One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw, by Witold Rybczynski (TPB, 2000, $2)
Back in 1999 an editor for the NY Times called Rybczynski. He wanted an article written for a special millennium issue of the Sunday magazine. That sounded like fun, until the editor mentioned the subject: the best tool of the millennium. "The best tool is hardly as weighty a subject as the best architect or the best city, topics I could really sink my teeth into", comments Rybczynski.Worse yet, the editor wanted it to be a hand tool.
So off Rybczynski goes looking for "the best tool" of the 1800s. The Ancients had already invented a lot of tools, so it wasn't an easy task. Finally he settles on the lowly screwdriver (It was his wife who suggested it).
What follows is a merry chase of tools through the ages, eventually ending in a race between Mr. Robinson's screwdrivers and Mr. Phillip's. In 1936 the Phillips screwdriver was used in a Cadillac auto plant, and by 1939 the competition was over. Phillips had won without breaking a sweat. So it is today, even though Consumer Reports recently challenged both to a rematch, and found the Robinson one to be faster and with less "cam-out". (So was Beta-max superior to VHS tapes, but does anyone remember Beta? Or, come to think of it, do many people even remember VHS?)
Enjoy this romp down the road of tools, and in passing check out all those weird drawings of antique tools and machines.You can find this little book on the new non-fiction table, avail. 9/23.
