The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1918-06-16
To Standardize
Screw Threads Is
Commissions Duty
Washington Bureau,
Pensacola Journal

WASHINGTON. D. C. June The
five members of the Commission for
Standardization of Screw Threads will be
appointed in few days and the fixing
of standards for all screws and nuts
which has been urged by engineers ev-
erywhere for more than a hundred
years will be near consummation.
The Importance of this development
may be better realized when it is known
that the number of screws manufac-
tured in the United States every day is
ever 100000 This includes only
screws to fit a nut and not wood screws
for which there is no need for stand
ardiZing.
Congress passed. a bill a few days
ago forming the commission which is
to serve without compensation; make
it's report, finish it's work and terminate
its existence in one year. The commits
sion is to be composed of the Director
Of the Bureau of Standards, who shall
be the chairman; an Army officer, a
Navy officer, and two members to be
appointed by the Secretary of Conn
merce, one from the American Society
Of Mechanical Engineers and one from
the American Society of Automotie En-
gineers.
The bill provides that the commits
sion shall fix standards for screws and
nuts to be approved by the Secretary
Of War and Secretary of the Navy, and
to be adopted for use in plants under
the Army and Navy and for specifica-
tions for screw threads in all material
to be made for these departments by
private concerns.
1t is expected that these standards
will be eagerly adopted by manufac-
turers everywhere and welcomed by the
general public which is now daily ag-
gravated with screws and nuts which
do not fit.
The bill to standardize screws was
presented to Congress by Congressman
John 0. Tilson of New Haven, Conn.,,
who has studied the subject as an ex
pert for several years and has been urg-
ing Congress for three years to pass
the bill
There are at present innumerable
standards for screws and screw toler-
ance with the result that when screw
or nut breaks or is lost it is often very
difficult to obtain another part to fit.
The automobile manufacturers recog
nized the need of Standardization oil
definite standards so that all auto
mobile screws and nuts now fit all
makes OF cars.
To the ordinary individual all screws
and nuts appear very much the same
But there are five different measure
ments for each screw. First, there is
the lead, meaning the number OF
threads per inch, then the angle be-
tween the threads, then the diameters,
from rest to crest and from grove to |
grove and from the center of the thread |
on one side to the centre of the thread |
on the other.
The Tilson bill carries DO penalty for
not complying with the standards but
1t is believed all manufactures will
eagerly adopt them for the ADVANTAGE
of having uniform standards.
At hearings held by the House Com
mittee on Coinage, Weights and Mea- |
sures a number of concerns making |
screws and other manufacturers ap-
peared in favor of the Tilson bill, and |
no manufacturer has opposed It.
The lack of Standardization Of screws
has interfered in no small way with
the rapid manufacture of war munitions
for the Army and Navy, especially I'M
airplane manufacture, 1t is said, because
parts made at different plants in this
country and abroad Were difficult or
impossible to assemble owing to diff
ference Of screw thread tolerances.