Editing Micrometer (device) (section)

=={{anchor|History}}History==
[[File:Gascoigne's micrometer as drawn by Robert Hooke.JPG|thumb|right|Gascoigne's Micrometer, as drawn by [[Robert Hooke]], {{c.|1668}}]]

The word ''micrometer'' is a [[classical compound|neoclassical coinage]] from {{langx|el|μικρός|micros|small}} and {{langx|el|μέτρον|metron|measure}}. According to the [[Webster's Dictionary#Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary|''Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary'']],<ref>{{MerriamWebsterDictionary|micrometer}}</ref> the word was loaned to English from French, with its first known appearance in English writing being in 1670. Neither the [[metre]] nor the [[micrometre]] (μm) nor the micrometer (device) as we know them today existed at that time. However, the people of that time did have much need for, and interest in, the ability to measure small things and small differences. The word was no doubt coined in reference to this endeavor, even if it did not refer specifically to its present-day senses.

The [[Science Museum, London|London Science Museum]] contains an exhibit "James Watt's end measuring instrument with micrometer screw, 1776" which the science museum claims is probably the first screw micrometer made. This instrument is intended to measure items very accurately by placing them between the two anvils and then advancing one using a fine micrometer screw until both are in contact with the object, the distance between them being precisely recorded on the two dials. However, as the science museum notes, there is a possibility that this instrument was not made c.1776 by Watt, but 1876 when it was placed in that year's Special Loan Exhibition of scientific instruments in South Kensington.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co59281/watts-end-measuring-machine-micrometer |title=Watt's end measuring machine |access-date=7 March 2023}}</ref>

[[Henry Maudslay]] built a bench micrometer in the early 19th century that was [[wikt:jocular#Adjective|jocularly]] nicknamed "the Lord Chancellor" among his staff because it was the final judge on measurement [[accuracy and precision]] in the firm's work.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Winchester|first=Simon|title=The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers created the modern world|publisher=HarperCollins|year=2018|isbn=9780062652553|pages=75–77}}</ref> In 1844, details of [[Joseph Whitworth|Whitworth]]'s workshop micrometer were published.<ref>{{cite web |title=Whitworth's workshop micrometer", The Practical Mechanic and Engineer's magazine Vol IV, Nov 1844, pp43-44 |website=google.com/books |date=1845 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lbc5AQAAMAAJ |access-date=2024-04-09 }}</ref> This was described as having a strong frame of cast iron, the opposite ends of which were two highly finished steel cylinders, which traversed longitudinally by action of screws. The ends of the cylinders where they met was of hemispherical shape. One screw was fitted with a wheel graduated to measure to the ten thousandth of an inch. His object was ''to furnish ordinary mechanics with an instrument which, while it afforded very accurate indications, was yet not very liable to be deranged by the rough handling of the workshop''.

The first documented development of handheld micrometer-screw [[caliper]]s was by [[Jean Laurent Palmer]] of [[Paris]] in 1848;<ref>[https://archive.org/details/englishandameri01roegoog <!-- quote=wickham roe 1916. --> Roe 1916:212.]</ref> the device is therefore often called ''palmer'' in French, ''tornillo de Palmer'' ("Palmer screw") in Spanish, and ''calibro Palmer'' ("Palmer caliper") in Italian. (Those languages also use the ''micrometer'' cognates: ''micromètre, micrómetro, micrometro''.) The micrometer caliper was introduced to the mass market in anglophone countries by [[Brown & Sharpe]] in 1867,<ref>[https://archive.org/details/englishandameri01roegoog <!-- quote=wickham roe 1916. --> Roe 1916:210-213, 215.]</ref> allowing the penetration of the instrument's use into the average machine shop. Brown & Sharpe were inspired by several earlier devices, one of them being Palmer's design. In 1888, [[Edward W. Morley]] added to the precision of micrometric measurements and proved their accuracy in a complex series of experiments.

The culture of [[toolroom]] accuracy and precision, which started with [[interchangeable parts|interchangeability]] pioneers including [[Jean-Baptiste Vaquette de Gribeauval|Gribeauval]], [[Louis de Tousard|Tousard]], [[Simeon North|North]], [[John H. Hall (soldier)|Hall]], [[Eli Whitney|Whitney]], and [[Samuel Colt|Colt]], and continued through leaders such as Maudslay, Palmer, [[Joseph Whitworth|Whitworth]], Brown, Sharpe, [[Francis A. Pratt|Pratt]], [[Amos Whitney|Whitney]], [[Henry M. Leland|Leland]], [[Carl Edvard Johansson|Johansson]], and others, grew during the [[Machine Age]] to become an important part of combining [[applied science]] with [[technology]]. Beginning in the early 20th century, one could no longer truly master [[tool and die maker|tool and die making]], [[machine tool]] building, or [[engineering]] without some knowledge of the science of metrology, as well as the sciences of chemistry and physics (for [[metallurgy]], [[kinematics]]/[[dynamics (mechanics)|dynamics]], and [[quality (business)|quality]]).