[net.nlang] GO, NO GO

riks@teklds.UUCP (Rik Smoody) (05/18/85)

> >	BTW, anyone want to give a history on "no go", which seems to be
> >orphaned in this world of the Space Age?
> I seem to recall from somewhere that decision points were known as "GO, NO GO"
> points.  I think it may have come from some text on computer algorithms,
> but I'm not sure, it could also be from the space agency.

I suspect it's nothing so high-tech as that: suppose you are making
mechanical parts with a tolerance range.  Instead of measuring
carefully with a micrometer, and comparing the value to the
upper and lower limits, you create a "fixture" with
two gaps: one is at the lower limit, one at the upper.
Now your part should GO through the big hole, but not (NO GO)
through the small hole.  You spend a bit of time setting and
callibrating your jig, but it saves a bit of time for each of
thousands of parts.
    I heard of these back in high-school shop classes.

Rik Smoody		- they disclaim me around here, too.
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wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (05/21/85)

>> >	BTW, anyone want to give a history on "no go", which seems to be
>> >orphaned in this world of the Space Age?
>> ... decision points were known as "GO, NO GO"
>> points.  I think it may have come from some text on computer algorithms,
>> but I'm not sure, it could also be from the space agency.
>I suspect it's nothing so high-tech as that: suppose you are making
>mechanical parts with a tolerance range.

GO/NO-GO gauges are standard tools in gunsmithing, to check the headspacing of 
rifle chambers; I've seen references to such gauges in texts from the WW I
era and earlier. I suspect this was NOT the origin of the term, but that it
was borrowed from then-standard machinists' terminology. So I'd put the origin
of the term somewhere prior to 1900. Maybe you can find an old engineering
reference work that will cite such usage?