Clockwise Knobs and Screws

Ships_Cat

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How is it that to increase volume, power, brightness, etc, etc we have to turn knobs clockwise? Who made the big decision?

Same with screws, bolts, bottle tops, etc how did it come about that they (almost) all turn clockwise to do up?

Puzzled cat

John
 

VicS

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I have seen it suggested that if clocks had been invented in the southern hemisphere the hands would have gone round the dial in the opposite direction, emulating the direction in which the shadow on a sundial moves.

I wonder if that had happened whether screws, bottletops and volume controls etc would have all have turned the other way as well.

I don't know whether NAS was being serious or not but thinking about it a left handed Archimedes screw would have been awkward for a right handed person.
 

boatmike

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James Whitworth invented the screw cutting lathe where originally the chuck only turned towards the cutting tool that was the right way up. With the leadscrew taking the toolpost from right to left it was only possible originally to cut a right hand thread. To cut a left hand thread you must reverse the chuck or have a left hand threaded leadscrew...... That was not thought of until later.....
 

boatmike

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P.S.

Is it really true that water revolves anticlockwise when going down the plughole in the southern hemisphere?
 

Thistle

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Yes ... but that begs the questions of why the lead screw is right-handed and why the headstock is on the left.
 

paulskent

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And your sense of direction screws up

Has anybody else noticed that their sense of direction dissapears when you are in the other hemisphere ??

I can usually work out which direction I am pointing in and navigate mysef back to a car park space etc with ease..

My ability to do this completely disappears when I am in the Souther Hemisphere...

PK.
 

Mirelle

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Clockmakers?

The clock is a medieval European invention. Whilst the first clocks had no faces, being merely concerned with striking, faces were common by 1500. For a couple of hundred years after that, clocks were by far the most complex item of mechanical equipment anywhere.

Early clocks (certainly up to 1600) were made by blacksmiths, who of course made other screws and bolts.

Having decided that the hour hand (minute hands came later) should follow the sun, and standardised on this, maybe clockmakers decided that screws should follow the clock face?

So by the time Whitworth came along, things had been standardised for a long time - whilst the individual, hand made, screws and nuts on early clocks are not interchangeable, they all turn the same way.
 

boatmike

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Re: Clockmakers?

Reminds me of the old story in the New York times about a lunatic who escaped from an asylum, broke into a laundry, raped three women and ran away..... The headline was Nut Screws Washers and Bolts......
 

Ships_Cat

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Re: P.S.

Re the plughole. Yes, after careful research in both hemispheres I find that the water goes down the plughole anticlockwise here about as frequently as it goes down clockwise in the northern hemisphere ie about 50% of the time /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

John
 

Ships_Cat

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Re: Clockmakers?

I suspect that you are on the right track Mirelle.

But it does suppose that the medievil clockmakers always faced the sun. So also explains why the good God put Europe north of the Tropic of Cancer else we would have ended up with clocks going in both directions if they were to follow the sun and a horrible mix up with both left and right handed screws /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif.

Thanks

John
 

TheBoatman

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I have it on good authority that it is to do with being R or left handed, apparently we have more grip/power when using certain muscles i.e right handed peeps have more power when turning c/wise and lefties have more power turning anti clock. Due to there being more r/handed peeps in the world the standard is c/wise.
Source.
Consultant Surgeon.

I rest my case!
I will not accept any other interpetation<s>.

Moral of story?
Get a lefty to undo nuts that you have done up?

Just thought of this!
Do lefties have probs un corking wine bottles?
 

BrendanS

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Great minds think alike. was about to post almost identical. Clockwise turn for right handers who are in the majority, is much more powerful
 
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