Fasteners are an engineering subject in their own right, i've only scratched the surface here!
I have a wonderful book called "One Good Turn: A Natural History of the Screwdriver and the Screw" by Witold Rybczynski. My daughter gave it to me for my birthday. She has a very good eye for books that would appeal to me. A previous gift was "Mallard" by Don Hale.
In One Good Turn there is a detailed description of how the Philips screw was invented and came to the forefront, when it was adopted by the auto industry. In the same chapter, is the story of the Robertson screw and how it failed to be widely adopted, due to the reluctance of Mr. Robertson to give up control of his invention. It is still widely used in Canada and in my opinion is without doubt the best kind of screw head. It has a slightly tapered square socket and consequently, a screw can be firmly attached to the Robertson screw driver and then eased at any angle into spaces, where you cannot insert your fingers or pliers to hold the screw.