Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXVI, July 1852, Vol. VVarious
History
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, No. XXVI, July 1852, Vol. V
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
the perfect fac-simile of its fellow.
DIVISION OF LABOR.
We have said that the number of separate parts which go to compose a
musket is forty-nine; but this by no means denotes the number of
distinct operations required in the manufacture of it--for almost
every one of these forty-nine parts is subject to many distinct
operations, each of which has its own name, is assigned to its own
separate workman, and is paid for distinctly and by itself, according
to the price put upon it in the general tariff of wages. The number of
operations thus separately named, catalogued and priced, is _three
hundred and ninety-six_.
These operations are entirely distinct from one another--each
constituting, as it were, in some sense a distinct trade, so that it
might be quite possible that no one man in the whole establishment
should know how to perform any two of them. It is quite certain, in
fact, that no man can perform any considerable number of them. They
are of very various grades in respect to character and price--from the
welding of the barrel which is in some points of view the highest and
most responsible of all, down to the cutting out of pins and screws of
the most insignificant character. They are all however regularly
rated, and the work that is performed upon them is paid for by the
piece.
ASSEMBLING THE MUSKET.
[Illustration: ASSEMBLING THE MUSKET.]
When the several parts are all finished, the operation of putting them
together so as to make up the musket from them complete, is called
"assembling the musket." The workman who performs this function has
all the various parts before him at his bench, arranged in boxes and
compartments, in regular order, and taking one component from this
place, and another from that, he proceeds to put the complicated piece
of mechanism together. His bench is fitted up expressly for the work
which he is to perform upon it, with a vice to hold without marring,
and rests to support without confining, and every other convenience
and facility which experience and ingenuity can suggest. With these
helps, and by means of the dexterity which continued practice gives
him, he performs the work in a manner so adroit and rapid, as to
excite the wonder of every beholder. In fact it is always a pleasure
to see any thing done that is done with grace and dexterity, and this
is a pleasure which the visitor to the Armory has an opportunity to
enjoy at almost every turn.
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