18 Oct
2010
18 Oct
'10
2:30 p.m.
I seem to recall an article in Smithsonian or American
Heritage some
time ago that put forth the idea of crediting Eli Whitney with the
mass production of interchangeable parts is overstating the point
somewhat. ?He neither invented the concept (that goes to a Frenchman)
nor did his muskets achieve the goal--parts required quite a bit of
"tweaking" to get them to fit.
Just like everything else - nothing really is truly invented, but
rather a bunch of old ideas with maybe one or two new ones mixed in.
Even the Romans had something like mass production for their armies.
--
Will