Ep. 37 Tools Named For People

This week I look at tools named for people. I try to find out the story behind some of these tools. Come along for the ride this week as I ask, tools named for people, how did that happen? History of screws: A screw is defined as an inclined plane that spirals around a central shaft. They have existed for thousands of years. They were first thought to be used to irrigate the hanging flower gardens of Babylon which is one of the ancient 7 wonders of the world. If this is true, then that happened around the 7th or 6th century BC but there is no actual evidence.  The first evident we do have comes from Egypt. They used them in the 3rd century BC in the form of Archimedes screws which were water pumps. The screws were used to lift water from the Nile. They were also used in presses to make olive oil or wine. They were not used as fasteners the way that we do until around the 1400s. They were initially used to hold medieval jousting armor together. They were even in early guns.  The earliest screw drivers were made to service the armor and weapons that I just mentioned. They were called things like screw turner or turn screw. They were usually custom made and not a common occurrence around the house. Jousting went out of favor not long after King Henry II of France died from it during an accident in the mid 1500’s. And so the use of screws then had to shift. Cue the Wyatt Brothers. Screws: 1700’s Forward In 1760 the Wyatt brothers created a screw making machine that could mass produce screws. This is what laid the foundation for the screw market today. The initial screws came in two types, either with the slot facing up right or down. The slot facing up was for a flat headed screw driver, but the one facing down would have to be opened with a wrench. The flat head screw driver was very common. So common that when people tried to make other types of screw drivers in the 1800’s it would be hard to get them to switch.  Despite the flat heads being a little bit dangerous because they could slip out of the slot. There had been a few patents for other shapes of screw drivers but either because everyone already had a flat head screw driver or because of production problems, none came about until a man named Robertson. ROBERTSON Peter Robertson was born in Haldimand county Ontario in 1879. Robertson was a Canadian inventor and author. The land of Haldimand county was originally inhabited by a group of Native Americans who were part of the Six Nations. They gave the land to England in a contract in 1844. Ol' Pete Robertson in all his glory He did a lot of tinkering and even patented a version of the corkscrew. He created a device which he sold on the rode. It was called the 20th century wrench brace which he hailed as the greatest tool on earth.  The tool could be used as a monkey wrench, a brace, a bench vice, screw driver and a rivet maker. Thats alot of options. This was a fad during that era and there were many of multi tools on the market at that time. During this time he was also selling and demonstrating a spring loaded screw driver. One time while he was doing this, the flat blade slipped and cut his hand and that compelled him to make a type of screw driver that wouldn’t cam out as the people in the biz say. He created a square shaped screw driver head. He didn’t actually create as much as his version became successful. The first guy to patent a square socket drive was Allan Cummings in 1875. Old PL Robertson was only 4 at the time. Robertson screws were originally used on the model T Ford but when Henry Ford asked him for exclusive rights to use and manufacturing of his screws in the u.s. Robertson was not with that, a man named Henry Phillips felt differently.  Phillips head Screw Driver For the Phillips head our story starts in Birmingham England. John Frearson was a British inventor, engineer and manufacturer in Birmingham,