Comments on: 72nd birthday for Phillips (the screw)

By: DAVE MOORE

DAVE MOORE — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:44:38 +0000

HELLO, I WOULD LIKE TO SPEAK TO JOHN FREARSON ABOUT HIS FAMILY’S RESEARCH. HOW CAN I SPEAK TO HIM? REGARDS DAVE

By: Scott Sullivan

Scott Sullivan — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:57:59 +0000

Sorry for the name error! Sounds like he was a pretty smart man! Any other inventors in your family?

By: John Frearson

John Frearson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:46:20 +0000

Thanks for the mention of my namesake John Frearson [NOT Freason]of Birmingham. As well as inventing the Frearson cross head [still well known in the USA]and patenting other fixings for the textile inductry, he [and another] was also responsible for introducing the Saturday half day to Birmingham. He lectured extensively on Industrial relations. His wife ran a temperance hotel.

Cheers – John [researching the Frearson family worldwide]

By: Gems Sty

Gems Sty — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:14:08 +0000

Haha thanks Scott – I should appoint you as the resident CPO – Chief Patents Officer.

I guess Phillips screws are only *really* useful when it has the sharp head – that’s where it makes difference when it can now provide for applications in industrial automation etc. But thanks for noting and pointing out that ‘Phillips’ isn’t synonymous with ‘+’, but more like ‘+ with tapered head’.

Nat O.,
Do Robertson screws fasten/loosen well when they are rusty? (Just to be fair to Phillips)

By: Nat O.

Nat O. — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:22:19 +0000

Well, I’m just saying that when phillips head screws get rusty, they strip really easily. Brand new, they’re definitely very efficient.

By: Scott Sullivan

Scott Sullivan — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 07:12:17 +0000

Once again, we are giving away too much credit. We assume that Mr. Phillips invented the “+” screwdriver and screw when actually, about 14 years before Mr. Phillips was even born (b.1890), a man named Freason received a US patent (179,695) that disclosed a screwdriver that included the basic “+” drive structure. Freason received a couple more patents improving this basic driver structure, still years before Phillips entered the world.

Then, in May, 1933, a guy named Thompson received a patent that further advanced the “+” driver structure of Freason. This patent (US 1,908,081) was actually purchased by Phillips before it even issued.

A main difference between these older “+” drive designs was that the driver was pointed sharp and did not include the engineered shape of the “+” which works so well with the mating screw.

Now, I do believe that even though Phillips was a known as a businessman, he did appear to be the person who improved the earlier sharp “+” head designs by truncating the tip (and including screw-holding structural details), thereby allowing the “+” shaped screw to be more easily manufactured. To this end, I’ll give him tons of credit for getting the “+” drive head to work well enough for the manufacturing world to take off with it, but he did not invent the original “+” shape driver.

By: Gems Sty

Gems Sty — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 14:10:40 +0000

Wow, you really have a grudge against Phillips screws don’t you! I guess I don’t deal with screws much so I wouldn’t really know their relative merits.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robertson_screwdriver

Wow, there are really quite many types!

By: Nat O.

Nat O. — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:14:53 +0000

Pffft. Every time I come across a rusty phillips head screw, I curse the heavens. These things get stripped more of ten than a gitmo inmate. Thanks, but I’ll take the Robertson head screw over a Phillips any day.