SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
INDUSTRIAL STANDARDIZATION. 
The idea of establishing international standards in industry is 
rapidly gaining ground, and in one branch of industry at least—Electro- 
technology—a set of standards will shortly be published which have 
been accepted by the industrial representatives of the principal countries 
of the world. Few people realize the importance attaching to this work 
of standardization, and the difficulties that have beset the path of those 
who have taken upon themselves the task of bringing into line not 
only the divergent points of view of the various industrial factors 
inside each individual country, but the frequently diametrically opposing 
interests of the big manufacturing States of the world. The greatest 
difficulty is experienced in this country of getting our manufacturers 
to appreciate the fact that the progress of standardization is going to 
be of great value to them in the end. They do not seem to be able 
to remove themselves far enough from each particular little problem 
to see the whole structure of industry in its proper perspective. Their 
attitude may be contrasted with that of the American manufacturer by 
saying that their constant thought is, ‘ How shall I best please my 
board of directors?” whereas the American attitude is, “ How can I 
best give my customers what they want?” “ We deliver the goods” has 
become the watchword of the American manufacturer, and their success 
in many fields of industry is due to the spirit of this remark. The 
American manufacturer, for instance, realized some ten or fifteen years 
ago that what his public required was a cheap, but really serviceable 
motor-car to appeal to the professional man with his comparatively 
small income. In other words, he proceeded to “deliver the goods,” 
with the result that these goods have now found their way, not only 
into the home markets of the professional man, but into the life and 
industry of the whole world. 
It may appear that all this is without weight in the question of 
deciding upon international standards, but to this country it is of 
the greatest importance possible. Every manufacturer in this country, 
for instance, knows that American car makers have adopted as their 
standard screw-thread throughout the whole of their products that of 
the S.A.E., or Society of Automotive Engineers; and in deciding upon 
the international standard screw for this purpose, it is scarcely to be 
expected that the American manufacturers—who turn out over | 
2,000,000 cars a year—will agree to abolish the standard which has 
become very generally adopted in their country in favour of one which. 
happens to be in use on this side of the Atlantic, with an output of 
less than half-a-million cars per annum; but it is extremely probable 
that, in the very near future, a settlement of the question will be 
arrived at between England and America which will fix the standard 
screw-thread to be used conjointly by England and America, and this 
will go far to deciding for the rest of the world what standard it will 
adopt. The main tendency in striving after industrial standardization 
should be a unifying and not a creative one. The various factors in 
industry must be persuaded to come together and put up initial proposals 
for standardization in their various branches; and these proposals 
must be criticised by experts, and referred back for final adoption by 
the particular industries concerned. The mistake in the-past has been 
that experts only have been appointed, and these experts have, in many 
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