One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw

by Witold Rybczynski

A fascinating history of one humankind's simplest but most essential tools traces the history of the screwdriver from a sketch in da Vinci's pad to a later patent and mass production. By the author of A Clearing in the Distance.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Science, Technology, Microhistory, Engineering, Design

173 pages, Hardcover

First published March 28, 2000

About the author

Witold Rybczynski was born in Edinburgh, of Polish parentage, raised in London, and attended Jesuit schools in England and Canada. He studied architecture at McGill University in Montreal, where he also taught for twenty years. He is currently the Martin and Margy Meyerson Professor of Urbanism at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also co-edits the Wharton Real Estate Review. Rybczynski has designed and built houses as a registered architect, as well as doing practical experiments in low-cost housing, which took him to Mexico, Nigeria, India, the Philippines, and China.

(From www.witoldrybczynski.com)

Reviews

[Koen Crolla · Rating 1 out of 5]

Garbage.

The book starts with Rybczynski relating how he was disappointed to be asked, in 2000, to write an article on the ``the best tool'' of the last millennium, then disappointed again when the asker wanted it to be about a tool-tool and not eyeglasses. Very begrudgingly, he goes over every woodworking tool he knows (which isn't many) but realises almost all of them are much older (though how old, he has no idea; he consistently credits the Romans for inventing everything from the try square to the hand plane, despite all being at least centuries older than Rome itself). Eventually his wife suggests the screwdriver, which he chagrinedly accepts.

The rest of the book is a laborious account of the research he did for the article with all the enthusiasm of a sullen teenager (because fuck synthesizing information—he hated writing this, so by gum, you're going to hate reading it), while constantly being distracted by things he would much rather be reading or writing about, like the arquebus† or the early history of machining.
Along the way it becomes clear he doesn't actually know how to do research, or even really know how screw fasteners work, be it in sheet metal (where he thinks they require a threaded hole) or in wood (where he thinks they're a mechanical bond, in contrast to nails' friction bond; in fact, the whole point of screws is that they increase friction compared to nails, and the only mechanical bond in this area is the one provided by clinched nails).

In the final chapter he finally suddenly discovers that screws are actually much older than he had assumed and were known to the Romans and the Greeks (as fasteners, not just as the Archimedes screw), but rather than rewrite anything in that light and maybe be forced to acknowledge the screwdriver wasn't actually invented in the last millennium, Rybczynski just types up some free association on the topic of Archimedes before ending the book abruptly, without any sort of conclusion.

A lot of garbage topical histories have been written in the last couple of decades, and failures of research tend to be the rule rather than the exception, but at least the authors most of the others have the decency not to complain about being forced to write them all through the book.
A solid, interesting history of the screwdriver can certainly be written. I guess it won't be now, though, since this exist.

--------

† The name of which he thinks is from the Italian arcabugio (which he claims means ``hollow crossbow'', somehow) through the Spanish arcabuz. In reality, those words and the English all came from the Dutch hakebus (``hook tube''), through the French harquebuse.

[Karin · Rating 3 out of 5]

In this case, the title tells just about all that you need for a book blurb--this is the basics of what the book is about. That said, Rybcynski starts with how he first started too look into this topic, which was an assignment to write about the best tool invented in the last millennia (this book was published in 2011) and it had to be a tool to make things with. He decided it really should be a hand tool, since power tools are improvements. Lo and behold, the screwdriver (not the screw) was basically the only tool that wasn't already around, even though screws had been around since the days of Archimedes (he invented the first one as far as anyone can tell).

Along with a history of screwdrivers and screws, he looks into the development of things designed to make screws and some of their history as well, etc. Some of this book held my interest, but despite the solid writing, much of it was rather boring to me. I love the fact that I have screwdrivers at home and the benefits of screws over nails, but the history of it isn't one of the things I find fascinating.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, a good book that could have been a great book. Witold Rybczynski (what a name, eh?) is passionate about tools, and his passion gets you invested in tools, too, but the book just feels like a second draft. It needed some editing, way more diagrams, and a co-author who could translate some of the more dense technical explanation. It was more like a series of blog posts than a book.

