Sorry I had to blur some of the footage. The copyright owners wanted $600 to use it. You can watch it here, though: machinethinking.co/2018/10/29/missing-first-video-footage/

At 18:15 you state that it's unknown why gage blocks ring together. I was a NBS Physical Dimensional Laboratory Supervisor and Tech who used them almost daily during calibrations. The reason they "Stick" is from Molecular Adhesion. The lapped surfaces are so flat that adjacent molecules in rung blocks begin sharing valence electrons. This action causes them to stick together. An interesting aside is that if you leave two blocks rung together for an extended period, they will "Contact Weld" and you will never get them separated. (I had a trainee totally ruin a part of a set when he left the stack rung over a long weekend) Something I saw you do that should be avoided is your handling of the blocks with your bare hands. Gage blocks are 316 Stainless, and your body acids will attack the lapped surfaces. Prior to use, you should always clean the blocks with Acetone or MEK and afterwards fully reoil the blocks using acid free block oil before storage. I would tear a tech a new one if I caught him handle blocks without wearing linen gloves. Also S1 Standard blocks are calibrated for use at 68F + or - 1 degree with a correction factor of +/- 11 microinches per inch per degree deviance off nominal. (He steps off the soap box) ;-}

This video should be part of high school math classes everywhere. It is foundational.

As a Journeyman Tool & Die maker with 47 years in the trade, I found this fascinating. Too many of us take the surface plate and Jo-Blocks for granted. I made a set of flat lapping plates as a student at the age of 17. (three plates lapped together just as you described) I still have them in my tool box.

This video is being played as a part of Harvard's Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering (ENG-SCI 190) courses now. Big ups my dude, I would be speechless if I found myself in your position. Make sure to use this as a bragging point as needed.

'The problem is that your barleycorns may be a different size then mine or mine might even dry out and change over time.' ---Every man's constant worry.

When I was little, I used to wonder: If factory equipments were made in another factory, how was the first-ever factory built? More than a dozen of years later, I get my answer in this video.

Precision is a fascinating thing. It is difficult to appreciate how a higher level of precision is obtained. The day I realized that the most precise of our machine tools have been produced by other machine tools that were less precise than them is still green in my memory. I also stretched this concept to the fact that if we trace all such previous machines, we will reach a much cruder stone tool used by the cave man as a starting point. Precision was obtained by human ingenuity. A hat tip to all the stalwarts who made this possible.

In my 4 year of bachelor degree in mechanical engineering , I had never been gone through this history of precision so it very fruitful for me to understand the ground level of mechanism to advance level , thank you so much

I always wondered how you can make precise tools from the absence of precise tools, but now I know: rubbing 3 flat surfaces together to make them extremely precise. Neat.

Really phenomenal video. Enjoyed it greatly

as a kid i always wondered, how are tools made if you need tools to make them? how did anyone make a ruler, angle or other shape? i thought i could do both decently just with a string, cause you can make a straight line and a circle by using a fulcrum but neither would be anywhere near as precise as you would presumably need

When i first herd about the three planes method i was blown away. I had always thought that precision was something which emerged slowly, through history, a conquest gained by mankind literally a fraction of unit of length after a fraction of unit of length. But the fact that no, you can just make something flat out of nothing, and then derive practically everything from that reference thing - is so unbelievable. It's one of those things in science that looks like when you can see three's roots under the asphalt, like if there was a pattern and sometimes it's on the surface and it's easy to spot.

Who would have believed, that at the age of 74, I would have my mind blown! Wow! Thank you very much!

Answered questions I've had since childhood. I remember asking my dad how we got the first straight line. He was very honest about it. He didn't know.

A beautifully put together piece. I've worked in engineering for 30 years and I had no idea about some of this stuff. Very glad this popped up on my suggested videos. Thank you 😉

This was one of the coolest videos I’ve ever seen in my life Wringing was always a concept that my mind could not fathom and the fact some guy took a sewing machine and made the first set is unbelievable

As a Swede I feel proud, but also a bit sad Mr. Johansson is not given the credability today. I humbly bow my head and send him warm thought.

This is fascinating. I work for Sandvik, doing inspection. Where the blocks, pins, etc come from that help gage our machinery into the millionths of an inch.

As a former lead metrologist in a calibration lab, I loved this! Outstanding work!

