Merrit Roe Smith, who has done so much to rescue Hall from oblivion, deserves to summarize HallÕs achievement from the view of a modern historian:

All told, Hall emerges as a pivotal figure in the annals of American industry. No one had been able to master the problem of attaining complete interchangeability in firearms. Much of the excitement generated by the special investigations of 1826 can be traced directly to HallÕs success in combining men, machines, and precision-measurement methods into a practical system of production. In this sense, HallÕs work represented an important extension of the industrial revolution in American, a mechanical synthesis so different in degree as to constitute a difference in kind.

Page 67

A conscious sense of reciprocity governed the superintendentÕs actions. While he demanded a certain degree of deference and obedience from his workmen, they in turn expected to be coddled and not interfered with. Since they were extremely sensitive about their rights and privileges as skilled artisans, particular care had to be taken not to treat them with condescension. No man worth his salt would stand at command or submit to even the most perfunctory regulations unless he was accorded the dignity and freedom that his skilled status deserved.

Over the years such thoroughly inbred and highly individual work habits served to hinder rather than encourage innovation at Harpers Ferry. Because so many armorers and supervisors had been reared according to the conventions of the craft ethos, they found it extremely difficult to adjust to the increasingly specialized demands of industrial civilization. Except for using commonly known forging, grinding, polishing, boring, and rifling machines, they relied mainly on the dexterous use of hand tools to perform their work. Unlike their more flexible contemporaries in New England, they possessed a high degree of manual skill and saw no need to compensate for what little they lacked by cultivating mechanical know-how. Above all, they considered themselves artisans not machine tenders, and as such, believed in the dictum that an armorerÕs task consisted in making a complete product; lock, stock and barrel. Ideologically speaking, then, they had neither the preparation nor, it seems, the inclination to introduce new techniques at the armory. In a sense, they were too skilled, to artistically inclined, to satisfied with the way things were, to sanction change or contemplate seriously its possible benefits.