Dan's article in PM Engineer this month

lager

Dan,
your article about nominal pipe sizes, was very entertaining and informative.

Herbert Hoover when he Secretary of the Department of Commerce, formed the Division of Standards to keep waste to a minimum on construction sites.

until then nuts and bolts, manufacturers did their own sizes, you could not take one manufacturers nut and mate to another manufacturers bolt, that is just an example
of the standards

lager

Dan's April article for PM Engineer

ethicalpaul

https://www.pmengineer.com/articles/96382-dan-holohan-pipe-stories

WMno57

Nut and bolt standardization happened long before Hoover.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_thread#History_of_standardization
In 1841, Joseph Whitworth created a design that, through its adoption by many British railway companies, became a standard for the United Kingdom and British Empire called British Standard Whitworth. During the 1840s through 1860s, this standard was often used in the United States as well, in addition to myriad intra- and inter-company standards. In April 1864, William Sellers presented a paper to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, proposing a new standard to replace the US' poorly standardized screw thread practice. Sellers simplified the Whitworth design by adopting a thread profile of 60° and a flattened tip (in contrast to Whitworth's 55° angle and rounded tip). The 60° angle was already in common use in America, but Sellers's system promised to make it and all other details of threadform consistent.

The Sellers thread, easier to produce, became an important standard in the U.S. during the late 1860s and early 1870s, when it was chosen as a standard for work done under U.S. government contracts, and it was also adopted as a standard by highly influential railroad industry corporations such as the Baldwin Locomotive Works and the Pennsylvania Railroad. Other firms adopted it, and it soon became a national standard for the U.S., later becoming generally known as the United States Standard thread (USS thread). Over the next 30 years the standard was further defined and extended and evolved into a set of standards including National Coarse (NC), National Fine (NF), and National Pipe Taper (NPT)."

Sometime between 1912 and 1916, the Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE) created an "SAE series" of screw thread sizes reflecting parentage from earlier USS and American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) standards.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbert_Hoover#Secretary_of_Commerce_(1921–1928)
Republican President Warren G. Harding appointed Hoover as Secretary of Commerce in 1920, and he continued to serve under President Calvin Coolidge after Harding died in 1923.

lager

WMno57

Thanks for correction, like the Father in "Dirty Dancing" Dr. jake Houseman played by the late Jerry Orbach

" When I'm wrong, I say I'm wrong." or in this case type it.

hot_rod

lager said:

Dan, your article about nominal pipe sizes, was very entertaining and informative. Herbert Hoover when he Secretary of the Department of Commerce, formed the Division of Standards to keep waste to a minimum on construction sites. until then nuts and bolts, manufacturers did their own sizes, you could not take one manufacturers nut and mate to another manufacturers bolt, that is just an example of the standards

Hoover in that position developed one of the first plumbing codes, aka Hoover Code

Tim_D

The story reminds me of the winter of 1976-1977. Mr. Robert T Cameron hired an off the boat Polish guy named Piotr(Peter). It was brutally cold and we had freeze up after freeze up. It was winter break so I was working full time. I wasn't old enough to drive but I could fix freeze ups so Piotr drove and I fixed stuff. On the first day I was in a crawl space and Piotr was handing me stuff. I asked for a half inch 45. Piotr says " 45 is crooked or is half crooked"? I miss that guy.

Mad Dog_2

Whitworth standard & Briggs Standard are answers on many plumbing exams .. never dun heard of The Pink panther thread (Sellers) 1970s Humor!  Mad Dog

Mad Dog_2

1921ish Warren Harding put prominent Engineer Herbert Hoover in charge of Standardizing a National Plumbing Code
  Since the late 1800s, The PHCC (proud member) pushed hard for this for YEARS.  NYC always refers to the 1938 Code (original?   Thats kinda late? ) 1968 New code...2003..I guess The ICC pushed this?  Julius Ballanco..Where are you?  Talking to Old Timers on Long Island 🏝,  they said before the 1920s, very few towns even had a license so they Grandfathered many of the "competent and sober" Unlicensed contractors in one felt swoop.   Everyone going foward took a written & practical.   As a NYC Local 2 Apprentice, I worked for one of the original Manhattan plumbing shops, A Mc Phee & Sons 1870 (est) NYC plate # 3...I think.. 116 yrs later (1986) I really dug working in the large  basement storeroom.   They still had tons of old fittings & valves, Stillsons, lead wiping stuff, 1/4" gas lighting fittings, burners, and petcocks w the nice
Scrolling on them..I bet it was just like Doug M Starbucks shop that Dan was in.. Mad dog