Lots of interesting historical facts, though! And his thesis about the importance of the screw to human history is deeply researched and well argued. 2200 year old spoiler alert: it was most likely invented by Archimedes.

P.S. Holy crap Archimedes was cool! From the final chapter:

“Like Leonardo and Ramelli, Archimedes served as a military engineer. During the siege of Syracuse he was called on to build defensive weapons. He designed catapults that threw rocks weighing five hundred pounds, and complicated underwater obstacles that capsized ships. His most renowned weapon was a mirror that beamed the sun’s rays and set the attackers’ ships on fire. To prove the practicality of what had long been considered merely a colorful legend, in 1973, a Greek engineer named Ioannis Sakas built a working version of the ancient ray gun.11 He used seventy bronze-coated mirrors, which he aimed at a tarred plywood cutout of a ship. At a distance of 165 feet, approximating the 'bow-shot' that is mentioned in the classical text, it took only a few minutes for fire to break out.”

What!!! Like what!!!!

[Coqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't particularly enjoy history, but I love reading the history of humble, useful everyday things, like the longitude, curry sausage, and in this case; the screwdriver and the screw (who cares about battles if you can learn how screws came about?).

After reading it, I feel this book can use a lot more illustrations. Some of the machinery described is just way too complicated for mental visualisation.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

An entire book about a screwdriver works because Witold Rybczynski is such a great writer.

[guiltlessreader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally posted on my blog, Guiltless Reading

You always need a screwdriver for something!

The book in one sentence: Let me take you on a quest to find out why the screwdriver is the best tool of the millennium.

My thoughts: I won One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw by Witold Rybczynski at a Christmas party (with some other goodies) and being the "read-anything" type of gal, I jumped into this one quite easily. This is so short (only a 143 pages) that I read it in two sittings.

First thing, isn't that title rather cute? And doesn't the topic seem quite trivial? Really, who cares about the screwdriver? Which is precisely the point: how did it become such a permanent fixture in all our toolboxes? It really got me wondering ... so where did the screwdriver and screw originate? Was it the Chinese (like so many things?)

When Rybczynski is asked to write the history of the most important tool of the last millennium, he couldn't decide what that tool was. Until his wife simply said: "You always need a screwdriver for something." And that's the germ of this book.

One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw feels like being on a scavenger hunt! Rybczynski gamely lets us all tag along as he turns detective - poring over old books, manuscripts and museums, and following up on little leads. He has such an air of excitement about him that I couldn't help but enjoy myself!

The history of the screwdriver and the screw is quite fascinating. My initial thought of the screw/screwdriver being invented by the Chinese was wrong - it is in fact the only major mechanical device that the Chinese did not independently invent!

Some cool bits of info, and this is just a smattering of what Rybczynski digs up:
- Archimedes had a water screw which was used for irrigation.
- Leonardo daVinci has sketches of a screw making machine!
- Screws were used in the 15th century to secure breastplates, backplates, and helmets on jousting armor.
- Screws were used widely in firearms, particularly the matchlock.
- Screws were individually made and extremely expensive to produce before the First Industrial Revolution. Job and William Wyatt developed a method of producing the screw in a machine that cut the slotted head first, then carved the helix.
- P.L. Robertson first commercialized the socket-head screw but was stingy with his patents. In stepped Henry Phillips with the cruciform screw which were widely used in the automotive industry. (Yes, you guessed it, these guys are the namesakes of the screw types and screwdrivers.)

The book is peppered with detailed drawings and has a full glossary of tools (and notes) in the back.

Verdict: I will never look at the screw and the screwdriver as ordinary again. Fascinating, fun, and a satisfying read, great for trivia buffs and handymen (and women) alike.

[Thaveesha Piyasiri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This books is a bit like when you do a lit review and you don’t have too much written so you add random historical info in there to beef it up. Still pretty interesting.

