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Interchangeable Parts
Standardised, identically made parts make repair and series assembly possible - the idea behind every factory.
Open in the interactive tree →The Frenchman Honore Blanc showed musket locks with mutually interchangeable parts around 1785; in the US the national armories at Springfield and Harpers Ferry pushed the method through to the mid-century ('American System'). Tolerances, gauges and measuring tools replaced fitting by hand. Without interchangeable parts there would be neither assembly line nor spare-parts market.
Prerequisites
- Geometry (Euclid)~300 BC
- Machine Tools1775
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