This Might Be The Most Important Thing We’ve Ever Invented
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There are many things in this world that seem simple but are actually insanely complex and took humanity thousands of years to figure out. Take, for example, the screw. Even though people have been using threaded machines to do work since the ancient Greeks, what we think of as the screw only came into existence in the last couple hundred years. But once it did, it changed everything.
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LINKS LINKS LINKS
https://hausoftools.com/blogs/news/who-invented-the-screw-and-how-has-the-screw-evolved?srsltid=AfmBOorbS2zS-znChdN-yUZtV3cLzWrZ9vu9kEUrdr1YgZgye-iL1ZG6
https://www.thoughtco.com/history-of-screws-and-screwdrivers-1992422
https://www.indelac.com/blog/bid/339867/history-of-threaded-screws-small-but-vital-component-of-an-actuator
https://ageofrevolutions.com/2019/06/24/the-metric-system-an-enduring-revolutionary-dream/
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180923-how-france-created-the-metric-system
https://www.britannica.com/science/metric-system-measurement
https://www.nist.gov/history
https://www.standardsportal.org/usa_en/standards_system.aspx
https://www.britannica.com/science/match-tinder
https://www.metmuseum.org/essays/roman-glass
https://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/uk/about/heritage/invention-of-float-glass
https://www.cardinalcorp.com/glossary/float-glass/
https://www.history.com/articles/toilet-paper-hygiene-ancient-rome-china
https://www.cottonelle.com/en-ca/tips-and-advice/toilet-paper-101/toilet-paper-history
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – Intro
1:42 – History of the Screw
3:04 – Ancient Construction
5:42 – Standardizing Screws
9:54 – Other Examples
13:46 – Sponsor – Ground News
@joescott
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Hey don't forget to check out Ground News at https://ground.news/joescott to get 40% off unlimited access and get smarter about your information!
@WistrelChianti
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
kudos for that screw list… how many takes?
@BattleF08
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Fun Fact: We still call a Match a Lucifer in The Netherlands.
@AjaxCrypto
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Whitworth threads and their 55 degree angle are hated by most machinists. It may be a standard but everyone else used 60 degrees. It also requires specialized tooling. It is a early standard that no one uses today except for British plumbers.
@Tobori99
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Opened this video in a new tab, forgot about it for a couple days. I open it completely forgetting the video was about screws. Joe: SCREW YOU!
@TemenosL
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Two little quips!
Sinew is pronounced (sin-yoo) as far as I know. And also, regarding glass, when you said "they weren't opaque, you couldn't see through them", I believe you meant the opposite, as opacity is the measure of not-see-through-it-'ness.
Love you Joe.
@bri4940
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
This has to be the best and funniest episode yet 😂😂
@Markisamiller
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
I'm definitely not gonna be the guy who points out that many of those screws were bolts.
@alan_whoneedstiedye
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Beer.
@ahmetozcelik7627
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
I love your videos Joe. They help me sleep but also entertain me a lot. Thank you. 🙂
@Omniscient_Inquery
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
I just realized I have a screw loose
@TIEfichter
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Oh, so they also called it lucifers, we still call it that today.
@jfroines
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
When I was growing up our household had 4 standards of screws and nuts and bolts and whatnot in the garage: "US Standard", "Metric", "BSF" (British Standard Fine), and BSW (British Standard Whitworth). BSF was the British "standard" for thread size that was neither the US standard of fractions of standard inches, nor was it metric, and BSW was yet another alternative British standard. Why did we have BSF and BSW stuff? My dad had quit racing cars professionally by the time I was born and was restoring an older British Formula 1 car (1959 Cooper F1 type 53) in the garage that he had bought in junk form (found in a field in Kansas he said, and my mom confirmed that, but In don't know how it ended up there) and later another 1960 Cooper F1. That work went on for the entirely of my childhood, with the 2nd car being finished by the time I was around 13-15, so there were always car bits everywhere for my entire childhood. He raced them in vintage races from maybe 1980 to 2000. He was obsessive about everything being perfectly original, so in order to use the original BSF nuts and bolts for the car, he had to have entire sets of special BSF and BSW tools. Even though the main thing was the special thread sizing, the heads were different sizes too (why? don't know), so you did need special wrench and socket sizes to work with them. (It was mostly BSF, only a little bit of BSW on some parts that were originally sourced outside of the Cooper Racing company when the cars were originally built.) By the time my dad passed away in 2019, those speciality BSF and BSW tools, which he hadn't touched in many years by that point, were worth their weight in gold in some specialized circles, but his wife didn't understand that and gave it all away before I could get involved. Oh well. The sale of those 2 classic F1 cars basically funded his retirement, and he wouldn't have had much other than a very small pension had he not restored them both to perfection and eventually sold them to a rich collector when he stopped racing. The 1960 car was the actual car that had won the world F1 championship in 1960, driven by Jack Brabham.
@PrinceOfHardhome
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Listen, Joe, I will listen to you talk about ANYTHING. You don't even gotta make it exciting. I love all your hot takes! And omg, I am so here for all the jokes XD
@ND-mn1rb
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
I think you meant Department of Commerce
@ribqahisabsent
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
There are so many highly impactful technologies throughout history! To choose one that I think few people would expect, a history of technology course I took in undergrad started off with the invention of perspective drawing in the early Renaissance. It allowed people to accurately document their inventions, meaning other inventors could replicate and iterate on designs without having personally interacted with them and their inventors. This massively accelerated the rate of technological development in the time period and region.
@Welcome2TheInternet
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
No, the Updraft Kiln is the most important invention of all time. It took humanity out of the late neolithic age and into the Bronze Age, allowed firing of ceramics which enabled the preservation of tablets (and WRITING) as well as the production of refractory materials (for crucibles) and enabled alloying of metals.
The screw would not exist without it. NOTHING of value would exist without it.
@Skeptic78
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
You're cracking me up Joe! And this is why you're one of the best content creators on YouTube. In a world of AI slap it's good to know we still have some Joe Scott's out there making educational entertainment. Thanks buddy!
@sunnijo
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
I actually think about screws a lot. Also gears. Aren’t gears an absolute trip? The first person to invent gears must have changed the whole world.
@ArchiesDad465
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Fastenating stuff here Joe
@panomaniac5399
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Funny, I've never heard it pronounced "Sin-oo" Always heard sin-you, like it's spelled.
@nApucco
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Today we learned: Joe doesn‘t record himself alone. Some poor guy has to sit there and listen to Joe‘s puns and innuendos all day long. 😂
@chrishigh3858
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
You didn’t cover much about screws, like how different designs address the materials they join. I fondly remember my Whitworth wrenches but the metal was cheese. 🙄
@davidp.ritchie6526
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Great video but any praise towards Whitworth bolts should be discouraged as they are the most painful thing to find today as metric and and unc are so promentnet. seen lots of threads destroyed due to mixing metric and Whitworth and the impact not caring
@timinmuscleoflove5937
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
As a viewer from Wisconsin, i endorse this message, cheese head.
@michaeldowdell3813
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
What a fastenerating video 😂😂
@rynhssn
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Joe never knew what sinew was!? Until this video? As an adult human? Who is interested in facts? Joe?
@RickMason-yj7pv
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Stainless steel screws. A separate animal from steel screws.
@silviu.x2661
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
I work in the european equivalent of home depot. Yes screws are a nightmare. Explaining to people the spacing the types both for screws and water fitiings is a PAIN
@undeadpixel2770
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
I always considered the humble lens to be one of the most crucial inventions that helped bring us to where we are today. Allowing us to bend light to our will so that we can observe the extremely small, and the very far away. Helping us to better understand our universe, and the would of the micro. It expanded our understanding, and thinking in two directions with one device.
@ApichartNakarungutti
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Now many companies use glue to screw the repairability
@harbinger_9152
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
I will maintain until the day I die that Allen head is 💩
@acetheprincep3658
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Try the machine thinking youtube channel bros
@Orderlycargo
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
im working with that wood if you know what i mean
@ZachsHomeProject
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Machinists don’t get enough credit. 😢
@maxsnts
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
"Water treatment & sanitation (sewers) " somehow, the best human inventions are never considered! (we can add vaccines too)
@croaker4747
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Needles were also a game changer.
@KneesBitten
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Hey, big question for you as a presenter, @joescott: Why downplay the interesting nature of things that, despite the long literature, are indeed interesting? After all, that IS why there is so much literature. I ask in good faith, as I'm trying to communicate ideas to juniors and the like, but I am curious if there is a psychology thing to it, or if it really doesn't seem that interesting? Maybe it's surface level banality?
@victormiranda9163
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
the facinator pun threaded by without even a wink
@louisjov
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Honestly there is a very real argument to be made that it might be good that ancient peoples didn't figure this out sooner. Why? By the time we invented screws, we had already cemented the beginnings of modern science, which led to much better understandings of the natural world. Imagine if the Romans were industrializing and had no concept of chemical analysis that would lead them to understand climate change. They will just keep on burning coal, and have no idea as to why the planet is warming up
@louisjov
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
The channel machine thinking with their origins of precision video is really fantastic if you want to learn more about screws
@MrGrombie
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
12:27 I use the 3 sea shells method to wipe too!
@3nyx
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Nice video
@jiripolacek1494
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Screwes are not BOLTS!
@fixedG
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Thanks, Industrial Revolution!
@paulbaumgart1806
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
Have you realized yet, the people of Texas are SCREWED!!!! Politically?????
And you still refuse to comment?????? The house is on fire, when the hell are you going to call the fire department??????????????????????????????????????????
JOE, stop being afraid of blow back from the brain numb right, do what you know is right before it's too late.
@logangardner796
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
bought a pentalobe screwdriver set and it didn't even fit my MacBook Pro…
@Akotski-ys9rr
March 21, 2026 at 6:34 pm
SAE isn’t that bad. It’s kind of like millimeters an inches. I use both
Comments are closed.