[Jeff French · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've enjoyed books about building things: Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine and House; David McCullough's The Great Bridge and Path Between the Seas; and so, turning to a smaller scale, I was drawn to Rybczynski's story of the screwdriver and the screw. He puts a lot of effort into ferreting out the earliest use of a screw as connector and the screwdriver to use with it; however, he also goes into great depth on other uses of the screw, other helix-shaped tools. Overall, the book is fascinating despite its conciseness; the writing is crisp; and the illustrations are informative. By the end, I was convinced by the author that the screwdriver is "the best tool of the millenium," the question that led to this book. I look forward to reading more of Rybczynski's books.

[Elentarri · Rating 3 out of 5]

A semi-detective story of tracking down the origin of the screwdriver and the screw. The book is well written and interesting, but has rather a lot of wood-working terms (i.e. names of tools) that I needed to look up.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good book. Takes a bit to really hit its stride but if you know very much about any of a number of historical eras it will connect some seemingly not related dots. I especially found the chapter on the screw interesting. Reminded me a bit of the old Connection series by James Burke.

[Todd · Rating 2 out of 5]

I generally like the books of Witold Rybczynski. “City Life” was a fascinating history of urban development; “Waiting for the Weekend” was a brisk look at how we created the modern workweek. Though I wasn’t as impressed by “Last Harvest” or “Home: The Short History of an Idea,” they were readable, thorough, and filled with interesting tidbits.

So when I picked up “One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw,” I thought, how bad could it be? I mean, it’s a slim work – 151 pages, including many illustrations – and though the screwdriver itself might seem like a better topic for Rybczynski’s ally in explanation, engineering professor Henry Petroski (“The Evolution of Useful Things”), I figured that Rybczynski probably had a number of Bill Bryson-like anecdotes up his sleeve.

Well, I don’t want to say I was screwed, but “One Good Turn” was about as interesting as inserting a drill bit.

Part of the problem, I think, is that the book began as an essay in The New York Times. Rybczynski, an architecture professor at Penn, had been asked to write about “the best tool of the millennium” for a special issue of The New York Times Magazine. After some process of elimination – this tool was too old, this one not necessary enough – Rybczynski settled on the screwdriver, which had been invented in the 18th century.

So far, so decent. A worthy topic for 800 words. But maybe it should have stopped there.

Because “One Good Turn” doesn’t have much more to say. The screwdriver was derived from earlier tools with sharp edges, then refined after industrial processes made screws a mass-produced product. (That’s pretty amazing when you think about it -- that screws had to be filed by hand from nails and rivets, and no two were alike until the 1800s.) The concept of the screw itself dates back to the ancients, but were thought of more as an inclined plane around a shaft than the wall fastener we have today. It was a wonderful labor-saving device, used in milling and printing, and able to increase the amount of force a person could place on an object or use to lift one up.

What’s lacking in “One Good Turn” are people. Oh, there are a few – Peter Robertson, inventor of a socket-head screwdriver; Henry Phillips, inventor of the Phillips-head screwdriver; Jesse Ramsden, who invented an improved screw-cutting lathe – but they’re passing figures, with no more depth than a black-and-white photo in a film montage. Even Archimedes himself, the legendary mathematician and engineer who invented the screw pump, gets just a few pages towards the end.

The exception is Henry Maudslay, a blacksmith who lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s. It’s Maudslay who we have to thank for modern precision tools and uniform screw measures, due to an incredibly accurate lathe that he created. He’s also a rarity in “One Good Turn,” a colorful character who once built a prototype of an unpickable bank lock and designed regulating screws and highly polished sheets of steel, “so that work in progress could periodically be placed on it to check if it was true.”

Without Maudslay, such inventions as steam engines would be impossible, Rybczynski observes: they required “completely new standards of perfection.” And thus we got the Industrial Age.

I imagine James Burke could have gone on for several more pages with a character like Maudslay, highlighting his eccentricities and uncovering praise from successors. But “One Good Turn” breezily keeps going, neither as deep nor as diverting as it could be.

