in nineteen oh seven. His screw tapered the
Speaker 2: sides of the crew gradually down to a pyramid shape.
Speaker 2: This not only prevented the head from being deformed, but
Speaker 2: actually helped align the metal grain, as he explained, knitting
Speaker 2: the atoms together for greater strength. It had the added
Speaker 2: advantage of less waste, since the slot of a slot
Speaker 2: headed screw was usually cut out, losing a bit of
Speaker 2: metal and weakening the head of the screw. Because it
Speaker 2: was less likely to cam out, you could use more
Speaker 2: torque with the Robertson screw and driver. As it was
Speaker 2: self centering, it could be used with one hand, or
Speaker 2: as a slotted screw driver usually required two. The head
Speaker 2: of the screw was less likely to deform, and the
Speaker 2: Robertson screwdriver was much better able to still remove the
Speaker 2: screw if it did. It also worked better than the
Speaker 2: slotted screw if the screw had been painted over. Robertson's
Speaker 2: screw and driver were particularly attractive to furniture makers and
Speaker 2: boat builders, where it was more of a problem if
Speaker 2: a flathead screw cammed out because it would damage the
Speaker 2: material around it damage the value of the product. But
Speaker 2: perhaps best of all is that robertson screw could be
Speaker 2: cold form. That is, because the stamp tapered down inside
Speaker 2: the screw. That meant that you could build the screw
Speaker 2: without ever having to heat the metal. Cummings design, as
Speaker 2: ingenious as it was, probably was never made during its
Speaker 2: patent life because the screw simply couldn't be easily manufactured.
Speaker 2: But Robertson's design could be cheaply manufactured in the millions.
Speaker 2: His invention the biggest little invention of the twentieth century
Speaker 2: so far. Robertson gained enough investors to open the P. L.
Speaker 2: Robertson Manufacturing Company Limited in nineteen oh eight. He built
Speaker 2: a factory in Milton, Ontario, which gave him tax breaks
Speaker 2: and a ten thousand dollars loan. The patent was approved
Speaker 2: February nineteen oh nine, and by then the company was
Speaker 2: already filling orders. Robertson was just thirty years old. While
Speaker 2: the Robertson Company described the initial years as hard, with
Speaker 2: local competitors even challenging their patent, the Robertson screw slully
Speaker 2: gained adherents among boat builders and furniture makers. In nineteen thirteen,
Speaker 2: Fisher Autobody opened a factory in Walkerville, Ontario, making wooden
Speaker 2: parts for the Ford Model T. The Robertson screw offered
Speaker 2: a great advantage for manufacturing, and Fisher became one of
Speaker 2: Robertson's largest customers, using some seven hundred screws per body.
Speaker 2: Robertson letters designed a screw for metal to use on
Speaker 2: the all metal body of the Ford Model A. Having
Speaker 2: been awarded international patents, Robertson saw the opportunity to expand
Speaker 2: a broad and so he went to Gillingham, England, and
Speaker 2: established a company called the Recess Screw Company. He marketed
Speaker 2: to British industry using the slogan the screw that grips
Speaker 2: the driver, but his real plan was to manufacture screws
Speaker 2: in England but sell them in Germany and Russia. In
Speaker 2: the First World War, in the Russian Revolution foiled his plan.
Speaker 2: Recess Screws turned to war production during the Great War
Speaker 2: and produced things like firing needles and hand grenade pens,
Speaker 2: but after the war, Recess Crews failed. There seems to
Speaker 2: have been several factors involved, including a glot of supply
Speaker 2: following the war, and the actions of some unscrupulous investors.
Speaker 2: But Robertson resigned as a director of the company. But
Speaker 2: the company in Canada was still doing well, and Robertson
Speaker 2: looked to expand into the United States. Then Henry Ford
Speaker 2: came to the table. An analysis had shown that the
Speaker 2: use of Robertson Screws and the Ford plants in Canada
Speaker 2: had saved two dollars and sixty cents a car, of
Speaker 2: significant savings for car that retail for only three hundred
Speaker 2: and ninety dollars in which was being produced in the millions.
