Self-aligning screw thread?

Methinks what you are looking for is called a "cork".

BTW, we teach our children the "turn it backwards" maneuver.

I only heard of it once, from my father when I was attempting to attach a lenshood onto a FED 4 35mm film camera, which has a very very fine thread.

BTW, it's manoeuvre.

What I'm looking for is an inventor to bring us into this century. I'm really not impressed with the devices we use today. On the one hand we have mobile phones which are more powerful than supercomputers a few decades ago, but then simple little things are still s*it. We still use the internal combustion engine for example. We can't cure the simplest of diseases. For goodness sake, priorities anyone?

That?s not accurate with vaccination alone.

We?re doing fine with that with vaccination.

Some years ago there was a thred with three spirals on it. It was indeed hard to get it on badly.

I guess the self tapping screw was the solution they came up with, cheap and cheerful Brian

There are quite a few with two but mainly wood screws and you do not have to restart as often.

vaccination is not a cure, its a prophylactic.

The body cures simple diseases. All by itself.

Of course we can cure many others with antibiotics, but they have become so rare that no one gets them anymore.

Many cancers can be cured by chemotherapy.

'Commader Kinsey' is of course just another nym shift from a resident troll.

That sounds very useful, why aren't they all made like that?

They shouldn't call them self tapping because they rarely do unless the wood is very soft indeed. Usually the force to create the hole wears off the er.... the bit the screwdriver goes into. I almost always use a pilot drill first, unless I'm in a hurry, then I curse the bloody screws when they burr.

Not easily. Even catching a cold drains your energy.

Which isn't pleasant, and not all cancers.

ROTFPMSL! You shot yourself in the foot there. BillD is Rod Speed.

Cold vaccine anyone?

Stop repeating yourself Rod Speed.

That?s hair splitting given that smallpox has been eliminated from the wild. That?s a real cure.

Just how do you decide what is a ?simple disease? ?

No one gets what anymore ?

And by surgery.

It costs more to make it like that and doesn?t look as good with that bit sticking out of the nut.

We don?t have bone because it evolves too fast.

Works fine in sheet metal and in thicker metal if you get the hole size right.

I thought perhaps I was confusing two words, but I wasn't. You were :-)

Ordinance = a law Ordnance = explosives

The maps are called "Ordnance Survey" - so I guess you may be right about artillery range maps. In fact you are:

"The name Ordnance Survey hints at how it all began.

Britain?s mapping agency has its roots in military strategy: Mapping the Scottish Highlands following rebellion in 1745. Later, as the French Revolution rumbled on the other side of the English Channel, there were real fears the bloodshed may sweep across to our shores.

So the government ordered its defence ministry of the time ? the Board of Ordnance ? to begin a survey of England?s vulnerable southern coasts. Until then, maps had lacked the detail required for moving troops and planning campaigns.

It was an innovative young engineer called William Roy who was tasked with the initial small-scale military survey of Scotland.

Starting in 1747, it took eight years to complete what was known as the Great Map at a scale of 1:36 000 (1.75 inches to a mile). Roads, hills, rivers, types of land cover and settlements were recorded. William Roy described it as rather a ?magnificent military sketch than a very accurate map of the country?.

Roy?s surveying parties of about eight relied on simple surveying compasses to measure the angles, and chains up to 50 feet long to measure distance between important features. Much of the rest was sketched in by eye.

Nevertheless, the map was a powerful tool as part of a broader strategy to open up access to the Highlands.

The fact that Roy was just 21 years old with no military commission when he started the survey makes his achievements even more extraordinary.

His work paved the way for modern surveying and he understood the strategic importance of accurate maps. At the time of his death in 1790 his vision of a national survey for Britain was almost within reach."

"Commander Kinsey" snipped-for-privacy@military.org.jp> wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@desktop-ga2mpl8.lan:

My wife once worked in Waterstones - she often dealt with people wanting Ordnance Survey Maps for various foreign holiday destinations!

Sounds fine to me. Do they do foreign countries? I wouldn't know, and why would the customers?