Springfield Machine Tool Industry

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The Fabulous lilachine Tool Indurtry


'fOOt, is a pou'ered implement for l'{ACHlhi['] shaping marerials, usually memls. It is the one inanimate obiect which is capableof reproducing irsclf. I3y rvork equation the mechine tool is to the hand rtxll u'hat rhe hand rool \rrasto the bare hand. For the United States and the u'orld at large the mechine tcxrl hns become indispensableto mass production, ro the basic Amcrican cconomy of standard (interchangeable) parts and abuntlanceby rvay of thc assemblyline. This ycar's machine tool is onc of the first production stcps tou'artl that "stunningly new" automobile we u'ill bc sorely tcmpted to b*y t\yo or three ysars from llow, On thc samc principle, it is a prime prerequisite of industrial progressanclsurvival, since the machinetool not only shapesbut is the industrial future. It is the sinc (W nan o{ aircrafr, electronics and a thousand other manufacrurable u'ondcrs of next year and the years afrer. The machine rool is also the cradle of that still ill-defined and sornervhar trlurrl. rl'onde'rthing called automation. -l'his i^smorL: or less common knowledge. But many orher no lcss significant truths about machine tools are all roo limle knorvn. C)neis that rhe machine tool though born in r 7th Century F rance was raised in Vermont, specifically in lVindsor, and that one of the rnachine tool capimls of rhe u'orld stays in Vcrrnont, specifically in Springfield. The most truly remarkahrle thing about the Vermont born and kept machine tool industr)r, is that it redly isn't an industrlr at all. Rather it is an art, carried on in industrial bacl<groundsor studios, but most definitely an nrt, creativc, stubborn, cnorrnously personal and otherrvise pcculiarly Vermontish. Appropriatelv Springficld, the rnachinetool capital and ltountainheatl,is one of the most completely l/errnontesgue of all our ro\vns.SenarorRalph Ii. Flanders,careermachine tool u'orlier and invcntor of Springfield, describes his home to\r'n as an island of heavy indusry completely surrounded by cows. It is also a town surroundedand fortified by Grecn Mountains and magnificent stories, including revealing anccdores,One typifies machine tool making, Vermont sryle It happenedon ir March d*y in tgi+. The Great Depression \l'as still dccp and dark. -I'he machine tool shops of Spring{ieltl (Jones & Lamson Machine Compan}, the oldest; I"cllou's Gear Shaper cornpany; Bryant Chucking (irinder company; and the Loveioy Tool compailI, the rnal<c.rof small tools) \r'erc tooling a\f,'ay.Though a dollar srill looked es big as the moon all the Springfield shops \\'erc u'orl<ingand hoping. Ar licllou's' plant an cxceptionallydecisiveorder rvasin rhc u'orl<s; an oversize multiple gear shaper designedfor "ctrtting" the exacting transmission gear$ for the Caterpillar tractor. It had to be a big tool; the longer thl fesignersu'orkctl the bigger it grcr.v.The client \vas u'aidng prayerfully, u'atchingclosely and exhorting rvith emphasis.

