The screw first appeared in the time of the Ancient Greeks.

These screws were first used in olive presses and grape presses.

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In the middle ages the press mechanism was adapted so it could now be used for the printing press and the paper press.

Some of the earliest screws to be used as fasteners were used in military weapons and in assembly armour.

Screws were in use as fasteners by the mid fifteenth century but factory production of screws did not start till the mid eighteenth century.

Screws were literally hand made before that.

The round shaft and the head of the screw were hammered out and the rest was done using a file.

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In 1760 England, Job and William Wyatt patented a design for a machine that could produce screws automatically.

It took them 16 years to raise the capital to open a factory.

For some reason, the Wyatt brothers’ business was not successful.  Their successors, however, were able to make their business profitable and produced 16,000 screws a day with a team of 30 people.

A machine for producing tapered threads was not invented until 1842.

In the 1840’s, several American manufacturers received patents for machines that could produce a tapered thread.

This technological innovation helped the United States become the most important screw manufacturer in the world.

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Screw Press and Hand Made Screw




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