Henry F. Phillips was born in 1889 in Bolivar, Missouri to Allen and Florence Phillips. Phillips headed the Phillips Screw Company in Portland, Oregon. In 1933, John P. Thompson received US Patent number 1,908,080 assigned to Phillips. Backed by Oregon's Jantzen Knitting Mills, Phillips had the American Screw Company in Providence, Rhode Island mass produce the screw under the name Phillips.
The screw manufacturer could punch the cross-head into a screw blank rather than resort to expensive machining or broaching.
For the manufacturer using the screws, the design was an improvement over the standard slotted screw-head because the funnel shape of the cross-head socket would allow a driver tool to center itself, and it could offer a lot of torque to be applied to the screw threads. When the maximum screw torque was reached the tool would "cam out," preventing over-tightening of the screw. This feature was useful because it was difficult to control torque on the early powered drivers.
The design was chosen by Cadillac in 1936 and quickly became ubiquitous. Phillips retired from the Phillips Screw Company in 1945 due to poor health.
Phillips died in Portland, Oregon in 1958, survived by his wife Nellie Helen. He left four sons and one daughter: Harry L.; Norman A.; Henry F., Junior; John; and Dorothy (Phillips) Rees.
Phillips was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2011.
The screw manufacturer could punch the cross-head into a screw blank rather than resort to expensive machining or broaching.
For the manufacturer using the screws, the design was an improvement over the standard slotted screw-head because the funnel shape of the cross-head socket would allow a driver tool to center itself, and it could offer a lot of torque to be applied to the screw threads. When the maximum screw torque was reached the tool would "cam out," preventing over-tightening of the screw. This feature was useful because it was difficult to control torque on the early powered drivers.
The design was chosen by Cadillac in 1936 and quickly became ubiquitous. Phillips retired from the Phillips Screw Company in 1945 due to poor health.
Phillips died in Portland, Oregon in 1958, survived by his wife Nellie Helen. He left four sons and one daughter: Harry L.; Norman A.; Henry F., Junior; John; and Dorothy (Phillips) Rees.
Phillips was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2011.
Henry F. Phillips was born in 1889 in Bolivar, Missouri to Allen and Florence Phillips. Phillips headed the Phillips Screw Company in Portland, Oregon. In 1933, John P. Thompson received US Patent number 1,908,080 assigned to Phillips. Backed by Oregon's Jantzen Knitting Mills, Phillips had the American Screw Company in Providence, Rhode Island mass produce the screw under the name Phillips.
The screw manufacturer could punch the cross-head into a screw blank rather than resort to expensive machining or broaching.
For the manufacturer using the screws, the design was an improvement over the standard slotted screw-head because the funnel shape of the cross-head socket would allow a driver tool to center itself, and it could offer a lot of torque to be applied to the screw threads. When the maximum screw torque was reached the tool would "cam out," preventing over-tightening of the screw. This feature was useful because it was difficult to control torque on the early powered drivers.
The design was chosen by Cadillac in 1936 and quickly became ubiquitous. Phillips retired from the Phillips Screw Company in 1945 due to poor health.
Phillips died in Portland, Oregon in 1958, survived by his wife Nellie Helen. He left four sons and one daughter: Harry L.; Norman A.; Henry F., Junior; John; and Dorothy (Phillips) Rees.
Phillips was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2011.
The screw manufacturer could punch the cross-head into a screw blank rather than resort to expensive machining or broaching.
For the manufacturer using the screws, the design was an improvement over the standard slotted screw-head because the funnel shape of the cross-head socket would allow a driver tool to center itself, and it could offer a lot of torque to be applied to the screw threads. When the maximum screw torque was reached the tool would "cam out," preventing over-tightening of the screw. This feature was useful because it was difficult to control torque on the early powered drivers.
The design was chosen by Cadillac in 1936 and quickly became ubiquitous. Phillips retired from the Phillips Screw Company in 1945 due to poor health.
Phillips died in Portland, Oregon in 1958, survived by his wife Nellie Helen. He left four sons and one daughter: Harry L.; Norman A.; Henry F., Junior; John; and Dorothy (Phillips) Rees.
Phillips was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2011.
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HENRY FRANK
PHILLIPS
1889-1958
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