the.com/phillips head screwdriver
Designed to cam out on purpose, so power tools don't rip your hand off.
means A screwdriver with a cross-shaped tip made to fit the cross-shaped notch of a Phillips screw.
from Named for Henry F. Phillips, a businessman who in the 1930s acquired and championed the design of the cross-head screw (originally conceived by John P. Thompson) and pushed it into mass production — notably with the auto industry, which wanted a screw head that let power-driven screwdrivers slip, or 'cam out,' instead of torquing the screw apart or wrenching free of the operator's hand. The name stuck to the tool, even though Phillips himself was more promoter and patent-holder than inventor.
- inventor
- Henry Phillips bought the patent, didn't invent it
- real purpose
- cam-out prevents overtightening on assembly lines
- origin use
- popularized by 1930s automobile manufacturing
- sizes
- numbered 000 to 4, not interchangeable