Even as a 2nd generation machinist with over 10 years in the industry plus the trade schooling and apprenticeship and relevant experiences and skills... I cannot believe I never realized the role and importance of the surface plate, which I think I have probably used the most versus any cutting machine or tools. Really opened my eyes a little bigger and really appreciate much more in this amazing field that I'm in.

I've wondered many times how precise machining and measurements we're made back in the days. When you mentioned C E Johansson I recognised the name and googled it. Turns out that the factory where he first made the measuring blocks is the beautiful old building visible from my living room window. What a funny coincidence! Thank you for a very informative video, I knew he was known for making tools but I did not know the significance of his invention. If someone's interested: The factory was built in 1813 and is now a museum mostly dedicated to Eskilstuna's technical history. There are still some houses preserved that were used for making guns, built all the way back in around 1650. I really need to learn more about my city's proud industrial history!

"I'm not a scholar" ..30 mins later "..the recursive algorithm I wrote" Legend :)

I've been a machinist for over 30 years, the last ten years working on prototype projects, and a tooling specialist. This video is very informative for people who have no knowledge about machining. I am currently opening my own machine shop in the Black Hills of South Dakota, just a small little prototype and fabrication shop.

Im a Cnc machinist since 2003 and your channel is a breath of fresh air! I live in Sorel Canada we have a GE hydro division enormous plant here and even them Nowadays measure and program in mm... cats and dogs sleeping together!!! But for about 90% of the machine shops in Canada we mesure in inch and we weights ourselves in pounds but we drive in km/h........

I was a Navy Metcal program technician and lab manager. When you said surface plate I was like, where’s your metcal tag? AND THERE IT WAS!!

I'm retired now, but I spent nearly 45 years of my life in the machine trades. I've been fortunate enough to operate many of the machines you have described here. I served my apprenticeship at Westinghouse Electric's main manufacturing plant in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was a great program, but unfortunately nowadays there are very few apprentice programs in the machine trades and the high schools have all but eliminated the shop classes where I first became interested in metalworking. During my career I was a job shop machinist/ quality control technician/ toolmaker/ and master toolmaker. It was a very satisfying career that educators and guidance counselors seem to have forgotten about. You have an excellent channel here and if you haven't already may I suggest a trip to the Henry Ford Museum/ Greenfield Village in Dearborn and maybe a trip to the metalworking museum that I believe is in Vermont.

Absolute best intro I have heard or seen in the last 10 years. That is genuinely the arbitrary reference point from where the rest of the engineered world came from, those 3 rocks on the island. The fundamental root cause of it all. Thank you for that.

I stumbled upon this video while browsing UKposts. Thank you for a very excellent presentation. I was looking at this from a professional background. I spent about 20 years working in the Navy metrology system, and another 8 or so at a major US airline. My specialty was maintenance and calibration of electronic test and measurement equipment. But out of necessity and personal curiosity I learned a lot about physical/dimensional metrology as well. With the recent completion of the watt balance, the electrical and physical systems are now united in a way. I was a co-author of the first edition of the book "The Metrology Handbook" published by the American Society for Quality, and I became one of the first ASQ Certified Calibration Technicians (CCT). One photo in that book is of the British yard/foot/inch transfer standard that you show. The one I photographed is on the outside wall of the Greenwich Observatory. In my retirement hobby of woodworking, I still keep the value of precision measurements. I don't have a set of gage blocks yet but that is a goal. I have been able to purchase a number of things that I an careful to use only as reference standards, to check other dimensional tools. While wood is a dynamic material, precision and accuracy are still important but at a different scale: 1/32" instead of 0.001" or less. A lot of the material you present was either new to me or long forgotten - thank you again. An upcoming project for the woodworking shop is making a straightedge: by the same method you describe for surface plates, so I will end up with three instead of just the one I need. 😃

This should be required learning for anybody going into engineering of any kind This was an absolute joy to watch thank you

As a Metrologist.....I salute you, Sir!!!!

I love coming back and watching this documentary, it's so informative and your delivery is so soothing to listen to. I can't wait for your next one

I just love your voice tone and easy teaching pace and dictation. Your research is astounding; especially the history of Johanson and his metal set of standard gauge blocks. The way the blocks adhere to each other is incredible! Shows the early role of materials science played with this story. Thanks for playing that old Swiss movie!

