The Washington herald., 1921-03-27
Varying Patterns Block
Production, Maddox Says
Establishment of Standards Undertaken by
National Federation Of Construction
Industries Approval Expected.

Reduction of the cost OF building
through Standardization Of manu-
featured. products entering into
house construction is advocated by
A. NJ Maddox, chairman of the
Standardization committee Of the
National Federation of Construction
Industries
"Standardization to one group Of
manufacturers would have an en-
tirely different meaning than II
would to another group" Maddox
says Some would think in terms
of eliminating patterns or designs
while others would think of estab-
fishing q standard test which could
be applied to their material. The
Bureau Of Standards in Washington
was designed to help the business
men Of this country with their
Standardization work, but I have
been surprised to md the number
OF manufacturers who have never
been in touch with this bureau.
The architect and engineer have
felt IL the manufacturers were al
lowed too much leeway that we
would take away all opportunity
for them to show their initiative
and no doubt II some manufac-
turers were to have their way, this
would largely be true. 1 feel we
should try to be more definite in
making known just what we wish
to accomplish by Standardization,
and in this way solicit the support
and cooperation of the architect
and engineer.
Gigantic Task.
The problem of establishing
standards is a pretty big task for
any one industry. 1t has been my
experience that you can seldom get
all Of the. members of a single trade
organisation to agree on any one
standards For that reason so many
organizations are discouraged from,
taking Up Standardization work be-
cause they lack any affiliation with
an Organization. which could help
them under these circumstances.
The work has always been retarded
because when certain standards
were established they were not ac-
cepted because they had not been
given the stamp of approval by an
association or organization which
had a standing with the trade. 1t
Is on this phase of the question that
i have some suggestions to offer
later on,
Just what can be accomplished
by Standardization and as proof of
some of the ridiculous things we
are likely to do, can best be Illus
trated by the story that was told to
the manufacturers In our line when
during the war we were called to
Washington and told that the gov
ernment would want so much ma
terial of saA kinds, that we manu-
facturers would have to cut down
our Hnes-and make fewer patterns.
One ofrhe gentlemen who spoke
before this meeting was a manufac-
turer of plows. He told US of what
had happened at their meeting and
said there were some two hundred
or more different patterns of plows
and practically all manufacturers
had that many designs. In addition
to this, each pattern was made in
two ways, which doubled the num-
Der. One was made to throw a
right-hand furrow and one to throw
a left-hand furrow.
During the meeting of the plow
manufacturers the question arose as
to why these two patterns OF plows
was made.
no one was able to give a reason
VI cIfON LlaI Ouc pdllCEu hdu
an advantage over the other. Ger
tainlyv they had calls for both pat
terms; some farmers preferred one,
and some the other. 1t was decided
that they would eliminate the left
hand pattern, which Immediately
cut their line in half, and under
stand that they have had practi-
eally no objection after the farmer
found that only the one pattern
were made. and to their amezement
II feel sure that there are 4 num-
ber Of things that we are doing in
the construction industry which are
just as ridiculous as the plow manu-
facturers were doing. 1t would seem
to me that IL some standards could
be adopted by the door and window
frame manufacturers so that in the
majority of cases architects could
work to these standards, this would
facilitate manufacture and would re-
duce stocks in the dealers hands,
which, in turn, would reduce the
cost Of these articles, and. as I said
before, competition will guarantee
to the public that they would even
tually be benefited.
"As an Illustration of why it Is
necessary to have some Organization
approve and indorse any standards
which an association might be able
to adopt, will again refer to an
experience that we have had in
cur line. Following an English cCs-
tom. we have been attaching a coll
lar to a fixture which projected
about an inch, but in the last two
years there has been a tendency tn