Speaker 2: Ford wanted to use Robertson Screws in all his US plants,
Speaker 2: but Ford wanted to say in production in an exclusive contract,
Speaker 2: and Robertson stubbornly refused to give up that control. When
Speaker 2: the deal fell through, Robertson not only did not get
Speaker 2: the contract for the American Ford Plants, but lost the
Speaker 2: contracts in Canada, almost a third of his business. After
Speaker 2: three failed tries, Robertson decided to never try to license
Speaker 2: his screws outside of Canada again, but his marketing skills
Speaker 2: made his screws and drivers the screwdrivers of choice in Canada,
Speaker 2: even though just across the border of the United States
Speaker 2: they're hardly known at all. But Ford was still using
Speaker 2: flat screws, which were even more troublesome on automated assembly lines,
Speaker 2: where if a screw cammed out it cost time and
Speaker 2: slow manufacturing. The solutions started with a patent application in
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty two by John P. Thompson, an auto mechanic
Speaker 2: living in Portland, Oregon. Thompson's solution was similar to Robertson's.
Speaker 2: By tapering, the screw had a star dyke could be
Speaker 2: used without distorting the medal, and again stamping. The taper
Speaker 2: design made the medal actually stronger. In nineteen thirty three,
Speaker 2: when the patent was granted, Thompson assigned it to Henry
Speaker 2: Frank Phillips. Like Robertson, Henry Phillips had been a traveling
Speaker 2: salesman by the time that Patton was assigned to him.
Speaker 2: He was the mandaging director of a mining concern, the
Speaker 2: Oregon Copper Company. It's not only clear why Thompson assigned
Speaker 2: the patent to Phillips, but Phillips refined the design and
Speaker 2: was granted more patents. Unlike Robertson, Phillips did not intend
Speaker 2: to manufacture screws, but hoped to license the patents to
Speaker 2: manufacture and collect royalties. Not surprisingly, with new invention, Phillips
Speaker 2: got a lot of rejections from companies who told me
Speaker 2: the idea lack promise for commercial success. But eventually Phillips
Speaker 2: convinced Eugene E. Clarke of the American Screw Company of Providence,
Speaker 2: Rhode Island, to manufacture the design. By nineteen thirty four,
Speaker 2: the screw was available for consumers. In nineteen thirty six,
Speaker 2: General Motors was invited to test the design. The Phillips
Speaker 2: heads screw first went into use at GM making the
Speaker 2: nineteen thirty six Cadillac. Customers raved about the amount of
Speaker 2: work time saved. Within just a few years, virtually all
Speaker 2: US automakers, including Ford, were using Phillips headscrews. The airplane
Speaker 2: manufacturing and railroad industry likewise switched. By nineteen thirty nine,
Speaker 2: twenty companies had licenses to produce Phillips head screws. By
Speaker 2: nineteen forty, eighty five percent of US screw manufacturers had
Speaker 2: a license for the design, and the company grows more
Speaker 2: than one point three million adjusted dollars. While the Second
Speaker 2: World War limited foreign licenses, it established the Phillips head
Speaker 2: screw as an industry standard among wartime manufacturers. The hundreds
Speaker 2: of thousands of planes and motor vehicles built by the
Speaker 2: US during the war were largely screwed together using Phillips headscrews.
Speaker 2: While Robertson had Canada, Phillips screws are by industry estimates,
Speaker 2: by far of the most popular type of screw everywhere
Speaker 2: else in the world. The Robertson and Phillips screws were
Speaker 2: the culmination of the development of screw technology over a
Speaker 2: couple one hundred years, and they were two types that
Speaker 2: rose to the top in an era where there was
Speaker 2: a lot of innovation in the field. It's really ironic
Speaker 2: that the events of the First World War were part
Speaker 2: of the reason that the Robertson screw was never developed internationally,
Speaker 2: whereas events the Second World War where the reason that
Speaker 2: the Philip said it screw was and the relative fates
Speaker 2: between the two say that invention isn't about just the
Speaker 2: inspiration and pun intended drive of the inventor, but of
Speaker 2: a complex interaction with historical forces and powerful personalities, things
Speaker 2: that can impact every tool in the toolbox.
Speaker 1: And you've been listening to the History Guy. If you
Speaker 1: want more stories of forgotten history, please subscribe to his
Speaker 1: YouTube channel, The History Guy Colin History deserves to be remembered.
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