what came first

[billyo]

the nut and bolt or the spanner

 

[Shytalkz]

Joe, definitely: his missus said he's a lousy lover and he said "How can you tell in five seconds?"

 

[billyo]

did he use he's nuts & bolts or his spanner

 

[Shytalkz]

Probably his gob, if his performance on here is anything to go by.

 

[Space cat]

The original question is too trivial. What billyo should have asked was "What came first, the nut or the bolt"?

 

[billyo]

o.k space cat, what came first nut or bolt,

 

[billyo]

and then what came first nut or spanner or bolt or spanner

 

[bob-the-builder]

 

[billyo]

so (1) bolt (2)nut (3) spanner ,unless someone invented the nut & spanner but never heard of a bolt

 

[Bilioustrumpstaine]

I used to go out with a girl and my nickname for her was spanner as every time I saw her my nuts tightened up.

 

[Space cat]

What is the point in creating a nut, with nothing to screw it on to?

An excellent piece of logic. Why indeed would you even think about inventing a nut if you didn't already have something like a bolt to put it on? Of course you might also ask why invent a bolt if there's nothing to screw into it?

But the first bolt might have been more like a wood screw than anything else, ie a spike with a crude spiral thread on it. I have only one reservation; was the Archimedean screw - which is just a very long nut - invented before or after the woodscrew?