Henry F. Phillips

Henry F. Phillips (1890 - 1958) was a businessman from Portland, Oregon and inventor of the Phillips-head screw and screwdriver. He came up with the cross-head design for use on automobile assembly lines where its self-centering design was supposed to be easier to use with powered screwdrivers. Although he received patents for the design in 1936 (US Patent #2,046,343, US Patents #2,046,837-2,046,840), it was widely copied so that by 1949 Phillips lost his patent.