t he lifâ‚Ź of a great company and the long (since r 896) inventive record of a u'orld-renorvned developer of machine tools were srvinging together. The Fellows men built the complex, oversize tool on '14/'. tirne. But after its triumphant compledon Edward (T.d) Miller, Fellolvs' veteran general managâ‚Źf, faced the shamering possibility that the very special machine tool had grown too big to move with available equipment. Miller spent the night praying for a w^y. Next morning on rising customafily early he sau' a sleet storrn in the processof senling over the Springfield countryside. Miller and his men lost no dme in rou$ing out and tire-chaining all available truclcs and tractors. They latched on the oversize machine tool, skidded it like a whopper rnaple log, cleared the factory bridge by barely an inch, got the precious monster to the railroad yard, where they were able to porver-iack it aboard a car. Caterpillar got irs all-necessary machine tool on time. Within minutes after the super gearshaperwas loaded, the sun came out and prompdy melted away the ice. Thc typical anecdote \vas completed. Ted Miller, r.r'ith at least gf patents m his credit, is ar present Vermont's mo$ prolific inventor. He was not bUtiged to invent the $tory of the ice srorrn; it is a matter of record. But Vermont's world-influencing am of machine tool making demandsunending inventions. It was born in r83j follorving Vermonter John Cooper's invendon of the rotative water pump. If grew rvith pellmell profusion of inventions, ranging from fiddlcs and guns to fointed dolls and ball-point pens.Jones & Lamson stabilized the artistic enrerpgise rvith a world-influencing and invefitive succession of pou'er lathes for u'orking metal. Machine tool making survives and progresses u'ith and because of an unending sequenceof me-morableand restoring inventions. James Hartness, who was Cleveland trained, upbuilder of Jones & Lamson and former governor of Vermont, wes among the inventive giants of thc artistic trade. He won his first petent at zo, his hundredth at Sg.Edwin Russell Fellows quit the parent lirm in r 896 and moved up ^ Springfield hill to found his own shop with and by virnre of a "revolutionary" invention for shaping geers by what amounts to a mechanizedsculptor's techniquc. It employed a single gear, hardened and ground with side clearance,to shapeby precision, sculpdng a like g*t. In a shop barely big enough to house a family-size dairy herd, Ed Fellows founded and built a uniqueninternationally influencing rnachine tool "studio," perPetuated by unending inventions and the peculiar, almost mystical mechanical talenrs of Vermont workers, who apParently learn ro differendate benveen right and lefthand threadings while peering through the slats of their cradles. Fellowso according to Ralph Flanders, invented an "original method of cuning the teeth of gears---. The successof the automobile dependsupon it,"

VERMONr Lift 3


Similarlv lVilliarn l,eroy Bryant, who succeededFellorvs as Jones & Lamson's chief tool designer, began invcnting inrernal grinding machinery. In ryog he left the parent firm and directly dor,r'nthe road from it founded rlre Brvant Chucking Grinder comPunft which keeps on inventins in Springfieltl. Senator Flanders became president of thc Bryant Company in Ig3+ soon after the death of \\iilliam L. lJryant. He held that position concurrendy u'ith rhc prcsirlency of Joncs& Lamson until 19+6,u'hen hc rc'signedto become \terrnont's iunior U.S. Senator. He is perhaps thc only legislator u'ith bemer than fo Patents trcaringhis name. \,lrilliam J. Bryant, the founder's son rvho succeeded F landers as president of the firm, is the originator of the now classicmaxim: "lf Hider had made an effort to get proper information regarding Russian machine tool Purchasesduring the latc t93o's, he rvould never have made thc error of undcrcstimatingRussianstrength." In Novcmber of last year Bryant mcrged u'ith the Ex(lell-O corporation of Detroit, manufacturers of a broad line of machine tools, cuffing tools and gauges,aircraft componentand dairy packagingand processingequipment. -l'hc ne\l, rclationship is expccted to stabilize Bryant's producrion antl also bring to Springfield the manufacture of neu' protluct$. Iirccl P. Lovcioy, also of thc illtrstriousJones & l,amson rrrtelage,quit thc parc,ntfirnr in rg tT to found Springfield's rclatetl, small tool plant. His "toe-hold" invendon \l'as rr unique mcthod of locking inscned cufter bladcs into I clrtrcr housine.This offered a cost saving, since only the 'I'ht

