Several decades ago I went to Africa for a few months to help straighten out
some survey problems left by some Frenchmen who had been fired. On the
plane I met a millwright traveling to the same job for the same reason. I
told him about all the precision equipment that I am taking with me
(theodolite reading to one second of arc) etc. He kept quiet about his
equipment.

After a few days of work I realized that he is working with layout equipment
that far surpasses anything that I had seen or imagined. He would do setups
with mirrors, micrometers, collimators etc. that would align shafts of
equipment that were 30 to 50 feet apart. He would send a light beam around
a 40ft. x 60 ft. rectangle (mirrors) and align equipment to within a
thousandth of an inch at those distances. Needless to say, had I used
surveying techniques my accumulated errors in four setups would have
exceeded (worsened) his by a factor of 20, or so. I was very impressed. He
would explain to me that in a conveyor line (heavy multi-ton aluminum
ingots) one roller out of alignment by a mere few thousandths of an inch
would mean bearing life cut in half, etc.

As mentioned in the other posts he was a jack of all trades. While I was
pretty impressed at my ability to lay out column lines to within an eight of
an inch at distances of hundreds of feet, his everyday accuracy way exceeded
what I could do with my equipment and knowledge.

Ivan Vegvary
"AL" wrote in message
...
Earlier this evening, I saw a bumper stick which said "What the hell is a
millwright?", displayed prominently under the center brake light of a late
model Dodge Neon. Does anyone know what it means? I can't figure it out.