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Incidentally the size of sockets and screws (including the Allen wrench) is very much a technology. William Sellers pushed standards in the mid 1800s specifically to benefit American industry through interoperability. Standards we still use today.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Sellers

https://www.jstor.org/stable/3102001



And the gauges are just as important. Obligatory ref to Brad Cox seminal 1990 paper, Planning the Software Industrial Revolution, and it's compelling analogy with Eli Whitney.


It's amazing how much things that seem so ho-hum today are yesterday's incredible invention


Anyone who has used a #1 Phillips on a #2 screw or vice versa knows the pain that is available - and those are pretty standardized!




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