bladesneededreplacement.His and his firm's story is still anorher chronicle of additional inventions plus the derringdo to changethem into valid producers of industrial good. The more one smdies Springfield, \iermonr and its comparatively quiet shops, the more certain he becomes that the global story of \furmont rnachine tools is actually r Iive-generadon saga of individuals and human story, ^ u'ith great creative intelligencc, inventiveindividualists ness, quiet gumpdon and gargantuan stubbornness, plus the will to reach the u'orld if not in person then surely by invenrion. The saga of rhe machine tool is rooted in the evident proposidon that Vermont has had inventors as long as it has had people. The first U. S. patent, bearing thc very personal and oversize signature of President George Washington, was granted to Vermonter Samuel Hopkins for the making of pearl ash, for soap.The year tvas t7go. Thirty-seven years later L Vermonter named John Cooper \von U.S. Patent No. t log for his invcntion of a "Rorative Water Engine." Cooper, u'ho was a native of Guildhall and a mechanic, took his invention to Windsor "on the Connecticut meado!l,s," a river port with an iron mine, and therefore, a very early manufacmring town. So John Coopef, mechanic rurned inventor, headed for Windsor. He didn't quite get there. T'hree miles u'est of the village he stoppedat the u'orkshop of one Azabel Hubbard, u'ho opereted a general machinc shop. Cooper took u'orking spaceand there set about to change his patcnt to j realitye

frst turret lrttht. T"his nxd'rttllu me ry;howorkcd m it.


But Cooper had also invented a peculiar philosophy for the development of an invention. He proposed to manufacrure the forms or "molds" for its standardized metal parus.This tr1'asa radical reversal of precedences.In those rlmes manufacturers kept their molds as precious and sold machine parts in eccentric sizes as a meens for protecdng the proprietorship. The concept of inventing r machine, rhen invenring, producing and selling the tools for rnaking rhe specific parts of the firsmamed machine, was not only novel but \rras decidedly shocking. Cooper kept on his srubborn inventive way. In r 828 he obtained patents for "machines for devising machinesto make water pumps." \termonters Cooper and Hubbard were ingenius men, In r8 j5 they ioincd rvith Windsor neighbors to found the National Hydraulic company, r,r'hichbeganto manufacnre a hand-operated gear pumpr on a mass production basis and u'ith intcrchangeableparts. In r 8i9 the Messrs. Jones and Lamson ioinetl in person this unonhodox manufafiuring vcnture. Russell Jones had hept a cofton textile mill at Colrain, I,tass. In r8r4 Silas Lamson had left his hill farm to set up a hantllc "$'orks" at Shelburne Falls. Silas' six sons \l'cre helpersand paftners. All \l,enr u'ell u'ith both the f,amsons and neighbor Russell Jones until the Great Fl"qd of r 8i9 almost instantly put both firms out of business.Gamely the washedout neighbors moved "upriver" to Windsor, Vermont. -fhere they found thc hlational Hydraulic comPany changeclto the gunmaking firm of Robbins & Lawrence. T.he rcfirrbishcclfirm had dcvelopcd several distinguished

machine tools for grooving bullets, rifling gun barrels and casting standard parts. The first extensive output of fireafins began in r 8f r rvhen the Bridsh government placed an order for $z5,ooo worth of Robbins & Lawrence rnuskets ("t approximately $ roo apiece) plus a complement of machine tools for making fireanns. Bridsh soldiers used the Vermom-made muskets in the Crirnean War. The first lever-acdon rifle, the brilliant 5o-calibre Ball Repeatirg Carbine, was produced in the $ame shop, So wes the Winchester mr;r:zle-loader and the then famed I.{ew Haven rifle. In the late r 85o's Christian Sharpe brought his soon-to-be renowned Sharpe rifle to the same shop, which, in 186r becamethe E. G. Lamson company. Four of Silas Lamson's "rxr'^ys"had acquired control. The ingenius Azabel Hubbard became shop foreman. The plant trt'onfar-spread if fatal renown ashome of the "Sharpe shooter,'r perhaps the deadliest Civil War firearm. Vermont's gun rade quicklv faded with the close of the War. The Lamson brothers and their men mrned to makirg forestry tools such es sa\rys,cant hooks, stationary steam engines and sawmill boilers. Russell Jones in fi76 reioined his old neighbors in establishment of the Jones and Latnson Machine company. The colporation set a durable paffern for the Vermont u'hole; a paffern suessing machine tool industry as ^ pscerime manufacrures, local capital and local inventions. Like irs risk capiml the labor and inventive talent has rernained uniquely lcrcal. During r 888 the firm found itsclf moved dou'nriver and [coNrrNUED

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Erperhnrnwl turrct lathc,at Joncstb l-rtnson, nm by ruamationfrun gunchcdtrpa controlmit on thc lcft.


