The screw is an ancient tool that has been used for thousands of years. Archimedes is considered the inventor of the screw in the 3rd century BC. The screw he invented was a spiral system incorporated into a cylinder and driven by a crank that rotated at high speed. Although it was used in irrigation systems, the idea was already there.

The screw was developed from the nail, giving it a slight twist so that it would grip better to walls or wood where it was inserted. Like other nails, it was hammered in with a hammer. As it often needed to be removed, a groove was made in its head so that it could be extracted with the giratornillos or first screwdriver in history.

In 1500, the bench screw was invented in Nuremberg. The first lathe for making threaded screws appeared in France around 1560: it was made of wood even though the parts to be machined and cutting tools were metal.