All hail the screw thread

I was going to start this column with the line ‘Where would we be without the humble screw thread?’ But I stopped myself and reconsidered, because there is nothing at all humble about the screw thread. Not only is the screw thread perhaps the most significant discovery ever made, in 2500 years the principle has yet to be bettered.

I’ve handled thousands of different threaded fasteners over the years, yet never really looked into them or, to be honest, thought very deeply about them. There were certain