29th District House of Delegates Archives

Lonnie's Fun Fact for Tuesday March 2, 2021. Tool time Tuesday and we're going to screw around! Many of the tools we use today have threaded parts that make the tool work. An adjustable wrench, clamps, vice grips, jacks and many more. According to Bolt Science dot com it is thought by some that the screw thread was invented in about 400BC by Archytas of Tarentum. Archytas is sometimes called the founder of mechanics. Archimedes developed the screw principle and used it to make devices to raise water. Originally The construction of the screw thread depended upon the eye and skill of the craftsman. Hand cut bolts and screws made interchanging them a problem. Advances on this occurred in the eighteenth century with the innovation of a lathe to cut more uniform and precise threads. In 1841 Joseph Whitworth collected sample screws from a large number of British workshops and proposed a way to standardize the angle of the threads and the number of threads per inch, both of which are still in use today. Listen to the podcast here; theriver953.com/podcast/fun-fact-march-2-2021/ ... See MoreSee Less