This video has answered questions I’ve had all my life. I’ve been obsessed with the origins of precision, how it was carried on all these years and so on. I always forgot to search, I wouldn’t even know how to search for such a question. I’m very glad this video got recommended for me.

This was one of the most interesting videos I’ve seen in a while. Fantastic job!

I've been asking this question for years now, and nobody I know has been able to answer it. Thank you so much!! This video has been very educational! I'll be showing my kids.

Our professor sent this video as an instructional video for a test! excellent work sir!

well done video. I've been working as a metroligist/quality/manufacturing engineer for the past 7 years in the private sector and now working for one of the leading metrology companies in the world. its nice seeing stuff like this video showing the history of metrology. It gives a human aspect to a modern industry that has become very much technologically driven, and that lacks the human aspect in my opinion. These days its standard for certain sophisticated hardware and advanced software to calculate dimensional measurements, at least in the CMM world to have .002mm accuracy, and with certain dedicated machines capable of well under sub 10 millionths precision. Obviously that level of precision is hard to physically imagine. what i want to point out is how you've put together a narrative of the history of how metrology in its modern form has helped shape the manufacturing industry to what we see today. if you ever feel like putting together more videos like this, i will be up front awaiting the release. well done and thank you for telling the story of the industry i am passionate about.

As a someone who has spent years in machine shops, I was impressed with the quality and detail of this content. 👌

I recieved just recieved my Canadian Machinist Red Seal. When this video first came out 5 years ago, I was fresh out of highschool and prepped to start my career as a CNC Machinist. This video, among others, ignited my passion for precision and manufacturing. Thank you!

I got to meet the Moore's (father and son) in 1985 and tour the plant when I received the Richard F. Moore Award at the age of 16 in my junior year in high school(vocational-tech). I got a personal copy of the book too.

Thanks for this great video. I was Navy but went through AF PMEL training at Lowry AFB, then taught the subject for 4 years Navy, then 7 in civilian school. You have some history that I had not heard and you did a fantastic job presenting!

I was reading a sci-fi webnovel about a young engineer student suddenly stranded in a medieval fantasy world and using his knowledge to start an industrial revolution, and one of the commenters linked this fascinating video. Great stuff! Thanks for your work!

As a tool maker trained in the late 70"s i learned old and new. From hand scraping and shaping machines to EDM and CNC. Thanks for your vids

How is this not more popular? Excellent content.

That "go fly a kite" remark nearly cost me a perfectly good laptop! :D

Mind blowing is a completely inadequate description of this story, and your presentation of it is as close as humanly possible to describe the level at which ones mind should be blown by it... seriously kick ass man, well done

Thanks for the refresher course, It reminded me of many years of trade school and machine shop practices, plus a lots of bits I missed in my education. I'm going to watch this again and show it to my understudy.

your videos are incredible, not only do they always teach me an array of new things, they also permanently alter the way i view the world in an incredibly intellectually stimulating way. thank you so so much for creating such wonderful content, and shedding light on things i would otherwise miss out on.

I had this question for YEARS! Thank you so much for this awesome video. Everyone watching this should be gratefull this type of content is available for free.

What a brilliantly produced documentary. First video I have seen from your channel, and I immediately subscribed. Thank you for sharing!

Great video, I had the good luck to work at NIST for a short time in the late 80's learning the measurement of gage blocks using the interferometry method. It always amazed me how something as simple as gage blocks could be so intriguing.

This is amazing, I've been looking for info on exactly this topic - it's hard to find polished and entertaining videos that covers this material... thank you!

I worked at NAS Alameda till it closed. I went to the machine shop from time to time. That is so great you ended up with that piece.

Outstanding presentation. My father was a tool and die maker and I worked in the field for a few years right after high school. We often finish ground hardened steel parts to within .0001". I can remember my dad and I having conversations about the very topic of your video here. I can easily understand how a very flat surface can be progressively developed but not so easily with the level of precision we have today with cylindrical shapes. Regardless, we got where we are but it just a shame that many of those who made their contributions to brings us here remain unknown along with any writing they may have made.

THANK YOU! This answers questions I have had since about age 4. I think this script is expertly written. What a gift.