If you’re a hardware history geek, the illustrations are probably worth the price of admission. But for a guy like me, so ham-handed that I can screw up an IKEA bookcase, I was hoping for a tale with more whimsy and astonishment. For me, “One Good Turn” was surprisingly shallow. If it were a screw, it would need a wall anchor.

[Lauren of Ngaio · Rating 4 out of 5]

So, the title of this book is what drew me to take it off the library shelf. History of the screwdriver & the screw? Really? Of course, tools need to start somewhere! The author was invited by the Editor of The New York Times to write a short essay on the best tool of the millennium. After a lot of researching multiple tools - that ended up preceding the millennium, but we still hear about due to their importance as everyday tools - Witold Rybczynski settled on the screwdriver & the screw.
We are taken on a journey over multiple millennia, through Greek & Roman era, over to America, then Medieval & modern Europe. Obviously, the screw came before the screwdriver - or did it? How did a nail morph into a screw? What was the situation/thinking that required a screw to even exist? How do you make a screw?
This is a fascinating read. I know if I read it again, I would pick up a lot more of the history that led to the modern screw & screwdriver. There have been some genius inventors over time, many who develop a tool or design to a working point, only to have someone else have the vision to take it to the next level.
This is a clever book, easy read & thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you Archimedes :)

[Judd Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun little book about what seems like a simple subject (the screw and driver) with an interesting narrative structure. Rybczynski was tasked with writing an article about "the best tool of the millennium," and the resulting book is the journey that results from trying to identify this.

Part of the problem stems from the question of whether the screw and driver was from the right millennium. Many truly transformative tools predate that period, such as levers, levels, or measures. Others that do fall within the period are just refinements of previous tools, like the chainsaw: sure, it's faster than a handsaw, and as such, has been transformative for the timber industry... but, ultimately, it still just does the same job as a handsaw.

Coming to the screw and driver, it seems to fit, but confirming it is from the right millennium is tricky. For me, the most interesting factoid of the book is that screws as moving parts significantly predate screws as fasteners. For example, the use of screws for mechanical advantage in presses (e.g., pressing juices or for printing) comes before evidence of screws being used to fasten.

Not a particularly deep read, but engaging and enjoyable.

[隻眼簽到 · Rating 4 out of 5]

作者綿密的知識考古歷程，最終可以歸結為對一個機械天才：阿基米德的頌讚。天才的想像力是上帝賜給人類最不可思議的禮物。是物質文明演化或思維演化的關鍵因素。
ch1.木匠的工具箱
作者檢視自己工具箱欲尋找“最佳工具”，而後由妻子提醒他這個簡單卻又普遍的“螺絲起子”。
ch2.螺絲旋轉具
研究螺絲起子發展史的過程洋溢著一種輕鬆卻又旺盛的求知精神。作者查過的字典、百科全書、木匠工具書等，可謂洋洋大觀。作者查到，在1800年代早期之前，螺絲起子的市場需求已大到有必要自工廠生產。可能在那之前的一個世紀，法國已出現“螺絲旋轉具”(即螺絲起子)的名稱。
ch3.槍機、槍托和槍管
有些工具如手鋸，改良的過程歷經數世紀；有些工具如曲柄木鑽，則是新科學原理的改造結果。另外還有一些發明，看起來完全是個意外，如鈕釦。作者在《波拉德氏槍砲史》查到一幅最古老的火繩槍手稿圖畫，“這幅精確明白的圖畫顯示……槍機以兩顆有槽螺絲固定於槍托上。這份手稿的年份是1475年。”此即早期螺絲的普遍應用。
ch4.最大的小發明
1907年，加拿大人羅柏森取得了凹頭螺釘的專利，並成立了自己的螺絲工廠，“很多人都認為，這是二十世紀目前最大的小發明”。
ch5.精微調整
在《伍費格城堡中世紀居家書》中，作者發現了第一把螺絲起子。“這不是個臨時變通的小玩藝兒，而是件相當精緻的工具。由於《居家書》寫於十五世紀的後二十五年間”。證實：螺絲起子和螺絲，約是在同一時期發明的。
ch6.機械天賦
“機械天才並不像藝術天才般有很多人瞭解或研究，但二者肯定是相似的。”一些工具如古羅馬的框鋸，或套節鐵鎚等，毫無疑問，這些設計遲早都會出現。但如曲柄木鑽或中世紀台上車床，此類工具突然而神秘的出現，則是個體創造想像力飛躍的結果；它們是才華洋溢且有發明創造才能的人對看似複雜、實則詩意盎然的機械關係，直覺感受下的產物。”再例如，螺絲起子毫無詩意可言，但螺絲卻不是那麼回事。“首先，要有一位熟練的數學家來描述螺旋線的幾何性質，然後他得找到理論數學與實際動力學之間的關係，才能為這樣一個不尋常的物件，憑空想像出一個用途來。最後就是如何才能真正造出一枚螺絲的問題。”
ch7.螺絲之父
是誰發明了無限螺桿呢？作者認為是阿基米德。希臘學者尤斯泰希厄斯說：“水螺絲最早的記載出於西元前第二世紀，眾學者均將這項發明歸功於阿基米德。”這是因人類想像力而得以實現的又一則機械發明，和科技演進無關。”
“螺絲的發現，代表著一種奇蹟；原本就只有像阿基米德這樣的數學天才才能描述螺旋線的幾何結構，也只有像他這樣的機械天才，才能為這不尋常的形狀想出一個實際的應用。如果他還是個在亞歷山大求學的年輕人的時候，就發明了水螺絲，後來並將螺旋線的概念改良應用於無限螺桿之上，那我們一定要在他許多傑出的成就上面，再添加一則小小的、卻不盡然微不足道的榮銜：螺絲之父。”

