I saw an interesting program last night on the Science Channel about the Great Wall of China, built in the 17th Century. Seems that the Chinese soldiers garrisoned on the wall used mainly crossbows to bring down the Mongol invaders - hundreds of thousands of them. The crossbows used a multi-part bronze lockwork mechanism to release the arrows. According to the interview with some Chinese bowsmith, these bronze crossbow "Locks" were mass-produced and had standardized interchangeable parts.

Whitney didn't really do it. He took 10 hand fit guns that had been worked to appear interchangeable, and appeared before Congress. When Hall and Christian Sharps worked at Harpers Ferry, they actually succeeded. (I paid attention during the tour last year.)

Ivan

If I recall, the interchangeability of gun parts, was touted to have begun at Harper's Ferry. Possibly at the Hall's rifle works on the Shenandoah River in Harper's Ferry. The process was coined as "The American System".

The introduction of interchangeable parts allow semi-skilled labor as opposed to trained gunsmiths to manufacture and assemble military firearms.

Henry Ford did somewhat the same thing in building his automobiles with semi-skilled and unskilled labor.

LTC

Just like the internet we can't believe everything we read as the truth.
Communication wasn't exactly perfect.

My son thinks everything he reads online is true in product reviews.

.....cut down a cherry tree and told his Father, "I cannot tell a lie, I did cut the cherry tree with my hatchet."

Thomas Edison didn't invent the light bulb but he improved it so that it would burn long enough to make it practical.

What is really sad is that there are tons of stories about people about people who actually DID invent things and were unable to compete with the legal departments of large corporations. I think the worst was Edwin Armstrong who developed the FM transmitter, the superheterodyne and the regenerative circuit along with many other revolutionary inventions. David Sarnoff of RCA kept Armstrong in court over his patents for years until he exhausted his resources and seeing no end, stepped out of a high story window. Later his wife collected when the courts ruled in Armstrong's favor.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

There's a fascinating book written by Matt Ridley, titled "The Evolution of Everything: How New Ideas Emerge." There were at least four other inventors throughout the world who had working light bulbs using the same technology as Edison, completely independent of him. Another was the telephone. Bell got to the patent office first, but there were other inventors world-wide, who had the same invention.

In the book, he makes a great case for doing away with patents and copyrights, or at least vastly shortening the life of exclusivity among them.

Ford's main contribution to the assembly line is making the line move.

Few people know this, but WD40 was actually the forty-first attempt and making a water-displacing spray.

:-)

And Ford's inspiration was how meat moves through slaughterhouses, which are essentially moving disassembly lines. He reportedly studied quite a few of them to get ideas about layout, efficiency, etc.

And there is the famous case of who invented Television. There were two strong contenders, Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth. Farnsworth was largely credited, but he was involved in endless patent lawsuits for many years. Apparently, he made very little money from his patents.

Eli was the first not only to incorporate and idea, but sell it, patent it, manufacture it , and make a fortunate from it.

There is a HUGE difference between being the first with an idea and the first with an idea to put it into universal use.

Here in Far Western Kentucky -

In 1847 William Kelly built Suewanee furnace where he perfected his "air boiling process" for making steel.

Previous work in the area had furnaces making iron, but not steel.

Local legend has it that Bessemer learned of the process and claimed it as his own. Patent lawsuits followed.


Kelly Pneumatic Iron Process - American Chemical Society

There is also a local legend about the invention of radio - unfortunately it is FECES of the Male Bovine.

Bekeart

Well, as long as we're beating up on inventors, a Kiwi friend of mine insists the Wright Brothers were not the first to fly. Richard Pearce flew 8 months earlier:
NZEDGE Legends — Richard Pearse, Inventor & Aviator — Originators

Possible, but I remember reading a book some years ago which thoroughly researched all the claims about those who allegedly beat the Wright Brothers in achieving heavier-than-air powered flight, and found that there is no question that the Wright Brothers were the first to do so. But there were many other inventors working on the same problem at about the same time.

It was the trigger mechanism. They devoted a whole industry just to make that. Thousands and thousands of trigger mechanisms and they could all be interchanged.

The wall we know today was also built over an earlier wall.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

I thought Eli Whitney invented a machine that turned cotton into gin. But then again, I never paid attention in school.

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James Redfield
LM #497

There seems to be some question that Eli did not invent the Cotton Gin but took the credit from one of His Slaves that actually did invent it.