Henry Frank Phillips (June 4, 1889 – April 13, 1958) was an American businessman from

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

. The Phillips-head ("crosshead")

screw A screw and a bolt (see '' Differentiation between bolt and screw'' below) are similar types of fastener typically made of metal and characterized by a helical ridge, called a ''male thread'' (external thread). Screws and bolts are used to ...

and

screwdriver A screwdriver is a tool, manual or powered, used for turning screws. A typical simple screwdriver has a handle and a shaft, ending in a tip the user puts into the screw head before turning the handle. This form of the screwdriver has been repla ...

are named after him. The importance of the crosshead screw design lies in its self-centering property, useful on automated production lines that use powered screwdrivers. Phillips' major contribution was in driving the crosshead concept forward to the point where it was adopted by screwmakers and automobile companies. The credited inventor of the Phillips screw was John P. Thompson who, in 1932, patented (#1,908,080) a recessed cruciform screw and in 1933, a screwdriver for it.

Biography

After failing to interest manufacturers, Thompson sold his self-centering design to Phillips in 1935. Phillips formed the Phillips Screw Company in 1934. After refining the design ( U.S.

Patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

#2,046,343, U.S. Patents #2,046,837 to 2,046,840) for the American Screw Company of

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts ...

, Phillips succeeded in bringing the design to industrial manufacturing and promoting its rapid adoption as a machine screw standard. One of the first customers was

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

who used the innovative design in 1936 for its

Cadillac The Cadillac Motor Car Division () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM) that designs and builds luxury vehicles. Its major markets are the United States, Canada, and China. Cadillac models are distributed ...

assembly-lines. By 1940, 85% of U.S. screw manufacturers had a license for the design. Due to failing health, Phillips retired in 1945. He died in 1958.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Phillips, Henry F. 1958 deaths Businesspeople from Portland, Oregon Screws Benson Polytechnic High School alumni 20th-century American inventors 20th-century American businesspeople 1889 births Place of birth missing