How Do We Mass Produce a Vehicle Part 2

The theoretical elegance of a moving line was one thing; the crude, stubborn reality of iron was another.

Ernest was far too seasoned an engineer to risk an entire manufacturing works on an untried assumption. Before converting a single bay of Machine Works Number One, he demanded an empirical trial on a smaller, simpler mechanism.

He chose the four-inch centrifugal sump pump manufactured for the northern coal pits.

Under ordinary shop conditions, two fitters worked at a single wooden bench, assembling one pump from a scattered wooden box of castings in roughly four hours and twelve minutes.

Ernest took six apprentice machinists and laid out a thirty-foot timber bench in the experimental annex.