This is a brilliant video. I am thankful for having found it. Great job!

I thank you for taking the time to put these videos together. They are an important contribution, and very meaningful to me on a personal level. I have always been fascinated by machines and how they work. Your poetic storytelling is a gift. thank you.

A week or so ago I was talking to a coworker at the machine shop about the first machines and how they made them in order to make more precise machines than the machine itself in order to get to where we are today. Here I am tonight fixing my son's glasses and working on a pinewood derby car for him just autoplaying videos to listen to. Well all my work stopped and I've been binging yours. The last couple videos I've watched about precision and the first lathe have answered many questions that I was hoping to find a book on or something. I wanted to find a book or set of books that detailed the history and progress of machine tool technologies and didn't come up with much of anything that's available to anyone. I appear to have been looking at the wrong media. Your videos are superbly informative. Idk if I'm sleeping tonight lol.

I’ve been a machinist for 3 years now and almost never everyday this industry gets more fascinating. From the complex machines and how they can run for years making the same precise parts, the tools and metal properties. And the precision which everyone takes for granted. I mean to be able to make something perfectly flat or round is incredible. Plus I love quality and everything in this industry needs to be quality. I really love machining and actually making the backbone of the modern age. Metalwork is truly amazing. Thank you for making this video so I can learn about where my cnc machine comes from as I work on it haha

Hi .The Whitworth three plates method was one of the first tests I had when I started my apprenticeship at 15 years old .we were issued with three 5 inch square plates I had to scrape them together using a sequence of six steps . the submitted plate could only be checked by the instructor on a surface plate when I said I was finished. I will always remember this as I was amazed on the flatness of the finished plate. Everyone who enters engineering should have a go at this . Another interesting procedure is to hammer a bar of iron on an anvil keeping it pointing to magnetic north . With enough hammering the bar will become magnetised I have tried it. I find it fascinating

Great video mate, and I agree this film should be showed in schools. I'm working in machining in Germany and this video has brought together so many things that I use on a daily basis. Well done Sir!

One thing that is amazing is the precision that they have in automobiles. The axles connect to the hubs of the wheels and there are four of them. The precision of the placement of the hubs on the axles relative to one another is so precise that one can drive a car 70 mph and not feel any vibration from the axles and hubs and there are not just one of them but there are four rotating together.

Been in engineering all my life, and now approaching retirement.... But I still learnt stuff from this video.... Facinating stuff 👍🏻

Who do you think you are; dropping a fantastic, educational, dopamine laced video on UKposts like that?! Dude - you keep making works of love like this and you will go far in the UKposts world. Subbed, shared, loved. /me wish I had found out about metrology a long time ago.

There are also 8 piece sets for longer measurements, which of course can also be "wrung" together with any of the sdt. 81 piece set for even more combinations. I was an US Army Metrology Engineering Technician, aka: Calibrator for 43 years. The longest gage block measurement / Calibration that I ever had to make in the field; was on a Hawk Missile, Launch-Lach Gage at 40 some inches +/- 0.0002" this was done in Korea in 1979 in a 5 ton expandable Van in the summer time! we had a 36K btu AC unit but getting the "Unit under Test" and the Standards to stabilize was a b!t&#!! Love your videos.

I am a phycisits by formation, and when I saw your video, i thought it was going to be about the theoretical definitions of meter, second, kilogram and so on, but this is absolutely amazing. your narrative is so absorbing, this half an hour went quickly. Such an interesting topic and of course, love how you take a second to thank to other scientists and engineers before. truly, people often trivializes how advanced as species we have come.

The algorithm just introduced me to your channel; now I'm excited to be going back through your fascinating content from the start.

I went back in time so I could subscribe to this channel earlier. I’m a college student and new to machining, and this channel is spectacular!!!

In a way, I've been waiting like 10 years for this video to be made. Well done, dude. Well done.

