History of the thread

History of the thread – The principle of the thread

We – the team of GewindeAufschneider.de – would like to invite you to a little journey into the past. On this page we dedicate ourselves exclusively to the history of thread.
In our multi-part series, Geschichte des Gewindees (History of Thread), we will report on historically valuable and formative inventions around the topic of screws and threads. The basic ideas behind these inventions are still anchored in our everyday life today.

We hope you will enjoy reading.

Archimedische Schraube in Xanten: Wasserspirale, Wasserschnecke, Schneckenpumpe

A small foretaste:

The principle of the thread was already known in ancient times. The “Archimedean screw” is a world-famous example. But also records of wine and oil presses are mentioned in literature. The oldest known records of tools for thread cutting date from the 16th century by Leonardo da Vinci. Only in the early phase of industrialisation in the middle of the 19th century did the Englishman Whitworth have the idea of standardising threads. Until then all threads were unique. Thread diameter, core diameter, flank angle and pitch were individually designed according to the type of application. Standardisation quickly made the Whitworth thread known in Europe. It is based on the English customs unit and is still quite common today.