[Francisco Reivax · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was an unexpected pleasure, for Witold Rybcznski well written narration and informed historical research turned out to be much more than the mere technical history of two of the most basic items found in every household toolbox. I highly praise Rybcznski for convincingly writing an interesting book about two very boring inanimate, yet very useful, commonplace object.

"... A Natural History..." of two manmade tools? is more of a Cultural history for this reader !

I subsequently read, and highly recommend reading, two of the books sources that Rybcznski referenced in his research: The History Of Woodworking Tools and British Planemakers from 1700

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was interesting at times, was disjointed and confusing most of the time. I am not someone with a mechanical mind (I’m an attorney by trade) and I found many of his explanations of the workings of various historical tools and machines to be extremely confusing. No amount of re-reading of passages was able to thwart my confusion. I did enjoy reading about his various ramblings about things tangentially related to the screw and screw driver. His asides made for good storytelling, but also spoke to his probable inability to find enough source material to write an entire book about this topic. I did, however, enjoy learning about the rise of the screw driver industry. The final thesis was intriguing although it felt like it came almost out of nowhere. The book felt like it was the first or second draft and could have benefited from further refinement to make it clearer for the reader. 2 stars.

[1.1 · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice and quick overview of the invention that changed everything forever, brought us to the moon and back, and let one man pull 60 tons of weight without breaking a sweat over two thousand years ago. So the subject, at least, is a very cool and often overlooked one. The writing is mostly agreeable but very much standard for this genre of book, the research is present and account for, and a lot of interesting things are covered, though this book could easily be 150 pages longer and go into a bit more detail—but then, it is kind of a fluff book, and beyond that just an overview, so that can be excused.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Goes very much into the history of how tools were made and where. If you like history, learning how things work, or tools i would recommend this book. For its target audience this is perfect and goes into details and facts that are great to see. It follows a narrator tasked with writing an article about the best tool of the millennium. This is a good book but it does tend to info dump on you. If you love reading about these things this is the book for you. This is a short read and has a lot of information on tools and how they have changed over the years from the names they went by to the materials they used.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chapter Six, Mechanical Bent, felt like a shift. Earlier chapters chronicled the natural progress of the authors research. The subsequent, final chapter (7), recapitulates the evolution of the screw and screw driver as twin inventions with

My geometric take-away or reminder: a spiral is flat (2D) whereas a helix is not flat (3D).