A NEW MACHII,{E

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is the trmtslatimt of obstroct thought into irrtricntely nrnchinrd rnetalparts. Iixecutivcsand engincersiron out derails. l)raftsmen converr formulac ro graplric plans. Shop chief scts up fabricarion u'irh hi.s foremcn. Mechanic checks u,ith lris forcrnirn rhc parts hc'll mal<c.


VERMONT Life 7




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[cox'nNuriD r.'RoMPAcE j.l uphill to the pcculiarly remote village of Springlield-six miles from the nearcst railroad iuncrion. But then as no\\r Springfield \r,as, even as its chamber of commerce states on its letterhead, "A beautiful torvn in the hills of the lllacl< River valley . . . combining the \iermont lifc rvith maior industry." Its earlier industries had been in marked contrast with those of neighborly Windsor. The usual sequenceof grist mills, blacksmithies and sau'mills had found a temporary climax in rhe developmcnt of one of the most charming industries ever to grace l\,lerv linglancl. Joel lillis had bcgun manufacturing baskcs, and prescnrly, rvith the help of his .sonsand village neighbors he cxpandetl rhe baskct r,vorks to include a long and highly original list of u'hat he termed "children's happiness makers." During the r 85o's rhe outputs were wagonfreiglrted to thc Connecticut River for loading on sourhbound bargcs,and presenrly on Boston & Maine rail cars. In time crf,ted shiprnents of hoops and other roys from "Santa Claus's liinest Work Shop" were being exported by sailing ships to thc Pacific West and by sream-sailers to [.uropc. "Remotc Springfield" early proved irself enFhing but rcrnote in its ability to produce original g*ds and ideas. During r 887 a group of entcrprising hillsiders invited the machinc u'orks to rnove to Springfield, and ro that end ro

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bought a control- in its o\ynership. So Jones & l.amson movecl. Early in r 88g the firm acquired a superintendent u'ho \vas a peculiar and rvondrous mixrure of mechanic, aviadon enthusiast (trvo decades before Kitty Hau'k), mcchanical engineer, a$tronomer, politician and, above all else, artistic inventor. Promprly James Ffarmess became the inventive helmsmen for Jones & Lamson, for Springfield and the machine tool industrlr xs it rvas presently ro rnaterielize. Harrness arrived at the shop u'ith drau'ings and a perenr application for a flat turret lathe, which was presenrly to bear his name and put his firm on the road ro success.The first fifteen of the lathes were hard to sell, Once sold rhey dominated the firm's output for a dozen years, pur Springfield on the map a$ a machine tool capital, and causedthe original shop site to be renamedthe Valley of Precision. The Harmess lathe \r'as basedon a ne\trrturning principle in meml bar wsrk. In production it soon proved rhe equivalent of three or four of the then-prevalcnr engine larhes. Ji* Harmess shifted quickly ro inventivc improvemenrs. Many of these shocked and infuriated the mechanical u'orld, only to r,vin enthusiastic accepranceu'ithin a feu' months or years. In r 896, when the Springfield Elecric Railroad was built along the meandering river to link the neu/ machine tool capital with a mainline railroad and the world ar large, Hartness had won wide recognirion as one of the grear men of his industry. Most professionalsregard him wlth the greatestof all the machinetool inventors. In this group -are Edwin Fellows of Springfield, James Gleason of Cincinnati and Charles Norton of Worcesrcr. But the place of Jim Flarrness was greater even than rhc sum of his invendons or the brilliant growth record of his firm. He recognized machine tool making as an arr. In addition to rnaking himself one of its most comperenr arrisrs, he becamethe preceptor ofmany other ardsts rvhosevaricd and recurrent talents have causedSpringfield, Vermonr ro thrive and endure as rhe machine rool capital. Windsor, binhplace of the machine tool industry, srill holds an active place in the international mararhon of porvered machines. Two able Vermonrers have raken twenry-year nuns at keeping.the cradle of machine rools a prductive stronghold. The first was Frank Lyman Cone, farm born and raised in lVeathersfield, midway between Vermonr's rwo machine tool centers" He came to work in a railroad shop at Windsor, quit that iob to become a cerpenrer and handyman for the Windsor Machine Companfr the successorto rhe original Jones & Lamson. At rhe rurn of the cenrury the srruggling firm had gro\r'n $trong and prosperous with a versadle plvered lathe called rhe single spindle auromatic. In tgr6 Flandyman Frank C,one,then 48n gambled his life's savings to found his olvn machine tool companl,


