American Tool Making and Interchangeable Manufacturing

THE inception of the modern system of interchangeable manufacturing-according to the best authorities-was in 1798; and the honor of being the first "interchangeable manufacturer" belonged to Eli Whitney, the inventor of the cotton-gin, who, in January of that year, secured an order to furnish the United States Government with ten thousand muskets, four thousand to be delivered in one year and the balance in two years. We read that "Mr. Whitney went at the undertaking in a very thorough and systematic way. First, he developed a water-power, erected suitable and adequate buildings, considered ways and means for a larger and better product, designed machinery to effect it, and trained workmen to skill in the new employment. However, the difficulties which he encountered were greater than he had supposed, and it was eight years instead of two before the order of ten thousand arms was completed. Notwithstanding this delay, the progress of the enterprise and the character of the product as delivered was so satisfactory otherwise that Congress treated him with the greatest consideration. His shops at New Haven, Conn., became the Mecca of government officials, manufacturers, travelling notables, and foreigners, and that which he could show was well worth a journey, for his innovations in the manufacture of arms were as epochal as his invention of the cotton-gin." It was in the manufacture of those muskets that Whitney first conceived and put into successful operation "jigs" and "fixtures" for the

duplicate production of parts to a limited degree of variation which would permit of their interchanging. Thus the modern manufacturing system was born-the system that not only revolutionized the manufacture of arms, but became the basis upon which American manufacturers built their present-day reputation of superiority in all other lines of manufactures.

Having gone this far-as the origin of the system has been traced and the inventor given due credit, as well as having paid tribute to his genius-it will be well to proceed with the presentation of the meaning of "interchangeability" and the development, perfecting, and installation of the system for which it stands.

INTERCHANGEABILITY.

Interchangeability mechanically means to produce parts in duplication or repetition, or the production of a part or piece which will fit into the place provided for any other similar piece. As a rough sample of interchangeability we might take, for instance, the work of the brick-layer, the tile-setter, or the mosaicworker, who when building a wall or blocking a panel take any brick, tile, or cube that lies nearest to their work, knowing that it will take up the same amount of space and fit into place the same as those laid before it. In metal, a rough sample of interchangeability is met with when laying a line of water-pipe, the castings being dropped indiscriminately along the street, the contractor knowing full well that one end of each will fit into the recess of the end of the preceding one.

From the laying of bricks, tiles, and water-pipe to the making of watches is quite a long step; but as the modern watch, cheap and expensive, represents the other extreme of interchangeability, developed to a degree almost incomprehensible to the ordinary mind, it is a fitting illustration. In the manufacture of the watch hundreds of parts go to make it up. Take the screws-the tiny little things that one can hardly see with the naked eye; they are manufactured by the million, and so accurately that the last one will fit perfectly into the tapped hole provided for the first one. The gears, springs, brackets, pinions, pivots, bearings, and shafts are all interchangeable.

« Назад Продовжити »

Книги

American Tool Making and Interchangeable Manufacturing: A Treatise Upon the ...