It must have been a decision by the publisher to include some illustrations, relegate others to an appendix, and (I think) skip some more. I enjoyed the illustrations and would enjoy more and in greater detail (perhaps patent drawings?).

[Vesa Linja-Aho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mitenkäs se menikään, mikä tahansa aihe on mielenkiintoinen kun siihen perehtyy tarpeeksi? Tässä kirjassa se on aihe ruuvi. Kaikki ovat joskus sellaista vääntäneet, mutta harva lienee miettinyt sen historiaa. Kirjassa käydään läpi ruuvin esihistoriaa ja erilaisia ruuveja, perinteisestä "suorapäästä" eli uraruuvista Phillips-ruuviin eli "ristipäähän" ja – Kanadassa yleiseen mutta ainakin minulle uuteen Robertson-ruuviin. Ainoa pettymys kirjassa oli tuoreemman historian (Torx ym.) käsittelyn puute.

Kirja on hyvin lähteistetty, jos aihe kiinnostaa lisää.

[Jerry Knoll · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a find! I was looking for, and found One Good Turn, the mystery novel by Kate Atkinson, and saw this on the list. I got it at the same time. Such an interesting history of such an ordinary tool. I won't reach for my tool box again without thinking of the origins of the screw and the screw driver.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A prime example of how a good writer can make something commonplace fascinating and even dramatic.

Originally written as a turn-of-the-millenium article for the NY Times, the author's expanded it into a short book.

I liked the history of the industrial rivalry between the inventor of the Roberton screw (square head) and Henry Ford and the Phillip's screw ( X head). Why is it in every human endeavour ( e.g. Edison vs. Tesla) there seems to be a bitter battle of some kind? Nature of the beast, I suppose.

A quick and compelling read that will have you looking at the humble screwdriver with new respect.

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book feels unfinished. Not faulty, just like you got a middle draft by accident instead of a finished piece. I appreciated the openness to research and the descriptions Mr. Rybczynski gives of archives, articles, comparisons and detective work in pursuit of his subject. You do have to have some familiarity with the subject before going in or the threads and nuts will just confuse you.

[Harry Chua · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are an engineer or you are interested in mathematics, this is a good book for the weekend. The author has done a good job tracing back the history of screw and threaded devices... Keep this book away from your girlfriend ha

[Erika]

ロボット系の特許に関わる仕事をしているのもあり、ネジやネジ回しに触れる機会は多い。
その歴史、とあって、興味深い・面白いだろうと思って読み始めたが、読んでいる途中で飽きてしまった。
スクリュードライバーがフランス語の「トゥルヌヴィ」の直訳だったり、どのくらい言葉が古いか(歴史家のお決まり、「OEDを引いてみる」をやってる)、どのくらい昔の版画や絵画に工具が登場するか、という事が、つらつらと書かれている。
興味深いんだけど。情報の羅列だけだと、上にも言ったように、飽きる。
いつかもう一回手に取りたいけれど、今回はもう図書館に返そうと思う。

[Abe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems like a lot of research and curiosity went into this, but it didn’t really hit home with me- maybe because I don’t use tools on the daily. The Archimedes research and dime quotes in the last chapter made it all worthwhile though.

[Amy Pham · Rating 3 out of 5]

First invention using the helix— that is pretty cool. It’s sort of like a scavenger hunt that he goes on to figure out the origin of what he considers the best invention— wow the screw really helped out with precision a lot! Very short read and quite interesting

[Sumit Patil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting review of the history of invention, usage and commercialisation of an as simple machine as a screw. But it isn't just the story of the screw, it is presented along with the story of human ingenuity, mathematics, industrialization and the lathe. Mechanical engineers would love it.

[Julia Mertz]

This book discusses the history of mechanical tools that I wanted to understand, but the descriptions were hard to follow and the diagrams were scant. I went to YouTube to begin to understand the tools described.

[Jeremy German · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, ended really abruptly. I was a little wary because some of the tool descriptions in the beginning were ever so slightly off. It made me question the accuracy of what was to come.