I Did Not Know This

I knew that the Crystal Palice was constructed quickly and cheaply for the 1851 London exposition, but I did not know that this was largely because it was the first building constructed with standardized threads on its nuts and bolts.

Whitworth had already written his book on common threads in use, but I thought that standardized threads did not come into general use until decades later:

London's Great Exhibition of 1851 attracted some 6 million people eager to experience more than 14,000 exhibitors showcasing 19th-century marvels of technology and engineering. The event took place in the Crystal Palace, a 990,000-square-foot building of cast iron and plate glass originally located in Hyde Park. And it was built in an incredible 190 days. According to a recent paper published in the International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology, one of the secrets was the use of a standardized screw thread, first proposed 10 years before its construction, although the thread did not officially become the British standard until 1905.

“During the Victorian era there was incredible innovation from workshops right across Britain that was helping to change the world," said co-author John Gardner of Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). "In fact, progress was happening at such a rate that certain breakthroughs were perhaps never properly realized at the time, as was the case here with the Crystal Palace. Standardization in engineering is essential and commonplace in the 21st century, but its role in the construction of the Crystal Palace was a major development."

………

Paxton's design called for what was essentially a giant conservatory consisting of a multidimensional grid of 24-foot modules. The design elements included 3,300 supporting columns with four flange faces, drilled so they could be bolted to connecting and base pieces. (The hollow columns did double duty as drainage pipes for rainwater.) The design also called for diagonal bracing (aka cross bracing) for additional stability.

The cross braces were bolted, which could have been a major headache, since screws were traditionally made by skilled craftsmen, such that no two were exactly alike and it was nearly impossible to replace lost or broken screws. Paxton's design called for 30,000 nuts and bolts; screws with a consistent thread form would have streamlined the construction process considerably. James Whitworth had proposed a common standard thread in an 1841 paper, based on his analysis of an extensive collection of screw bolts from the main British producers. And thanks to the invention of Henry Maudslay's screw-cutting lathe around 1798, the technology needed to create standard screws already existed.

………

Gardner and Kiss had their answer: The Crystal Palace was constructed with a standardized screw thread. "Often technical objects such as nuts and bolts seem distant from the human, based in theories and standards that are set from above," the authors concluded. "However, the Whitworth screw thread is in fact an organic form with human practice at its center. It is a form that has influenced all standard thread forms since."

International Journal for the History of Engineering and Technology, 2024. DOI: 10.1080/17581206.2024.2391984 (About DOIs).

Yeah, I love this sort of stuff.