John H. Hall (soldier) - Legacy

Legacy

Hall's cutting machines were designed for simplicity, to the point that “activity more necessary than judgment” and young boys or “common hands” could successfully run them. They both “functioned without any manual guidance but evidently ceased operation once the workpiece had been finished,” allowing the worker to operate several at once. Hall himself even claimed “one boy by the aid of these machines can perform more work than ten men with files, in the same time, and with greater accuracy”.

Hall's innovations in construction, tools, controls, stops, and gauges all were advances in milling iron and machine tools. Together with Simeon North and other Armorers, Hall contributed to the adoption of interchangeable parts and the American System as a whole.

Hall worked at Harper's Ferry until 1840; and died February 26, 1841, in Moberly, Missouri. The men who had learned Hall's methods of interchangeable parts while working at Harper's Ferry went on to apply those methods to production of shoes, watches, clocks, bicycles, clothing, rubber goods, and, later, automobiles. Hall's methods transformed the United States from an economy of workshop craftsmen to a nation of industrialized mass production.