The first person to describe the spiral was the Greek scientist Archimedes (circa 287 BC - 212 BC). The Archimedean spiral is a giant spiral mounted in a wooden cylinder that lifts water from one level to another and irrigate the field. The true inventor may not be Archimedes himself. Maybe he just described something that already exists. It may be that ancient Egyptian craftsmen designed it to use irrigation on both sides of the Jurassic River.
In the Middle Ages, carpenters used wooden pegs or metal nails to connect furniture to wooden structures. In the 16th century, nail workers began to produce nails with spirals that could connect things more firmly. That is a small step from such a nail to a screw.
Around 1550 AD, the earliest metal nuts and bolts used in Europe as fasteners were hand-made on simple wooden lathes.
Screwdrivers (screw chisels) appeared in London around 1780. The carpenters found that using a screwdriver to tighten the screws was better than fixing them with a hammer, especially when the threading screws were encountered.
In 1797, Mozley invented an all-metal precision screw lathe in London. The following year, Wilkinson made a nut and bolt maker in the United States. Both types of machines can produce universal nuts and bolts. Screws have become quite popular as fixtures because at that time a cheap method of production was found.
In 1936, Henry M. Philips patented the screws for the cross recessed nail heads, which marked the significant progress of the screws. Unlike conventional slotted head screws, the Phillips head screws have a Phillips head screw head with the head's edge. This design makes the screwdriver automatically centered and not slippery, so it is very popular. Universal nuts and bolts can connect metal pieces together. Therefore, by the 19th century, the wood used to build machine-built houses had been replaced with metal bolts and nuts.
