When was the screw invented, by whom, and for what purpose?

barbs42

Invented about 250 BC by Archimedes and used for raising and lowering water level. May 18 00, 12:28 PM

zbeckabee

In antiquity, the screw was first used as part of the screw pump of Sennacherib, King of Assyria, for the water systems at the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Nineveh in the 7th century BC. The screw was later described by the Greek mathematician Archytas of Tarentum (428 – 350 BC). By the 1st century BC, wooden screws were commonly used throughout the Mediterranean world in devices such as oil and wine presses. Metal screws used as fasteners did not appear in Europe until the 1400s. In 1770, English instrument maker, Jesse Ramsden (1735-1800) invented the first satisfactory screw-cutting lathe. The British engineer Henry Maudslay (1771-1831) patented a screw-cutting lathe in 1797; a similar device was patented by David Wilkinson in the United States in 1798. In 1908, square-drive screws were invented by Canadian P. L. Robertson, becoming a North American standard. In the early 1930s, the Phillips head screw was invented by Henry F. Phillips. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw#History Feb 10 08, 8:42 PM