Rise of the machine tools.

The “Brown Bess” muskets used in the Revolutionary War were crafted by hand. Skilled gunsmiths fashioned the locks and barrels from iron, while the stocks were carved from wood. The process was time consuming, and although the components were modeled afterpatternfirearms, the lackofprecise standardization meant that musket parts were not interchangeable. With the outbreak of war in 1812, the United States faced a shortage of small arms. Muskets that broke on the battlefield could not be readily fixed, compounding the problem. In response, the chief of ordnance, Colonel Decius Wadsworth, sought to bring uniformity to the process of musket manufacturing. This uniformity would ensure that parts would be interchangeable and that repairs could be made more readily at the front line. Tasked with this challenge were the two US armories, one at Springfield, Massachusetts, and a second at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia (West Virginia statehood had yet to be granted). In the early 1820s, Thomas Blanchard developed a gunstock turning lathe at the Springfield Armory. At the same time, John Hall was devising machine tools tocut andshape themetal components of rifles at Harper’s Ferry. The uniformityof the ironandwoodcomponents turned out by these armories made it possible to exchange the parts between different muskets. The machine tools also eliminated time-consuming steps in the manufacturing process, thereby enhancing worker productivity. Moreover, less skilled workers could now assemble the machined parts [1]. The craft production model has served generations of radiologists. Al-