lathe made possible, an'elecronically-controllecl super tur* ret lathe is now at work, linked to photo-elecric devices rvhich make possible the automatic regulation of size conrrol. Elecrronically-controlled drill press positioning tables provide information, from blueprint to machine, in the form of a punched tape. In another sector of the $ame shop other workmen asbars. five-machine baneries rvhich perform all turning semble With that and subsequentinventions he put to work the on a rear axle pinion for next year's cars. Each operations need fine old Yankee adage: "Find out what the customers machines picks up a blank forging at one end of battery manularge and produce it." He began by selecting rwelve a completely rurned stem pinion at the other and delivers and ball bearings facrurers in the fields of auto making, In another Springfield shop eighteen t+ seconds. every deidentifying, electrical supplies, and very Personally astute electronic controls shape and with units correlared (also guTanteeing) signing, manufacturing and installing At another plant L great new gears. complete precision Meanwhile required. machine tools which the big plants rotating devices, inelectro-mechanical of congregation as mechanics Cone conrinued to ernploy fcllow Vermonters for comPuters, files" "disc and drums" "memory cluding and to think out his ou'n "pattems." are apPearlng. an overseemed rvhat against dcfense During r 9 j j as a All these are listable as "normal crop" in the machine po\lrering depression,Cone designedand began producing shopsof Springfield. But neither automation, atom nor tool lvas then quite r'vhich atic," Autom his "flight-Spindlc eye can alter the reality that machine tool making electric As tool' machine most rvorld's productive probably the and human as Vermont itself. Men like James is as markets, personal American finding bcgan machinc" itr* "super for a longlived generation served as the who Hartness, first Vermont's became associates his and F'rank Cone of machine tool making, demonstrate the helmsman great abroad. manufacture establish to firm machine tool of the machine tool art. ways human essential son-in-law, his in 1936, death Frank Cone's Follorving also a keen and at times very serious here senses One suc\Iermonter' devoted a by then Chaplin, Henry P. industrial and farflung imponance of of the appreciation impresas continues Henry Chaplin as ceeded president. Gear-making and creations. tool machine Springfield's Vermont plant, a distinctively of head Vermontish sively many decisive Prothe are among tools machine related in VerexcePt everywhere almost its products sells rvhich mont. Yet \,'ermont acccnts, stubbornness in perfecting ducts rvhich these shops continue to supply to great inu,ork, antl perpetuation of ncighborlinesscondnue to Pre- dustries of the United States and a dozen other nations. vail. The great maioriry of Cone.u'orkers, normally about Though products and inventions continue to muftiply, r 2oo, are netive or klngtime Vermonters. Many conrinue gears remain Springfield's foremost paid contribution to the auto industry, rvhich remains the number-one custo live on farms. The standby products currently include 6 r rnodels of tomer. Ford and Cadillac were among the first to oPen rhe super-auromaticlathcs, which in telrns of versatility and unir producrivity remain distinguishedleadersin autoThe frst Brydnt internnl grinder-IgCIg. matic f'abricationof rnetal parts; rnultiple-spindle chucks; and a ncw and fully automatic copying lathe, one of the fastest at u'ork anyu'here in the u'orld. Indexing mechanisms, crosslides, stock reels and suPer-accuratervork spindles are among the conrinuing outputs of the linlepublicized Cone industries. Cone is sometimes described as the shop for old men u'ith new ideas. Thc latter pour fonh rvith amazing continuousness.Along u'ith youngsters in their twenties, the present u'ork roster at Cone includes many Past 65, in most organizations the cornpulsory retirement age. Cone spurns compulsory retirement, continues to employ oldrimers in their 8o's. But thc firm's ideas remain almost astonishingly young. Its products are as new as tornorro\l"

