Question

How did the interchangeable parts lead to mass production ?

Answer 1

Hint: The invention of assembling a machine through different but standardised parts was put forth during the industrial revolution age of the 19th century by Eli Whitney who assembled a musket from interchangeable parts.

Complete answer: The production of items with interchangeable parts was born in America by Eli Whitney who was a leading industrialist and businessman. What this new methodology did was to make mass production easier as each part of a whole machine or weapon that would get damaged could be taken out, interchanged and assembled back quickly.

The demand of items which seemed invincible now also grew. Moreover, the unskilled labour could now be utilised to make production in much more abundance by dedicating all their time to one part only which also didn’t need any specialization anymore.

This also made the availability of labour easier and the cost of production cheaper. This technique has been most importantly used in the manufacturing of weapons and was soon taken up by businessmen all over European and other industrialized countries.

Note: Eli Whitney was of a very young age when this invention took place. He was pressured with the task of preparing bulk weapons to prepare for war against France. Even though there were many issues with these deliveries which came in late, Whitney was given the credit, by Thomas Jefferson, for bringing the dawn of the machine age.