One of my favourite hobbies when I was young, was to go to work with my father; as his tools boy. I remember how he would lavish praise on me when I brought him the correct tool on command.
“Daddy, Who is Phillips,” I asked him one day when he sent me for his 7.5mm Phillip’s screwdriver.
My semi-educated (though well-read) father did not know.
So I do a little research
Decades later I learned that there was a time when the world did not have standards. Not even for simple things like which direction a screw had to turn in order to fasten. Each manufacturer would machine screws and tools in whichever way they saw fit. For them, it was a thing of pride to create each part differently as a way to differentiate their product in the booming age of the industrial revolution.
The challenge though is that nobody could take advantage of economies of scale when each part was machined in small quantities specifically for each client.
William Sellers takes on the challenge
That is why In 1864, a businessman and machinist named William Sellers set out to form the first set of standards for the world. Starting with the humble screw.
He didn’t care much which standard was eventually adopted, only that “a” standard was adopted.
Can you imagine the vociferous arguments between engineers and business owners as they debated whether tightening should be clockwise or anti-clockwise? Half of them would have to go back to their machine shops and change their design depending on the outcome. No one wants to be the one that changes.
William Sellers navigated these discussions and led the various consortiums to the first set of standardisation. Today there are almost a million registered global standards that govern everything from making sure your email opens in any device to the direction a tap opens. This standardisation ushered in an era of mass production that still benefits the world today.
Standards are important to our lives
I am reminded of this every time I step into a Spur; irrespective of whether it is in Capetown, Kathu or Musina. I have come to expect consistency and familiarity that immediately makes you feel like you are visiting a favoured aunt who you have visited a thousand times before. That is the value of a consistent standard, and few South African franchises come close to Spur in this area.
I eventually found out who Phillips was, but that no longer mattered to me. To me Phillip is a standard, something to strive for in all my work… and more importantly, it is a memory that I shared with my father, as a young boy handing him his 7.5mm Phillip’s screwdriver.
I give Phillip’s screwdrivers a memorable 5 stars.