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and engineers were studying the new designs. They were adapting the machines to the new designs. The foremen were being trained to handle these materials and engines. By the time this first operation was ready, the automobiles in process had passed the second point of their operation and that machinery was free for retooling.
The automobile factories even retooled to the point where they made guns, which people had said couldn't be done. Charles Kettering said, “Sure, it can be done.” The gun- Makers had said, “How can an automobile factory make a gun barrel? It's such a precision instrument.”
Kettering said, as calmly as possible, “Well, you know the pressure that's generated inside a piston tube is just as great as any pressure that was ever generated inside the barrel of a gun or a cannon. It's the same kind of thing. Tell me what the pressure is. We'll design the piston to carry it.”
As a matter of fact, they used much ofthe same machinery When we say “retooling”, a good deal of that was the reassembling of the tools. Of course, some plants had completely new machinery. The old was just pushed out. But in many cases they just adapted and revamped the same machinery. It was very brilliantly done.
To me that was one of the most astonishing, and what I call beautiful, things. It was one of those precision operations
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