Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1912-01-26
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 Ono Piece of Metal.

Them Rubbed Together Adhere as
Though Made of Ono Piece of Metal.
In closely guarded room Of a small
shop In an obscure Swedish village a
man tolls in secret, says writer in
Casters Magazine. Just how he ac-
complishes what he does no one knows.
not even his sons who work with him.
J"hannSon has made the world beat
path to his door. for he has discov-
cred the secret of making a more ac-
curate limit gauge than any previously
In use. A single set Of his gauges
gives a 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 $4,000 com
binations Of these gauges are possi'
ble
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 a standard. Making such
standards is q tedious and expensive
process. But Johannson has not
found it so. or else he values his Sc
cret lightly from the pecuniary point
of view, for he is able to pay Uncle
Sam q duty of 45 per cent and still
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 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 haIding 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
between-is a comparatively simple
matter. Rnt achieving such perfect
parallelism as is shown by these re-
markable gauges is quite another
thing. a secret quite well worth know
ing.
The peculiarity 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 single piece Of
metal. and this holds for any combi
nation. the number Of pieces forming
1t not affecting the sensation in the
slightest. Any skilled mechanic will
understand instinctively the meaning
of this and its testimony to the &C
curacy Of the gauges.
For instance. q one inch gauge may
be built up of pieces representing
O.5+O.2+0O5+.1 .150+0.1 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 differ,
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 to few hundred sets of gauges
year 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
will doubtless take With him when he
dies