Book signed by Arthur J. Cox

''Ferracute: The History of an American Enterprise,'' by Mr. Cox and Thomas Malim tell the story that Oberlin Smith (1840-1926) was as inspired as Ford was by the American ''emphasis on interchangeable parts.'' In 1863 he founded Ferracute, a major supplier to the Ford Motor Company, The book is also a candid 105-year history of a pioneering company, based in Bridgeton, where the employer and most of his employees lived. The company's history can be looked upon as a microcosm of the growth of America's industrial strength after the Civil War; it records paternalistic, preunion factory life, activities through two World Wars and an unforeseen farewell in 1968.

To say that the business of Ferracute was simply the manufacture of metalworking presses, Mr. Cox explains, is to miss the importance of the change that American industry underwent when it exchanged the talents and skills of generations of craftsmen for the uniformity and efficiency of mass production.

Thus, for the expanded manufacture of ever-diversifying goods -from cans to bicycles to automobiles - America's industries, beginning in the late 1800's, required specialized presses to cut and shape metals to specification.

The first Ferracute presses were bought by canneries in Bridgeton, but the company's award-winning exhibition at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 ''apparently,'' write the authors, ''gave the young company the impetus it needed. From then on . . . Ferracute was supplying the nation and to a growing extent, the world.'' 

The chapter ''Ferracute Goes to China'' offers a new perspective of the high level of southern New Jersey's diversified manufacturing and commercial activities during the 19th and most of the 20th century. In 1896, after shopping around, the Government of China decided to buy coin-making machines from this Bridgeton company. In accordance with the contract, Henry A. Janvier, a Ferracute engineer and local resident, was assigned ''to oversee setting up'' a Western (coin-making) factory in a remote Chinese city and stayed 10 months.

The book includes a selection of Janvier's often uninhibited letters and many of his photographs, recreating a picture of China just before the end of the century and recording as well a remarkable example of America's growing involvement in foreign markets.

''Within the next few years,'' write the authors, ''Ferracute set up complete mints in Potosi, Bolivia, and in Honan Province in China'' and ''sold coining presses to the Italian, Japanese and Indian governments, as well as the ancient mint at Lima, Peru.''

In June 1940, Ferracute employees could sense an even greater role of world importance. During World War II, when the English were evacuated through the northern French seaport of Dunkirk, the book recounts, ''they had to abandon their entire supply of small arms and ammunition before the advancing German army.''

''The only way to replace the ammunition was to get new presses,'' the book relates, and Ferracute eventually ''had the bulk of the business.''

George E. Bass, president of Ferracute after 1937, met with an Englishman to arrange for the purchase. The book records that he recalled, years later, being told ''that the future of England depended on us; the future of the U.S. depended on us; the future of the world depended on us, and we had to come through.''