Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1912-08-22
PERFECT GAUGES.
The Process Of Their Making Is
a Profound Secret.
LOCKED IN ONE MANS BRAIN
So Accurate Are These Wonderful
Standards That Twenty or More of
Them Rubbed Together Adhere as
THOUGH Made of One Piece of Metal.

80 Accurate Are These Wonderful
Standards That Twenty or More Of
Them Rubbed Together Adhere as
Though Made of One Piece of Metal.
In a closely guarded room of small
shop in an obscure Swedish village Il
man tolls in secret. says writer in
Casters Magazine. Just how he ac-
composites what he does no one knows,
not even his sons who work with him.
Johannson has made the world beat
n path to his door, for he has discov-
cred the secret of making a more ac-
curate limit gauge than any previously
| in use. \ single set of his gauges
gives practically unlimited series of
sizes, rising by steps of ten thou
sandth OF an inch much less than the
traditional hairs breadtll--to twenty.
, six inches. 1T is said that 10000 com
bic.
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 Il standard. Making such
standards is tedious and expensive
process. But .Iohannson has moi
found 1t so. or else he values his Sc.
cret lightly from the pecuniary point
of view. for he is able to pay Uncle
Sam ~ pf ,Aitl
offer his gauges in 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 so as to exclude
the air from between them they ad
here with a 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 halding the last one, which
means that the accuracy of their vari
Gus surfaces is almost absolute.
Finishing one surface or two sur
faces to a very close limit by tapping
rubbing together with fine abrasive
betwecn-is comparatively simple
matter. But achieving such perfect
parallelism MS is shown by these re-
markable gauges is quite another
thing, Il secret quite we'll worth know
ing.
The popularity about this mysteri-
ousy 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 comb
nation, the number of pieces forming
1t not affecting the sensation in the
slightest. Any skilled mechanic will
understand instinctively the meanin.
of this and its testimony to the &c.
curacy OF the gauges.
For instance. Il one inch gauge may
be built up of pieces representing
OBI Oh 0.O54 .150+01 inch, and the
resulting piece will be one inch abso.
lutte. or amy one of several other com.
binations may be made to represent an
inch. and blind1odcd the most expert
mechanic could not detect any differ
encc between the manner in which this
composite inch gauge and the one
piece inch gauge fitted in n snap gauge
OF the same size. 1t would be an easy
naattcr to confuse the two i'm handling
Mir. Johannson, the backwoods in
yentor who discovered what thousands
of the most expert mechanics in ma
chine building ccnters have vainly
SOUGHT for half n century, limits his
output To y few hundred sets of gauges
Il ycar whether purely from inclina
ton or because of mechanical difficult
ties in production is as much secret
as the process Itself and one that he
viii doubtless take with him when he
dies.