Of Screws and Philosophers!

Did you ever wonder how screws came to be?

Another question I had never asked myself. A screw just is, all you got to do is walked into a shop and grab a bag. We all know what it is and we all know how to use it. Now, however, I am wondering at what point did the screw appear in the history of humanity, between the time the human learned to walk up-right and 2023.

It is generally accepted that the screw was invented, or at least first described, by a man called Archytas of Tarentum.

For those of us (including me) who do not know who Archytas was, the man lived circa 428–350 BC and was one of the great thinkers of his time, an Ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, music theorist, astronomer, statesman, and strategist. One of the wise men (“Sophos”) of the ancient Hellenistic era, with the like of Plato, he is also credited as being the founder of mechanical mathematics.

Archytas is even reputed to have designed and built some kind of flying device, in the shape of a bird, self-propelled, known as the pigeon, that is said to have flown some 200 meters.

If you do not know about the man, you should check him, and other philosophers of the era, out. Those were rather extraordinary men.

Now, the screw did not start its life as a way to fix things in a certain position. It was originally created and used in presses, to extract olive oil or grape juice for example. The turning of the screw would cause the two pieces of wood or other material held together by the screw to move closer together and thus press whatever was inside.

The system was then improved by Archimedes, on a larger scale. The water screw was first mentioned in Mechanica of Heron of Alexandria, made from wood and was used to aid farm irrigation and rid ships of bilge water. The Archimedes screw is still in use today for irrigation.

Screws, may it be as a press or for irrigation, were found widely in the Mediterranean basin, including in cities like Pompeii. The screw was also used in Roman surgical instruments around 50AD and remain relatively unchanged until the 1700’s when lathes were developed that could create better threading.

The first standardized screws, including a threading with a 55-degree angle, appear in the 1840’s. It wasn’t until World War I and World War II when standards and innovations underwent a move toward wider standardization, that countries stopped making different type of screws.

In an age where we take everything for granted, I think it is sobering, to remember that at a time without internet, with scarce books and access to information, men came together, whether it be in Mesopotamia, China or Greece, and came up with discoveries and theories that still to this day drive the world.

Granted, it all started as a way to solve practical problems (how to calculate and collect taxes, how to split wages etc.), it had to also be a more complex topic, as an in-depth mathematical knowledge (arithmetic or geometric) was required in order to build some of the greatest monuments that still survive to this day. Think Egyptian or Mayan pyramids! This means our ancestors, thousands of years ago, had to have found a way to understand the notion of theoretical mathematics. Ever wonder how the number 0 came to be?

As one last fun fact, the oldest known mathematical document is the Rhind papyrus, scribed by Ahmes in the 17th century BCE. It provided tables of division and answers to problems without the method or steps used to solve them. Interestingly, Rhind papyrus is actually a copy made of a text which was at least two centuries older.

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