My father, who's 85, had a life-long friend, "Bailey", the same age.
Until he retired, Bailey spent his working lifetime as a machinist with
a large petrochemical plant in Texas.

I am now 55. At LEAST 45 years ago, I remember Bailey telling the
story like this:

An American company creates "the world's smallest drill bit". They
send it off to Germany. The Germans send it back, drilled, threaded,
and capped, with a SET of drill bits inside.

Therefore, the story's been around for at least my lifetime. I'm
pretty sure, without being able to prove this, that it originated
during World War II. I know for a fact that Bailey was an infantryman
in Germany.

As a result of the above, my belief is that the story, in any of its
forms, is not really true. Rather, it is an anecdotal metaphor of
admiration for the engineering prowess of whatever country is being
admired. In Bailey's case this was obviously, Germany.

Anyway, that's my take on it. I.e., it's an urban myth with a purpose.
The purpose is to heap grudging praise on the engineering know-how of
the Germans, the Swiss, the Japanese, or whoever.

Vernon

Jim Stewart wrote:
Yesterday I was trying to recount a story I heard years
ago. It was something like... a US company makes an
incredibly small drill, drills a hole in something, sends
it to their Swiss/German counterparts to show it off,
Counterparts send the part back with the hole tapped and
a screw in it.

Does anyone know the story and is it true?