having already designedhis own version of a single spindle metal lathe. During ryr7 rvhile serving as president, secrerary-treasurer, designer, office and sales manager of his own firm, Frank Cone found time to design and place in manufacture a four-spindle machine tool capable of unprecedented u'ork rvirh large diameter metal mbing and

In e machine tool shop of Springfield inventive workmen are perfecting full automation of precision grinding machines.In the same shop u'hich the Haffness flat turret

VERMONT

Life

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llttssell Prrter opmntlng one of tlrc carlicst arc Imtp (mnporntors.

trade lines to Springfield. After half a century both remain important customers. Meanu'hile meny orher automakers have ioined'in supplying orders for as much as 8o per cent of Vermont's entire output of machine tools. The automodve percentage is curently around 4o; for brief intervals it has declined to as little as zo. The dollar value remains sffong even though aircraftn elecronics and a score of other great industries turn to the shops of Springfield for machine tools and other mechanical merchandises. As the yeers pass, Vermont's island of heavy industry causesmore and more different things to run. As already suggested, Windsor, Vermont gained historic significancemore than a centuty ago rvhen its pioneer_ machinetool shop suppliqd$e British rvith riftes and tools for making them. Springfield began gaining stature as an internationalto\rynduring World War I. In the rgzo's its

rnultiple spindle bcr nutom,rtic-rgr8. Cone's -first

shops remrned to products for peace. But during the querulous and garrulous r93o's Springfield's European rade picked up again, and its machine tools began taking crucial roles in the worldshaking deeds of Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia. During the late r93o's the {,J.S.S"R.placed orders and received machine tools which 'War II. had a great deal to do with the outcome of World Springfield's machine tools are today making contributions to India es another indusrial power, Meanrvhile, as machine tools keep opening the wey for onetime primitive nations in both hemispheres,the shops of Springfield keep opening the way for tools of the future. When Hider's first Panzer divisions rolled into Poland, the Springfield machine tool plants rvere employing about 7jo men. Four years later the rosters were above *rjoo, outputs rvere increased more than proponionately, and even the most expeft forecasmof production limits were being exceeded, The same litde-publicized plants which pt*iously hacl built their own markets and exported their machine tools to Germany, Russia, Italy, Japan, Britain and Australia, turned unanimously to "tooling" for LJ. S. victory. The rurning was evident more than a.yezr before Pearl Harbor. In ry+z Springfield's shops began shaping the power tools which permined auto assembly lines to change to tank assembly lines; washing machine factorie$ to shell famories, and so on; also supplemendng rnachine tool outputs with other strategic goods. This changed Springfield into one of the world's busiest villages. Yet the machine tool workers remained preponderantly local. A great many of them condnued living in country homes throughout the area, tending gardens and family-sized farms on the side. The global war saw Vermont's island of heavy industry deluged rvith memorable firsts. All of the tourn's machine tool shops were honored wirh both A*y and Navy E's for excellence in war efforts, Singly or together the busy machine tool shops developed parts for the first radar interceptor sets, produced sixteen of the subassembliesfor the historic Bzg bomber, developedhydraulic pumps vital


