Daniel Immerwahr

So standards for lumber, cement, doors, steel, bed springs, mattresses, hospital linens, ball bearings, brake linings, and then like just things that you don't think need standards.

Do glass tumblers need to be standardized?

Not necessarily in their shape, but how many hours of boiling water can they withstand in order to be sold as glass tumblers?

Six is the answer.

Okay, there was an answer to that question.

What percentage of new rubber on their treads must tires have?

70%.

It's just like everything.

Every standard, every specification, that's the world that Herbert Hoover is trying to make.

You have to think of the standardization of the screw as a kind of mega standardization.

So if you're standardizing hospital linens, that's an issue for hospital linen producers.

If you're standardizing the screw, that's everyone.

Screws are in everything.

And even if you're producing an object that doesn't have screws in it, like hospital linens, you're doing it with a machine that requires screws.

The variation is not easily visible to the eye.

You wouldn't look at a 55 degree screw thread angle and think it looks hugely different from a 60 degree one.

The difference is everything.

The difference is absolutely everything.

Yeah, that's right.

And then you also think that like, basically, it's a whole world that has to be reconstituted.