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