Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online

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Screw
(1,120 words)

1. Use

Ever since antiquity, the screw, together with the lever, the wedge, the pulley, and the inclined plane, constituted the group of so-called simple machines; in the 3rd century BCE, Archimedes described it correctly as an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder. The slanted wooden water screw, called an Archimedes’ screw though he did not invent it, was used for transferring water until the late 19th century (Hydraulic engineering; see Perpetual motion, fig. 1) [7]; [13. 9–32]. The wooden threaded shaft, in use in lat…

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Troitzsch, Ulrich, “Screw”, in: Encyclopedia of Early Modern History Online, Editors of the English edition: Graeme Dunphy, Andrew Gow. Original German Edition: Enzyklopädie der Neuzeit. Im Auftrag des Kulturwissenschaftlichen Instituts (Essen) und in Verbindung mit den Fachherausgebern herausgegeben von Friedrich Jaeger. Copyright © J.B. Metzlersche Verlagsbuchhandlung und Carl Ernst Poeschel Verlag GmbH 2005–2012. Consulted online on 20 March 2023 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2352-0272_emho_COM_027197>
First published online: 2015
First print edition: 20210601



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