The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1911-11-24
PERFECT GAUGES.
The Process of Their Making Is
a Profound Secret.
LOCKED IN ONE MANS BRAIN
10 Accurate Are These Wonderful
Standards That Twenty or More OF
Them Rubbed Together Adhere as
Though Made of One Piece of Metal.

STANDARDS ] nat WentI OF mOTS Ol
Them Rubbed Together Adhere as
Though Made of One Piece of Metal
In a closely guarded room Of a small
shop In an obscure Swedish village a
man tolls in secret, says a writer In
Cassier's Magazine. Just how he ac-
compllshes what he does no one knows,
not even his sons who work with him.
Johannson has made the world beat
a path to his door, for he has discov-
cred the secret Of making a more ac-
curate limit gauge than any previously
I'm use. A single set Of his gauges
gives n practically unlimited series Of
sizes, rising by steps Of ten-thou-
sandth Of an inch-much less than the
traditional hairs breadth-to twenty
six inches. 1t Is said that 10000 com
blnations of these gauges are posi-
BILE.
No dimension within their limits has
been cited that they failed to repro
duce. Extreme accuracy In building
machinery, particularly that of motor
cars, IS OF the greatest Importance, and
the first step toward that end is the
perfection Of n standard. Making such
Standards is a tedious and expensive
process. But Johanneon has not
found 1t so. or else ho values his Sc
cret lightly from the pecuuiary point
OF view, for he is able 10 pay Uncle
Sam duty Of 10 per cent and still
offer his gauges I'm the American mar
ket for a few hundred dollars, although
they could not be made here for many
times their price.
When two Of these Swedish gauges
are wiped" together 50 as TO exclude
the air from between them they ad-
here with n pressure which expert
ment has shown to exceed thirty
pounds TO the square inch Twenty
or more pieces may be thus wiped to-
gether and supported horizontally by
merely holding the last one, which
means that the accuracy OF their vari-
ous surfaces is almost absolute.
Finishing one surface or two sur
faces to n very close limit by tapping
rubbing together with fine abrasive
betwcen-is a comparatively simple
matter. But achieving such perfect
paraleliSm as Is shown by these re-
markable gauges is quite another
thing secr~ quite well worth know
ing.
The peculiarly about this mysteri
ously powerful adhesion OF the sep
arate pieces is that the feel of the
built up gauge thus formed is exactly
the same as that Of a single piece OF
metal. and this holds for any combi-
nation, the number Of pieces forming
ii not affecting the sensation in the
slightest. Any skilled mechanic will
understand instinctively the meaning
OF this and It's testimony to the nc.
curacy OF the gauges.
For instance 4 one inch Gaucc may
be built up of pieces representing
O5+02+OO5t t.1JO4O1 inch, and the
resulting piece will be one inch abSo
Lutte, or any one of several other com
binations may be made TO represent an
inch, and blindfolded the most expert
mechanic could not detect any ulueI-
ence between the manner in which this
composite inch gauge and the one
piece inch gauge fitted in snap gauge
of the same size. 1t would be an easy
matter TO confuse the two in handling.
Mr.. Johannson, the backwoods in
ventor who discovered what thousands
of the most expert mechanics in ma.
chine building centers have vainly
sought for half century, limits his
| output 10 n few hundred sets of gauges
a year whether purely from inclina'
ton or because OF mechanical ditiicul.
| ties i'm production is as much n secret
as the process itself and one that he
will doubtless take with him when he
dies.