Skip to main content
Society
Main Category
Sub Category
Era
Date Created
Location Country
us
Coordinates
43.474722, -72.389722
Address1
Robbins & Lawrence Armory
Address2
196 South Main Street
City
Windsor
State
Country
Zip
In fulfilling a contract for 25,000 U.S. Army rifles (Model 1841) and a like quantity for the British government, Robbins and Lawrence were the first to achieve interchangeability of parts on a fully practical level, contributing greatly to all subsequent mass production of machine products. This was made possible by the systematic improvement and refinement of existing standard and special-purpose machine tools, enabling them to perform with the close-limit precision essential for "repeatability" and thus interchangeability (see the American Precision Museum). Simultaneously the firm introduced the milling machine and the turret lathe into routine commercial usage for production manufacturing. The social implications of this technological revolution have been universal.
Image Credit
Courtesy Flickr/Liz West (CC BY 2.0)
Image Caption
American Precision Museum

We hope you enjoyed this essay.

Please support America's only magazine of the history of engineering and innovation, and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to Invention & Technology.

Donate

Stay informed - subscribe to our newsletter.
The subscriber's email address.