One Good Turn: A natural history of the screwdriver and the screw by Witold
Rybczynski, Simon and Schuster, 拢9.99, ISBN 0743208498
IT鈥橲 a rare book that blends scholarship, authority and enthusiasm. Yet
Witold Rybczynski manages to do just that in One Good Turn. The
subject? The history of the screw and the screwdriver.
Rybczynski does show something of the enthusiasm and idiosyncrasy of the
curious Victorian naturalist in his book, a quality often absent from scholarly
monographs. His book began when he was commissioned by The New York
Times to write an essay on the most useful common tool of the past thousand
years. After some debate, he picked the screwdriver, and set off to explore the
origins of this gadget.
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The Screwdriver turns out to be the only tool in common use whose
origins cannot be traced back to ancient times. It is a relative newcomer to the
toolbox compared with, for example, the saw. The screwdriver also appears to be
the one important mechanical device that the Chinese didn鈥檛 invent
independently. His search was so fruitful that he has expanded his brief essay
into a book.
Rybczynski takes us on a journey to unfamiliar museums, delving into rare
books about those who express themselves through works rather than words, and
asking questions historians don鈥檛 usually ask. Few scholars make a better job of
exploring museum collections.
Many items in these collections still await careful study. For example,
scrutinising a matchlock musket dated 1570 in New York鈥檚 Metropolitan Museum of
Art, he discerns that the lock is joined to the stock with screws. As he
discusses its significance, he refers to a book and then to a manuscript of
1475.
There鈥檚 a topical twist to this story: Rybczynski sets out and proves to his
and our satisfaction that the key tool of the second millennium is the
screwdriver. That done, he sets himself a far harder task. Who invented this
precious tool? Off he goes in search of slot-headed screws, including images of
them and of devices for turning them. I shall not ruin your enjoyment of the
chase by telling you its end鈥攁nd in any case I wasn鈥檛 completely
convinced.
I was convinced, however, by his portrayal of knightly armour as not just
high technology defence, but also a manufacturing challenge. He points out that
London鈥檚 Greenwich armoury employed not only general armourers, but also
platers, millmen, helmsmiths, mailmakers and locksmiths. Looking at Dresden
jousting armour of the late 16th century he notices they are held together with
bolts with slotted heads. 鈥淎rmourers, too, used screwdrivers!鈥�
Though One Good Turn isn鈥檛 a reference book, Rybczynski鈥檚 light
touch should not detract from his real expertise in 鈥渄ecoding鈥� objects. He鈥檚
sometimes uncritical in his use of sources, and his eye is occasionally
unreliable as it darts from one topic to another, and ranges over thousands of
years. One moment, he seizes upon the evidence for the Romans鈥� use of the nut
and bolt鈥攑rovided by a nut in Bonn鈥檚 Provincial Museum鈥攄espite the
classical world鈥檚 lack of the pointed screw. Then he鈥檚 haring off to scrutinise
the 20th-century origins of the Phillips screwdriver. On the way, he picks out
the medieval armourers鈥� use of screws, discusses the associates of Henry
Maudslay, the Londoner who pioneered machine tools in the early 19th
century.
There鈥檚 a book of real value behind his consciously unprofessional touch.
Next time you take a plane, don鈥檛 try to stretch out the less interesting parts
of a newspaper. Read this book and feel refreshed and enriched. You鈥檒l feel the
benefit the next time you visit a museum and find yourself seeing everything in
a new way.