[ARC5] [Milsurplus] Radio on the Frontlines: WWI and WWII | DPLA

[Gordon White]

    German, and generally all European practice, including that of 
Britain, was to exquisitely hand-fit everything. It worked, but was 
slow. I recall finding that in 1960s teleprinters (Siemens) compared to 
those made in the U.S. made a lot of parts not readily interchangeable. 
Teletype Corporation's product parts were almost completely interchangeable.

     Meyer & Drake, the American builders of the Offenhauser racing 
engine, did not go from hand-fitted to complete interchangeability until 
1957.

     During WW II the Ford plant in England that was converted to build 
the Rolls Royce Merlin aircraft engine built everything on an 
interchangeable-part basis and thus turned out more Merlins than did 
Rolls Royce itself. When Packard was brought in to build Merlins in the 
U.S. one of the problems that had to be solved was interchangeability as 
hand-fitting by extremely experienced workmen was not the American way. 
Over here the production line was going to be manned by women, who might 
be good workers, but did not have years of experience, and men who for 
the most part were also inexperienced or were 4-F.


- Gordon Eliot White