the.com/interchangeable parts
the idea that broke things could finally be fixed instead of mourned.
means identical, standardized components that can replace each other in any unit of a product without custom fitting.
from pioneered in the late 1700s by french gunsmith honore blanc and popularized by eli whitney's musket contracts, it swapped skilled hand-fitting for machined precision so any part from any rifle would fit any other.
whitney's stuntassembled muskets from a jumbled parts pile before congress
real credithonore blanc did it first, decades earlier in france
industrial rippleenabled assembly lines and mass production a century later
military logicarmies needed field repairs, not bespoke craftsmanship