Author and historian Ron Kley gave a lecture at the Maine State Museum last night on the subject of Mainer John Hall’s breech-loading rifle made of manufactured inter-changeable parts.

According to the Museum brief on the presentation, “Hall’s innovative methods were rapidly adopted by other manufacturers, becoming widely known and envied as the “American System of Manufacture,” the forerunner of mass production and standardization that has made a profusion of manufactured goods available at affordable prices in our own time.