Archimedes Screwdriver

This screwdriver is marked:  “F.A. Howard, Maker, Belfast Me, Jones’ Patent March 1, 1892”.

Isaac Allard patented a spiral screwdriver in 1868.  F.A. Howard was a machinist in Belfast, Maine who operated The Howard Mfg. Co. from 1865 to 1876, after which time he changed the name to F.A. Howard.  He began manufacturing Isaac Allard’s screwdriver.   In 1892, an improvement was patented by J. W. Jones, on the same day as Howard also patented his own improvement.  Each inventor served as a witness to the other’s patent application.  The company subsequently became F.A.Howard and Son from 1895 to 1901.

The curator of the Belfast Museum wrote, “After the study of these products of the machine shop of approximately one hundred years ago, a non-machinist cannot help but gain a enormous respect for the machinists and toolmakers represented here.  I have the feeling that many of the features of the Allard/Howard/Jones screwdrivers are in some way carried on in those later manufactured by the firms of Goodell Brothers, Goodell Pratt and Millers Falls. The similarity of the chuck nut and the removable bit on many of the screwdrivers manufactured by these firms to the style used by Howard and Jones are too striking to be coincidental.”