What are Interchangeable Parts?
A. Overview • Opening Activity: Clocks (see-through clock provided) • Interchangeable Parts Activity with Ballpoint Pens and trays • Reading for Teachers and Advanced Students: Overview essay on Industrial History and the Precision Valley B. Natural Resources/Water Power • Topographic map—learning to read a topo (optional lesson); finding water power sites using “Windsor Quadrangle” map and Beers Atlas map • Find a topo map of your own town and locate the early mill sites, if any • Web site and watermill construction activity C. Social and Cultural Conditions • For advanced students: Ben Franklin Autobiography section on his early life* and discussion questions D.
Interchangeable parts are perhaps one of the greatest and least-discussed engineering inventions. These are parts which are designed to fit in any device of the same type, rather than being designed for a specific device, and they revolutionized the world of manufacturing. With the development of interchangeable parts, the groundwork for mass manufacturing and distribution was laid, and the Industrial Revolution was born. Most people take interchangeable parts for granted. When a car breaks down, for example, drivers know that they can order parts and have them installed by a mechanic. These parts are made in a centralized manufacturing facility and stored until they are needed, and they fit in all cars of the same make, model, and year. Often, manufacturers even standardize parts across several models and years to make replacement parts even easier to access. Prior to the late 1700s, such a thing would have been unthinkable. Every manufactured item, from clocks to carriages, was made
