repeated performance by a man or a machine of the simple

function, and, eventually, upon the movement of the work

to the worker or to his machine.17

 Eli Whitney is recognized as one of the first

 to have applied the principle of interchangeable parts

 to manufacture in the production of firearms in 1798.18

 By 1807 clocks were being made from interchangeable

 parts and the application of the process subsequently

 encompassed many other types of production including

 boots and shoes and clothing, the sewing machine by

 1850, and large agricultural machinery by 1867.19

 Accuracy of measurement was advanced markedly

in 1851 with the introduction of the vernier caliper

by Joseph Brown, and by 1856 Joseph Whitworth had

produced a bench micrometer capable of measuring

accurately to within ten-thousandths of an inch.


 17
 Cf. Sigfried Giedion, Mechanization Takes
Command (New York: Oxford University Press, 1948), p. 49;
John W. Oliver, History of American Technology (New
York: Ronald Press Company, 1956.
 18
 1Some questions have been raised concerning
Whitney's contribution to interchangeable parts manu-
facture. His individual contribution to the process
may have been less than legend would indicate. Cf.
Robert S. Woodbury, The Legend of Eli Whitney and
Interchangeable Parts, Publications in the Humanities
(Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
1964).

 19Giedion, Mechanization Takes Command, p. 49.