Andrew Taylor said:
. I have never seen them in the UK, so it was interesting the first time I saw one!
Andrew, that's probably because Mr.Robertson must have high-tailed it out of the UK, after the following unpleasant experience!
"Robertson had licenced the screw in England but the party he was dealing with intentionally put the company under and purchased the rights from the trustee thus circumventing Robertson. He spent a small fortune buying back the rights. After that he refused to ever allow anyone to make the screws under license." (Wikipedia)
Here's some more info on why Robertson ("socket head") screws are THE screw in Canada, and not the U.S.:
"Robertson took his fastener to Europe, with the hope of manufacturing it in England with some business partners there, and selling it across the continent. Unfortunately, this was just before WWI broke out. He and his English partners did OK producing war related goods, but fastener sales to Germany and Russia were, well, non-existant. After the war ended, there was a falling out among the partners, and it ended badly all around. Robertson swore he'd never fail to be in full control again. He sold fasteners for a few years to Ford in the US, but Henry Ford wanted to manufacture them himself, under licence. Remembering his British adventure, Robertson refused. He'd sell anybody all of the screws that they wanted, but nobody else would be licenced to make them. Henry Ford also liked to be in full control of things, so that emded that. WWII broke out, and Phillips screws (Phillips bought the screw head design from someone else, and made a couple of minor improvements) were better than slotted, and war manufacturing needed a zillion fasteners, so Phillips took off on the US side of the border."
"...there was great opposition to their introduction into the US back in the day by the American makers (because they didn't hold the patents and the screws were better in use than theirs) and that there were even legislative measures taken to exclude Robertson screws."
(Both quotes are from an interesting discussion here:
http://www.eng-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=114660&page=10)
One last comment on Robertson heads. They are just refined square sockets: that simple shape that is so universally used in socket wrenches. (Heck, you can even make an emergency Roberston driver with a chunk of rod and a file.) Robertsons are solid, & easy to clean out, just like socket wrenches, as all mechanics know. They just don't break, like slot or Phillips heads, so you can tighten them solidly, without the driver popping out and stabbing your workpiece or your hand. And, a Robertson screw stays on the screwdriver, so you can hold the work with your other hand, or feed the screw way into places like the back of an electrical junction box, without the screw falling off. (Torx also stay on the driver, but cleaning the gunk out of an old Torx head may take quite awhile, but with a Robertson, all it takes is a quick poke with the tip of your pocketknife!)
BTW, "Torx" is spelled wrong!
ROBERTSONS RULE! :thumbup:
