100 Objects #2: 60-Degree Screw

A small metal screw, cut to a precise angle. How did one country quietly decide how the modern world holds together?

In this episode, Roman and historian Daniel Immerwahr tell the story of the screw and America’s fight to standardize it. In the early 20th century, nothing quite fit. Fire hoses didn’t connect to one another, football teams played with different footballs, and traffic lights meant different things in different states. Then, World War II exposed the deadly costs of incompatible machinery, so the US slowly imposed a single standard in production lines across the world: the 60-degree screw. The result was a hidden industrial empire, built with standards now so ubiquitous that we rarely notice them at all.

A History of the United States in 100 Objects tells the story of America, one thing at a time. Hosted by Roman Mars and produced by BBC Studios and 99% Invisible, each week an object opens the door into an extraordinary, often shocking story – about who we’ve been, what we’ve built, and what we’ve allowed ourselves to forget. This series forms a kaleidoscope through which American history refracts, revealing a country stranger and more fascinating than any single telling could capture.