I know this video is older but can we just appreciate the printed photos instead of animated transitions or otherwise, shows you don’t need flashy animations or complex transitions to make something meaningful and informative Love you dawg, thank you for explaining why so many of the things I love come from the appreciation of a truly flat surface lmao

Amazing. I'm from Sweden, and not long ago I saw someone posting in a machinery group on Facebook asking what that (turned out to be one of those original kits!) was and what it was worth

Sir, I watched this video some years ago and just introduced my 12 yo son to it as well. UKposts / Life standard in my opinion. Thank you ! Will you do some more in the future ? Greetings from Will in the Netherlands.

mate, this is a great video. Thank you. All my kids watched it. Some willingly........ Thanks for taking the time

a fellow youtuber and world renown machinist "oxtoolco", did a phenomenal demonstration of the three plate Whitworth lapping plate method...and I convinced myself that it's a good idea to try it...I don't know how many cheesy 80s movies I went through but I finished them and ended up with three cast iron mirrors. Gorgeous product. Great video!

Hi. just letting you know i found your channel a few years ago and this is my fourth or fifth time watching all of them again. Thanks for making them!

20:57 finally! Now we can make accurate and universal pretzels.

I think you have one of the most important channels on youtube, and hope that you'll continue to produce this series. I'll be using your videos in the STEM classes that I teach to middle and primary school kids, to bring "machine thinking" to them. My operation is private, so I don't have to directly negotiate the nonsense that is considered public education. But it does come into my space, and I am quite alarmed by it. The children are being terrorized by the teachers and curricula about their future, with global warming, over population, mass extinction, and whatnot. And yet simultaneously the history, the culture, and the "machine thinking" that will lead them to solutions to these putative problems are left uncovered, or even presented in the opposite light. I don't think this is just accidental oversight, I think something much more fishy is going on. Kids at their age in the 80s knew a lot more about where the modern world they lived in came from. I am highly concerned about these kids of today coming of voting age in less than a decade. In anycase, we desperately need content like yours, giving at least an inkling as to where the modern world does, and the future world might, come from.

Discovered this channel couple days ago, and feels like I m stumbled upon a real gem 💎!!! More people should know about you

The gauges sticking to each other is AMAZING I cannot believe I never heard that before wow.

You are the absolute king of cool when it comes to this type of content You made this extremely interesting and I shared it on all my social media accounts.

Let me know if you want to see a Palmer and a super early B&S micrometer. A good friend has one locally in the SF bay area. Cheers, Tom

On reflection, I use this stone on stone technique to keep my sharpening stones flat. A nice overview of the topic. Thanks.

So well articulated. This video, in and of itself, is masterfully done. I've known a lot of this, but I haven't seen it done with such tasteful precision. Subbed, for sure

Just found your site and IMMEDIATELY subscribed. You do an EXCELLENT job of presentation and WOW, the research you must do is MIND BOGGLING! Thanks.

First precise screw, Medieval edition. I don't know if it went down like this, but I would try this route: Secure a quantity of iron wire, drawn through a die. The die is to be smooth as can be made. Inspect the wire, keep only the most uniform section. Secure a spindle, turned on centers. Doesn't have to be metal at this point, just round and straight. Wrap wire around spindle, taking care to keep each turn snug against the prior. Secure the wire onto the spindle. Make a follower that rides on the coiled spindle; this is your lead screw attachment for the lathe. Use lathe and lead screw to make a proper cut screw; Acme thread variant is a good start. Use screw to create a tap. Use the tap to make a die. Use the die to make a proper feed-screw for the lathe. Make a lead-screw follower with that tap while your'e at it! Die-cut threaded rods tend to be pretty uniform in pitch; using a brass or copper lapping die makes them more better. Now the lathe can cut threads that are far more uniform than the coiled shaft did. Next up, lathe makes a new lead screw for itself, using the lapped lead screw made earlier! Each 'pass' through the process results in closer tolerances being possible. Once you have uniformity in your geometry, precision tends to follow.

great documentary - how much we take things for granted - simple is hard. really loved your investigation into the subject. thxu.

As a machinist I really appreciate this video! So well done 👍

This is going to become one of the all time greatest channels alongside AVE and Cody's Lab. Keep it up!

When I was an apprentice tool maker, I had to make a set of three surface plates. Used D slide valves that were at least ten years old, so the iron was stable.

I think I will watch this video my whole life, from time to time. Great job, man.

I watched this video for the first time a year ago, and have been thinking about it ever since. Just gave it a re-watch. I just need to comment and say: fantastic work. One highlight for me: it is exhilarating to watch the historical film extolling gauge blocks! That film is like educational UKposts from 1950s!

