Probably no one mechanical contrivance is so much and so variously applied as the _Screw_. The common screw-nail, which is so often used by carpenters for fastening pieces of metal on wood, or one piece of wood to another, is a specimen of the screw with which everybody is familiar. The projection which winds spirally round the nail is termed the _thread_ of the screw, and the distance that the thread advances parallel to the axis in one turn is called the _pitch_. It is obvious that for each turn the screw makes it is advanced into the wood a depth equal to the pitch, and that there is formed in the wood a hollow screw with corresponding grooves and projections. Screws are formed on the ends of the bolts, by which various parts are fastened together, and the hollow screws which turn on the ends of the bolts are termed _nuts_. The screws on bolts and nuts, and other parts of machines, were formerly made with so many different pitches that, when a machine constructed by one maker had to be repaired by another, great inconvenience was found, on account of the want of uniformity in the shape and pitch of the threads. A uniform system was many years ago proposed by Sir Joseph Whitworth, and adopted by the majority of mechanical engineers, who agreed to use only a certain defined series of pitches. The same engineer also contrived a hand tool for cutting screws with greater accuracy than had formerly been attained in that process. A mechanic often finds it necessary to form a screw-thread on a bolt, and also to produce in metal a hollow screw. The reader may have observed gas-fitters and other workmen performing the first operation by an instrument having the same general appearance as Fig. 28. This contains hard steel _dies_, which are made to press on the bolt or pipe, so that when the _guide-stock_ is turned by the handles, the required grooves are cut out. The arrangement of these dies in Sir Joseph Whitworth’s instrument is shown in Fig. 28, which represents the central part of the guide-stock; A, B, C are the steel dies retained in their places, when the instrument is in use, by a plate which can be removed when it is necessary to replace one set of dies by another, according to the pitch of thread required. The figure also shows the set of dies, A, B, C, removed from the guide-stock. D is the work, pressed up against the fixed die, A, by B and C, the pressure being applied to these last as required by turning the nut, thus drawing up the key, E, so that the inclined planes, _f_, _g_, press against similar surfaces forming the ends of the dies. For producing the hollow screws, _taps_ are provided, which are merely well-formed screws, made of hard steel and having the threads cut into detached pieces by several longitudinal grooves, as represented in the lower part of Fig. 28. [Illustration: FIG. 29.—_Screw-cutting Lathe._ ]