This week on lectures in history, Northwestern University professor Ken Alder chronicles the origins of American mass production through gunmaking.

He explains how early firearms manufacturing in the 19th century pioneered interchangeable parts and assembly line methods that transformed the

nation's industrial economy more after this we're here at the beginning

and one of the things I want you to remember is studying old technologies can seem quaint, but in a way,

we're not going to be judging these people about the problems they solve for us, but the

problems they solved in their own time. And in doing so, I do think we learned lessons

about how technology worked for them and therefore can be thought of us.

They don't know the future.

They don't know what's happening.

And we're going to go back and look at these old technologies, you know, from the

early 19th century, and try to take them as seriously as the people at the time took them,

which was very seriously indeed.

So one of the places to start this lecture is at the end with Ford's mass production.

Now, this is something you're all familiar with.

I'm sure in any U.S. history class you've ever taken, Fordism in the early 20th century

with his assembly line becomes an integral part of the story.

And famously, of course, Ford is an entrepreneur.

He's trying to make money and he's trying to make a lot of money.

And in fact, the way he does it is by using machines at every step of the process such

that his cars that he's making come out with what are called, I'll

explain to a second what this is, interchangeable parts. Each piece is made so precisely

similar to the other pieces of its type that it can be slotted right into the car as it

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