Former USMC cal tech here. Also I worked for a few years at Starrett in Athol, MA inspecting their 1-6” micrometers. Very nice video homey.

Incredible documentary! Thank you. I just saw a Moore Jig Borer come up at auction. Wish I had given it more attention. It was in great shape.

I literally think about this concept constantly, it's always driven me nuts wrapping my head around it

Absolutely excellent video. I am really glad you and smarter every day did a collaboration.

This is one of the most amazing videos I've ever seen (and the one on the 50 ton presses also). I was an apprentice machinist at Schlage Lock Company (Santa Clara Knob Company, - in San Jose, CA in the late 1980s/early 1990s). We made seamless doorknobs, residential and commercial locksets, lever handles, trims, etc., from alloys of nickel steel, stainless/chromium steel, bronze, brass, copper, etc. We had all manner of measuring devices/gauges in our machine shop. But I never knew the history of gauges/ measures (or about Johansson). We had manual lathes, mills, die grinders, massive heavy automated punch presses, drill presses, and CNC lathes and mills also (and heat treating furnaces/ovens). Compared to the CNC machine tools of today they were far less capable and sophisticated, with only 3 axis (maybe 4 axis?, -don't remember). Of course the modern CNC lathes and mills had built-in gauging capabilities. I used manual machine tools only. The journeymen machinists would program and use the CNC/NC machines. We had about 80 employees I believe. They closed our plant in 1991 and moved it to Tecate, Mexico. Schlage had an amazing history, and was an almost 100 year old San Francisco company (near Candlestick Point/Hunter's Point Naval Shipyard). The Founder, Walter Schlage, a German immigrant had 250 U.S. Patents to his name at the time of his death in 1946. His first patent was in 1909, inventing a door lock that turned lights on and off (as you entered and exited). Ingersoll Rand bought Schlage in 1974. The San Francisco plant was massive and during WWII was converted to making parts and equipment for the military. Anyway, the only thing I can find [remaining] on the internet about Santa Clara Knob Company, is on the resume of a guy who worked there long before me, and left long before I was hired: bit.ly/2ENFlK1 Schlage history: bit.ly/2XNBu8n The original SF factory closed in 1999, but some of these images show the factory and footprint of it before/after it was demolished (near the Bayshore/ Caltrain coridor): bit.ly/2J1WkOc bit.ly/2Hs7idd bit.ly/2NSgnNE Fortunately they saved the historic main office building: bit.ly/2HbY4mb This is an interesting blog of a local explorer whose webpage has a lot of cool info about Bay Area historic sites: bit.ly/2Cd24Pf (the pics in the link above are his Flickr site). Anyway, since you're local I though you might be interested in this stuff (if not, sorry :) As I commented on your other video (the amazing lathe in the French museum), the history of (likely) the Moore Tool Company, and so many other American machine tool/manufacturing companies (like Stanley Tool Company, Pratt & Whitney Measurement Systems, United Technologies, Groton Electric Boat, clock manufacturers like Ansonia Clock (and at least 8 others), Sturm Ruger, Smith and Wesson, Marlin, Colt, Remington, Winchester, and many others) arose from the Connecticut Valley, primarily as a result of the need to be able to mass produce firearms using precision (gauged) interchangeable components (first accomplished at the Eli Whitney Armory). Thus the firearms industry was primarily responsible for the American Industrial Revolution (along with ensuring victory in the War of 1812, guaranteeing that we remained a free and independent nation). Machine Tools literally made America and saved America, and created a lasting peace. The Connecticut River Valley became the integrated manufacturing capital of America (and later the Northeast in general with companies like bit.ly/2UuPGBf Starrett bit.ly/2VJGJE8 , IBM, etc. etc. etc.). This is a great documentary that elucidates this history well: amzn.to/2TsgGVE Eli Whitney link: bit.ly/2q7BCAy

Thanks for the education. I often wondered how we got to where we are today. Steve

I'm an engineer and I really loved this video. In school you don't get much education on the HISTORY of engineering. You're mostly dealing with mathematics and how it is NOW, but it's in my opinion much more interesting how we got here and how they had to build the foundations from scratch, the foundation which eventually made us go to the moon and back.

17:27 just made me smile.i felt so happy for you, us. It felt like I was there opening a Christmas present. I'm going to speak for everyone when I say Thank you.