F-. L. COND ro aviation, contributed basically to the mass production of scores of other war machines, such a$ bombsites and acrial cameras.The Korean tragedy marked still another cra of deft adaptation to the needs of rvar, u'hich have cnduretl as the incvitable needsof deferlse, -fhc climaxing test of war lvas successfultransition to 'fhe machinetool shopsof Springfield and Windsor pcace. again passedrhc tcst. tiighteen years after Roosevelt's first riRED P. I.OVEJOY proclamation of narional cmergenc/, Springfield's shops \r'ere cmploving morc men than at any period of lVorld \{rar I I, u'hile (irne of Windsor throve at leastas strongly. [n somc recent years theseshops,in a town of r orooohave done a $7o million business.Used to cyclical businessconP. CHTIPLIN IIENRY tlirions and preparedfor thcm, the current recessioncauscs no panic. i\'{achinc tool rvorkers, as they have before in perriodsof short u'nrk u'eelcs,havc rurned to part-timc iobs end f'arming. Thev are u'aiting until demands for ne\,v protlucts bring nc\v ordcrs, ts they have and rvill again. As the phascs of automarion continue gaining shape, scopc and variety it u'ould be very easy for a reporter to tlcscribc our machine tool shops as robot's playgrounds. R ALPH E. F LAN D E R S But it u'oultl bc superficial reporting. F-or the men rvho as l<nou'machine tools tlcst tend to scoff the robot legend such. J'hcv foin in the experiencedconviction that even as rhc precision and tcchnical competenceof machinetools incrcasc, their dependenceon manual and mental skills, and thc individual aftistry of inventors, designers and ica is gaining faster industrially than any other entire continent. buildc'rs,continucsttr grorv. Canada helps brighten the northern horizon. \dlest Germachine nrost and super-modern brilliant Not cvcn thc rnanyr parricularly in areas u,here U.S. int'esrments are fabrirvell they Florvever intcllectually. rools can crearc keeps gaining in machine tool imports. Italy is the strong, do that; have to litcrally inveof.rPeople thcy cannot cirtcr individual artists u,ho must conceive and construct crea- fastest gaining of Europe's industrial nations, and doing rivclv, first lr)' thcmsclves,then in coordination u'ith the u'ell by Springfield also are Belgium, Sn'itzerland and the u'orli antl skills of other giftcd craftsmen.A machinetool Netherlands. But {J.S. industries stay the really decisive customers. designertold me this; " 'Auromation' is a clumsy word. It somehou' carries the idea of independencefrorn people From pcn makers to devisers of intercontinental rockem u'hcn actually it involves greater dependenceon people. they are requiring and buying more and better machine Our customersare mostly an follo\vers-mechanical arts, tools. Even more impressively, fJ.S. industries are planif you want to call them that. They see these compara- ning and purchasing primarily for peaceful modves. The machine tool shops here in Springfield are exceptivcly limle shopshcre in Springfield as idea shopsand art a reporter's donally friendly and confiding. They srudios. What's more they seecorrectly." ^re heaven and at the same time his nightmare.All the shops l,ike cirrloadingsancl steel output, machine tools are supply revealing copf, but ir pours and piles bef,oreone rrustcd busincssbarometcrs-thc farthest predicting of all. like a barrelful of diamonds. f-here are at lgast tlr'o consolations. -I'hc first is that Becauseof nationalismin trade policies, the machinetool tnromcter is presently somewhat vague in the United thcre isn't room enough in one magar.inearricle or, indeed, one book to list even telephone directory style the names Kingdom, F rance and other parts of Western Europe. \"Vcno longer sell machine tools to Soviet Russia or to of all the men, \vomen, u'orks and inventions rvhich derrny of thc satellites,including Red China. Currendy Ver- mand and deservelisdng. The positive consolarion is that mont machine tool makers do not exporr to any Asian thc machine tool shops of Springfield kccp on leading u'ith nrainlandnation cxcept India. They export to Japan,u'hich inventive talent, nerv ideas and a peculiar )tet u'ondrous appcarsto gain steadily as the leading industrial pou'er of art which cannot die so long as our nation lives. T he same thc F ar lrast. Australia remains an occasional but good holds for the superbly lbrmontish torvn of Springfield, cusromer. As gaugedtlv machine tool order.sSouth Amer- u'here yesterdey continuesto touch hands u'ith tomorro\\'.


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