A screen roller or spline roller is a small hand tool used to press screen mesh into the edges of a

window A window is an opening in a wall, door, roof, or vehicle that allows the exchange of light and may also allow the passage of sound and sometimes air. Modern windows are usually glazed or covered in some other transparent or translucent mate ...

frame that is fluted on the inner edges, or to press in the retainer spline that holds that mesh in place. Often these are combined into a single tool or combined with a spline cutter; versions are currently manufactured from plastic or wood and metal.

Appearance and history

While a spline roller (also referred to as a "spline tool") is said to look like a less-sharp version of a

pizza cutter A pizza cutter (also known as a roller blade) is a utensil that is used to cut pizzas. History The first pizza cutter in its modern form was invented by David S. Morgan which he patented on September 20, 1892. However, it was not directly meant ...

(which it does), its origins are in fact from something different. Somewhere around or before 1920 a man named Julius Alexander Muhlberg who was co-owner of Winchester and Muhlberg, a

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

-based company. An innovator at heart, Julius had taken some other tool's handle, drilled a hole through a silver dollar, and after putting them both together with a

nut Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut or Nuts may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Com ...

and bolt, found it to be much faster to squish screening into the sides of a frame rather than the regular method of the time, nailing the screen into the frames. The original tool remained in the possession of his son, Julius Muhlberg, but unfortunately it seems to be hopelessly lost to time.

References

Hand tools {{tool-stub