The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1921-02-05
TOPEKA STATE JOURNAL
Information Bureau
FREDERIC j.. HASKIN. Director.
Washington, D. G.
A WORLD MONOPOLY BROKEN.

i American inventor and a scientific
| bureau of the American government,
working together, have broken world
monopoly, raised the standard of
American manufacturing, and saved
| the American manufacturers sums
which will amount to millions in a few
years.
The story of how this was done is
already well known to most mechani-
cal engineers, and others who closely
i follow developments in mechanical
technology, but it has never been
adequately told to the general pub
| lie. Yet it is surely of first-class in
| terest to every American, as showing
how a scientific bureau of his gov
eminent works to help both industry
as a whole, and individuals who need
| help in developing thier ideas 1t is or
special interest right now, when the
whole country seems to be adopting
\ a critical attitude toward federal ac-
| tivities and federal expansion. There
seems to be a general feeling that we
| got too much federal government dur
| ing the war, and a desire to find out
| just what the government ought to
| do and what it ought not to do.
| One of the smallest parts of the fed
| eraI government is its system of scien-
| tific laboratories where scientific
problems bearing on agriculture, IN
dustry and health are worked out.
! These bureaus are not primarily ad-
ministTative. They represent a CO.
operative effort on the part of the
| American people to apply science 10
the problems of their daily lives.
| They are often criticized in Congress
| and elsewhere for their extravaganza
and they got about 1 per cent of the
money appropriated to run the fed
/ era1 government in 1920.
The bureau of standards is a typi-
cal one of these bureaus. 1t maintains
standards of weight. measure, and the
| like, and does work toward standard
! izing materials, which is perhaps the
| greatest single step toward economy in
manufacture. 1t tests all of the ma
| terials purchased by the government,
and also makes tests for private in
dividuals and concerns, for some of
which fee is charged. This story IL
illustrates how this bureau operates to
help industry. and how it pays for it
self in benefits to industry.
A Gauge Needed.
| During the war the bureau OF ord
nance of the war department had
great need for some standard by
which very fine measurements could
be made. For example, suppose they
wanted to make a part of shell
| 1896 inches in thickness. The sue
cess in making those shells would de-
pend on measuring that distance ex-
| actly and setting the machine with
| that same exactitude.
| This problem arises in all sorts of
manufacture of machinery, where
things are made in quantity, and where
the parts are supposed to be inter-
| changeable. The business of inter-
changeable manufacture is one in
which America leads the world. In
Europe much of the finest mechanical
manufacture is not on an interchange
able basis That. is. some of the fin
est foreign automobiles, for example,
are made each by itself. Each bear
ing is fitted separately to its crank
shaft. If you broke the crank shaft
you could not send to the factory and
get a new one that would fit. You
| would have to have one made to the
measurements of other parts of your
cara long and expensive process.
In this country, even the finest cars
are made on an interchangeable basis.
Economy, both in manufacture and
repair, naturally depends upon this in
Interchangeable system. And inter-
changeable manufacture, in turn. de-
ponds above all upon microscopic ex-
actitude of measurement. If meas
urements can be made to the ten
thouSandth of an inch, and the ma
chimes set with that exactitude, and
frequently corrected, then the ma
chine can turn out parts which are, to
all intents and purposes, exactly alike.
No measurement can be absolutely ex-
act, of course. That is why your new
car works stiff
4 What the manufacturer needs
I above all, then, is some sort of meas
ure which he can set at any distance,
and by which he can correct his mi
| crometers and other instruments. Be-
fore the war entirely-and to a great
extent until just recently-there was
only one firm in the world which
made such a measuring apparatus.
That was the firm of c. E. Johannson
of Sweden. This firm made little sets
of 81 steel blocks, looking like chill
dren's building blocks. The peculiar
iry Of these blocks was that each sur
face Of each block was absolutely flat,
absolutely parallel to the other sur
| face, and the distance between the
two surfaces known with exactitude
J to the ten-thousandth of an inch. The
smallest of these blocks was half an
inch thick and the largest four inches
thick, but the 81 intervening blocks
showed a great variety of sizes in ten
thousandths of an inch. They are so
graded that by piling a few of these
blocks together you can get any meas
urement that need not be finer than
this ten-thousandth of an inch. By
this little pile of blocks you can set a
micrometer or a machine, and be sure
of your accuracy.
i The Swedish Secret.
|. The only trouble was that Mr. Jo-
hanson of Sweden would not tell any
one how he made those surfaces per-
fectly flat. Mind you. in any good
Inachlne SnOp you might make q set
of precision gauge blocks as they are
called. just like Mr.. Johannson's, one
by one. doing all the work by hand.
1t would be a very long, slow job.
, Mr.. Johannson's great advantage was
that he had discovered some way of
making these things by machinery,
rapidly and in quantity. No one else
in the world could do it. All the
world went to Sweden for it's gauge
blocks. Before the war, Johannson
got about $500 a set for them, which
was probably twice what it cost him
; to make them, and during the war
this price more than doubled, while it
was hard to get them at any price be-
cause the demand exceeded the sup
ply.
Now we get back to the bureau of
ordnance, which had a great and
pressing need for precision gauge
blocks. 1t also had in its employ one
Maj. W. E. Hoke, who had an idea
He thOughF he saw how DreciSiop