FROM MUSKETS TO MOTORCARS:  YANKEE INGENUITY AND THE ROAD TO MASS PRODUCTION:  In the early 1800s, in the years between the American Revolution and the Civil War, a revolution in manufacturing began.  Before that revolution, mechanical devices--including guns--were made one at a time, by skilled craftsmen.  Each one was different.  It took many days to make one gun, one wagon, or one plow.  There were no sewing machines, no automatic writing machines, no self-propelled vehicles.  The automobile was invented in the late 1800s, and in 1908 Henry Ford introduced the Model T.  That first year his factory produced about 6,000 Model T autos.   Just a few years later, in 1916, they built almost 600,000.  By 1927, using mass production techniques, Ford had sold 15 million Model Ts.

Most of the inventive work leading to our American System of Manufacturing occurred in New England, and much of it happened in the Robbins and Lawrence Armory.