Phillips Head Screws: Available in 1938

From infoplease.com....

"There really is a Phillips! Henry F. Phillips, of Portland, OR, invented the X-shaped socket head screw for car makers who needed a screw that could be driven with more torque and that would hold more tightly than slotted screws. Car makers also needed a screw that would center quickly and easily, and could be used efficiently on an ***embly line.

The invention was initially rejected, but eventually accepted by the American Screw Co., who in 1936 persuaded General Motors to use the Phillips head screw in manufacturing Cadillacs.

Phillips lost the patent to his eponymous invention in 1949."

Side note: My original, un-restored '37 Chevy coupe has Phillip's head screws used in the interior.

 

As stated in an earlier post here, clutch head screws came in several sizes, try Mcmastercarr.com for the correct tools to install/remove them.

 

The same idiots that use Torx bolts to hold fenders on.

 

There is an original 36 Buick with a Brewster Body that has phillips head screws.

I do not know if it was Buick or Brewster that used them.

 

thats not tru drywall was invinted in1917 and was commercialy avaliable inthe 20's... trust me i have it in my house...

 

I recently obtained a '29 roadster body that was found up north.
Almost everything had the Robertson head style,
the dash/cowl piece, windshield stanchions were the most obvious.
I thought they had been replaced but it must've been Canadian built.

Also there are some really cool C-shaped washer/clamps that connect the fuel tank/cowl pieces.
(along with 1/4-20's)
I've never seen them before but all my stuff I find has been cobbled together.
TP

 

Thanks again for making me feel normal. The knowledge you guys spill out really blows my mind.

My girl patiently stood by while i had to make the decision between grade 8 6-point or grade 5 stainless 12-point.... She doesn't understand our tinkering minds but puts up with it.

 

I work for a flat panel TV mount manufacturer, so my car is almost entirely put together with freebie stainless ****on head cap screws (BHCS). I know its not traditional hardware, but I thought it interesting that the tool and die guys do the same thing.

 

There are a bunch of clutch head fasteners on my '56 and '57 Chevys, and my '62 Suburban. The Suburban has them for the high-beam switch on the floor, the hardware inside the doors, and the barn door hardware out back. With the right drivers, they're nice to work with. The ones in the back required an impact driver to remove them--but the heads weren't damaged at all, and were reused after hitting them with the wire wheel to knock off the rust on the threads.

-Brad

 

Been ages since I've posted on here, but I love topics like this, and thought I'd toss in my $0.02, to see if anyone here's read the great book, "One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw," by Witold Rybczynski. If you're a tool junkie like me, you'll love it.

BTW, loved the (some weeks back) posts by Ryan, et al., on Plomb Tools and others; love mine, wish I had more.

- Paul

 

I heard somewhere that the Phillips head was invented after the Robertson to prevent over tightening on screws. Apparently, the Phillips was designed so the driver could more easily 'slip' out of the screw head when it was tight, unlike the Robertson that fits snug in the screw head.

True?

 

As someone who restores old gas pumps and soda machines, I do pay attention to "slotted vs. phillips". I am suprised that slotted were used throughtout the 50s, 15 years after the phillips were invented. There is no question that philips heads have many advantages over slotted.

Brian

Brian

 

Lets see. My mind says I'm around 18-19. My body is around 35. And my age is 55. 55-19-35= 1 year old. That dates me at 1954

 

for sure GM used them in 1950..
my chevy had original interior and paint. they were used on the window mouldings and other places in the interior.

They also used those clutch drive screws, for sure on the little rear dash access panel where the voltage regulator goes on the firewall. I did a quck search for clutch drive screw drivers and they are available. I think true value has them, I got mine at the pomona swap.

http://www.idealtruevalue.com/servlet/the-169433/Detail

 

So your car was built in the 1800s? US Gypsum Co. invented what we know today as drywall in 1916. The cool thing is is that was re-did some drywal in my house. We found a small poster on the back of a sheet that was copyrighted 1919. We saved that chunk for sure.

 

How about this...a drywall screw is not technically a screw. It's a nail with a concentric inclines plane around it for ease of installation.

 

Do you hammer them in,like a nail ?
Or do they pull them selves in as they are rotated ?

 

Actually, it's the other way around; the Hit***es discovered they could save almost 15 seconds per fastener by smacking them in with a hammer rather than rotating them over and over. They put all their slaves to work filing the inclined planes off of their screws to make this easier.
The Hit***e empire was based on the military superiority their fast chariots gave them, and came to an end when their engineers tried to apply this tech idea to the nuts that held the wheels onto the chariots, causing great merriment a**** the slaves.

 

Places to hunt for answers:

http://www.google.com/advanced_patent_search

Notice down below the lines for inventor's name and ***ignee, usually a corporation...

Wikipedia... http://www.wikipedia.org/

Wiki often has useful articles and links on subjects not covered in non-engineering circles. Sources and accuracy are not certified, but usually they do a good job.

And...get this book. You'll refer to it for the rest of your life...and it may lengthen your life!

http://www.sae.org/technical/books/B-702

 

Smith's own site; alas, he's dead now.

http://www.carrollsmith.com/main.html

 

Now this is a sick puppy, reading books about hardware. Sure hope I can find a copy! BTW, Gm used clutch head screws at least in the early '40's on pickup trucks.

 

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Your math does not work for me. My mind says I'm 19, some days I feel like my body is 70, and my age is 40. 40-19-70= -49.
Wait 2007-49= 1958 which is about right.
You math does work!!

 

Was "tinkering" with my Canadian built 1928 Ford last night.
(tightening a couple of the "ROBERTSON" screws !! )

How many know that Canadian Ford Model "A's" - and some US made - used #12 carriage head bolts to hold the wood header pieces in place?

#12 is almost impossible to find now days; its been replaced with 1/4 inch.

The 100 pointer restoration folks get VERY particular about this little item.
I have seen one car lose a point over using the wrong hardware.

 

And look at '32's...lots of #5 machine screws inside (try finding THOSE at Home Depot...), fittings with double-fine thread pitches, slant-head carriage bolts...Ford just IMAGINED the best harware for each job, then called up the suppliers and ordered a million...when you are running the highest tech factory around, you don't bother to synchronize things with the corner hardware store!

 

damm square head canadians! i sure came to terms with those robertson screws in vancouver bc. installing machines because every electrical panel has them and they "DO" stay on the end of the driver. no more fishing out dropped screws in electical panels, they rock!

 

Yeah, almost all electrical panels, boxes, fixtures, wire clamps and recepticals up here use Robertson head screws.
The one strange exception is the recepticals - plugs and switches - use SLOT HEAD screws to hold the COVERS in place!
(try putting one of those little "****ers" in when your standing on your head! )

 

Phillips screwdriver, 1936:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=M4...&as_miny_is=2007&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=2007

 

Screw:
http://www.google.com/patents?id=M4...&as_miny_is=2007&as_maxm_is=1&as_maxy_is=2007

That answers the old question...which came first, the chicken or the screwdriver?? Or something like that...

 

There are a bunch more allied patents...I think those are the first, basic ones.