Dardelet's Nut

Round nails supplanted square nails; welding is taking the place of rivets. Yet brash would seem the man who would change the other vital method of joining parts to parts, the nut & bolt. As old as the Christian era is the principle of the screwthread, discovered by Archimedes, elaborated by Hero of Alexandria. But bolting is far from perfect. Vibration shakes loose the tightest of nuts, and just as for want of a nail the battle was lost, many a time for want of a bolt the airplane has crashed, the train has been wrecked, the powerplant shut down.

During the War, Commandant Huges Louis Dardelet, of the French Artillery, gravely contemplated the problem of things becoming unscrewed. Neither train nor airplane wrecks motivated him, but the fact that many shells became loose in their whirling trip through the air, became duds instead of explosive missiles. No mechanic, never having touched a monkey-wrench, he set about the problem in a purely theoretical way, writing upon a piece of paper "bolt, nut, parts joined."

During the last week stockholders of the Dardelet Threadlock Corp. were receiving rights to subscribe to more stock for $100 a share. Small was the chance that any stockholder would forfeit his privilege, for from many pages of formulae, Commandant Dardelet succeeded in creating a bolt that will not shake loose.

The principle of the Dardelet Threadlock is that a nut remains fixed when its friction on a bolt is greater than its friction against the face of the part that is being clamped. By mathematically designed taperings on the thread, the Dardelet nut and bolt become wedged into one mass, cannot possibly shake loose, yet are uninjured when separated. Separation is accomplished easily with a wrench.

The U. S. company was originated in 1928, when 8,885 shares sold at $100. Before the Break last fall they rose to phenomenal heights, now are nominally quoted at $850. Unlike many a new scheme, Dardelet Threadlock Co. has potent backers. On its directorate among other tycoons are Clarence Hungerford Mackay of Postal and Frank L. Polk of Davis, Polk, Wardwell, Gardiner & Reed. The company operates by giving licenses for the manufacture and distribution of its product. Bethlehem Steel and Federal Screw Works are among the manufacturing licensees.

Tall, dark, wearing the decorations of the Legion of Honor and the Croix de Guerre, Commandant Dardelet now recalls with amusement that at 40, after the War, "I at last acknowledged the unquestionable fact that I was nothing but a fool."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.