Abstract:

More general, screw may mean any helical device, such as a clamp, a micrometer, a ship’s propeller or an Archimedes’ screw water pump. The western screw had been introduced into China in the seventeenth century. The Chinese name “ luoxuan” is firstly recorded in the Jesuit missionary Sabatino de Ursis’s Taixi Shuifa (European Water Conservation) in the late Ming Dynasty, later used again in Japan. The other Chinese name “luosiding”, which describes the bolt, has been used since the year of 1626.

Key words: “luoxuan”, “luosi”, “luoding”, “luosiding”, screw, bolt