SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
would be more convenient than for the candles to fit properly into the 
sockets of the candle-sticks, which they seldom did. The lesson taught 
by this illustration lies at the root of standardisation. 
Standardisation is now generally recognised as being of paramount 
importance to economic production. Its primary objects are to cheapen 
manufacture by elimination of waste entailed in producing a multi- 
plicity of qualities and designs for one and the same purpose, to effect 
improvement in quality, design, and workmanship, to increase produc- 
tion, to reduce maintenance charges and variety of stock, and to secure 
interchangeability of parts. 
From the producers’ point of view the two ultimate objects of 
standardisation are greater output and reduced cost. Obviously a 
machine continuously producing an article of standardised type or 
design will have a very much larger output than would be the case 
if it were necessary to change the tools or dies to meet various specifica- 
tions, and if this principle were applied to the whole of the machinery 
in a large works, the production would be enormously increased. More- 
over, standardisation itself facilitates the adoption of improved pro- 
cesses and types of machinery. For example, only a plant such as 
Ford’s could find profitable use for multiple drills which bore dozens 
of holes into both the top and the sides of several cylinder castings at the 
same time. 
As regards economy in labour, standardisation leads to specialisa- 
tion in workmanship. In a multiple product factory there may not 
be enough work of the same kind to keep one man engaged constantly 
on that work, therefore he is required not only to change his work from 
time to time, but to be capable of performing several kinds of operations. 
Apart from the effect in such cases in decreasing the output, greater 
skill is ordinarily required in a multiple product factory. In a 
standardised product factory the workmen perform one operation 
practically continuously and become highly expert at it, so with the 
aid of automatic machinery a man may operate a number of machines 
at once. It follows, therefore, that with the same capital cost and 
plant, and with the same expenditure on wages, a factory can produce 
many more units of standardised product than its competitor manufac- 
turing multiple products. The cost is still further yeduced when the 
overhead expenses are taken into consideration. The two advantages 
mentioned are by no means the only advantages resulting from standard- 
isation from the producers’ point of view, but all the others lead back 
to these two, mass production and diminished cost per unit product. 
From the consumers’ point of view the main advantages of standard- 
isation are also twofold, yiz., reduction in cost and improvement in 
quality. Reference has already been made to the former. As regards 
the latter, it has been found in other countries that one of the most 
important results of standardised specifications is generally to increase 
the quality of the product. The objection is sometimes taken that 
standardisation tends towards crystallization, and thus interferes with 
progress; but. experience has shown that standardisation does not 
lower the standard, but, if anything, tends to raise it. Standardisation 
reflects in effect the consensus of opinion as to what constitutes the 
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