produced, so far as interchangeability is concerned in one factory. There are, however, standards of production that enable all the manufacturers in the trade to work to fine limits on certain parts that have been accepted by the Engineering Standards Committee as standards.
Thus, tyre rims have been standardized so that any make of tyre cover will fit a standard rim. Certain threads on screws, nuts, spokes, pedal pins, etc., are standardized, yet much remains to be done in this direction.
Manufacturers are accused of apathy in the direction of standardization of parts because there is no great desire among them for A’s parts to fit B’s machine. Various reasons are assigned for this reluctance, among them that makers could not charge what they liked for certain screws, nuts, etc., if one could buy A’s and B’s nuts in open competition to fit either make of machine indiscriminately.
Personally, I do not attach much importance to this view because the supply of repair parts and replacements is not a lucrative part of a big cycle factory’s equipment and may be most unremunerative.
I consider the greater problem is that A may have a very fine tool plant and he is not disposed to scrap it or give it away to enable him to adopt B’s standard and vice versa. Also, it is unwise in the case of a really high grade bicycle to allow any tinkerer in a country town to fit standard screws, nuts, cups, cones, and other parts to a carefully made machine, for the cups, cones, etc., may be standard but yet inferior to those that were originally fitted.
