Whitney wanted to speed up the making of guns by having machines manufacture each part. All machine-made parts would be alike—for example, one trigger would be identical to another. Identical parts would fit together with all other parts, and gunsmiths would not have to build each gun from scratch. Interchangeable parts Use the passage to answer the question. Based on this excerpt from the text, in what way would interchangeable parts best help businesses?

1. Parts made by machines could be made more cheaply.
2. Customers had to wait longer to obtain the new parts made by machines.
3. Machines could quickly manufacture parts people once made.
4. Businesses’ costs could increase to pay for the machinery.

1 answer

Based on the excerpt, the best answer is:

  1. Machines could quickly manufacture parts people once made.

This option aligns with the passage's emphasis on the efficiency of using machines to produce identical parts, which would speed up the manufacturing process.