A Few Words Screwed-Up Authenticity History Staff Screws have been around for a long time. The Romans seem to have used them. Certainly they were used in Europe in the fifteenth century, to hold armor together, and by the sixteenth century in clocks.
Wood screws seem to have been common articles by the mid-sixteenth century.
Modern harpsichords are full of screws. A jack bottom screw to regulate the height of the jack, a tongue screw to regulate the quill, a screw to regulate the damper. And capstan screws, and wood screws to hold the case together. Hundreds of screws. Those who use all these screws, particularly for the jacks, brag about their 'fully adjustable action'.