Twists and turns
Like many people whose lives rotate in a significant fashion around the written word, I read several books at a time. There are the volumes that are of interest because of a current subject or field in which one is interested for the long term. These are in various stages: Some half-read, some almost read, some unopened but available. These include books on learning languages, dictionaries, reference works, historical texts and the like
Then, there are books that are of immediate interest (based perhaps on something that is happening around the world at that point in time) and bring illumination to a current subject. Then are books that I read because they are within reach: On the writing desk, on the shelves nearest the sofa, on the bedstead and so on and are perused merely because they happen to be at hand.
The last category is of books that are about a single subject: Coffee, Oranges, The Trial, Salt, Longitude and AK47 are names of some of the books I have in the shelves of our guest bedroom. Meant for people who will not be around for long but may still need something substantial to read in the afternoon and at night.
I also dip into one of these on afternoons when there is no guest (which is most afternoons) and am in that room. And I’m writing about one such book. It is called One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw by Witold Rybczynski. It is a thin work, about 160 pages and a brisk read. It is based on an assignment the writer was commissioned for by the New York Times 20 years ago, at the turn of the century. The paper was doing a special on the millennium between 1000 AD and 2000 AD and wanted Mr Rybczynski to write on the best tool of the last thousand years.
In the first part of the book the author takes us through his thought process on arriving at what he believed was the most important and significant tool. He must first eliminate tools that were invented and used before 1000 AD. So that rules out hammers, saws, nails and such elementary things that have been in use for thousands of years.
He also filters out those tools that fit the period but are merely better versions of ones that previously existed, either by being faster and more efficient or more accurate. Ken Kern, who wrote The Owner-built Home, estimated that cutting all the two inch by four inch logs (that are standard in America) required to build a small home would take one week using a handsaw and a half hour using a motorised power-saw. The retractable measuring tape is fabulous but is merely the same thing as the Roman foot-rule in better form.
After this it gets slightly more complex as Mr Rybczynski must find out how old some important tools are and whether they fit the historical period. For example, plumb lines, spirit levels and so on. He is in despair because nothing seems to fit both the period and the weightiness required to qualify as the best tool of the last 1000 years. And then, as we know of course because of the book’s title, he thinks about the screwdriver and the little screw that it drives into wood.
The next part of the book is about the utility of this and how it differs from a nail: Basically nails cannot be used on hard wood because they create cracks, and of course the screw is more secure because of the spiral groove.
But for this reason it is also more time consuming and expensive to make. Mr Rybczynski explores the history of the screw and its evolution. Much of this is modern (18th and 19th century) and, therefore, is well documented, including the story of the first company, set up by brothers named Wyatt to make screws that went bust. We learn of the history of the Phillips head screw which is used today all over the world and the less popular but higher quality Robertson’s screw.
He also tells us the first uses of the screw — and therefore, sometimes also the screwdriver — which can be seen in such devices as the olive press, the cannon and armour suits.
And lastly, he looks at the etymology of the word screwdriver and thinks about where it originated. The English use the word turnscrew, which is from the French tournevis. This leads Mr Rybczynski to conclude that the screwdriver originated in France. But to what end? Why would the French need to invent a metal spire? The answer is that it was used first to pull corks out of wine. Of course, we should have guessed that the answer to human ingenuity is often linked to man’s strong and seemingly eternal desire to get high: Something that is visible today all around us as well.
Mr Rybczynski explores the history of the screw and its evolution. Much of this is modern (18th and 19th century) and, therefore, is well documented, including the story of the first company, set up by brothers named Wyatt to make screws that went bust