The exact same quote about being assigned a phone number at birth is used in the Mechanix Illustrated article Your Telephone Of Tomorrow (Sep, 1956). If you haven’t read that one, be sure to check it out, it pretty much predicts modern cell phones.

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Voices Across the Land

Night and day I keep singing—humming and thrumming:

It is love and war and money; it is the fighting and the tears, the work and want,

Death and laughter of men and women passing through me, carrier of your speech,

In the rain and the wet dripping, in the dawn and the shine drying,

A copper wire.

—Carl Sandburg

Under a Telephone Pole Screwdriver and splicing knife hanging from his belt, the telephone man keeps history’s happiest invention humming from coast to coast. He watches over 265 million miles of wire, waging war against storm, disaster and pesky animals that chew up or nest in his equipment. He hoists his lines over mountains with helicopters, shoots them across canyons with bow and arrow, strings them through dark conduits far beneath great cities. To every home and office, he gains ready entrance, exuding courtesy and helpfulness.
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The Brain Builders

“At last I came under a huge archway and beheld the Grand Lunar exalted on his throne in a blaze of incandescent blue . . . The quintessential brain looked very much like an opaque, featureless bladder with dim, undulating ghosts of convolutions writhing visibly within . . . Tiers of attendants were busy spraying that great brain with a cooling spray, and patting and sustaining it . . .”

—H. G. Wells,
The First Men in the Moon

Last week, in a pastel blue and grey room on the fifth floor of a St. Louis office building, the newest Wellsian brain in the earthly world was enthroned. This quintessential brain looked like nothing more than a collection of filing cases, stretching in a 60-ft. semicircle about the room. From within the grey metal cases came a faint humming sound; along the light-studded metallic face were scores of twinkling orange sparks, rippling like waves of thought. Read the rest of this entry »

meet a “flyer” with over 250,000,000 hours behind him!

“He’s” a new Lycoming air-cooled engine. He’s backed by Lycoming’s experience in creating and producing – 50,000 aircraft power plants . . . each with a flight-proved life expectancy of at least 5,000 hours.

You learn a lot about flying in 25 years . . . and 50,000 engines!
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Private “air truck” for Very Special Delivery
… powered by Lycoming

When deliveries are Rush with a capital “R” . . . today’s progressive businessman turns to a small company plane that relieves him of dependence on the schedules of commercial air-freight systems.

Take the case of the Capital City Printing Plate Company of Des Moines, Iowa . . . operator of a Piper Tri-Pacer powered by Lycoming. Gene C. Meston, General Manager, says: “We could not maintain our production and sales level without the Tri-Pacer. The airplane and the pilot do the work of two trucks and three drivers. We save a lot of expense and keep our customers well satisfied.”
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Stout “hearts” for new Navy sub killers
To power America’s first anti-submarine carrier aircraft that’s equipped for both search and attack, the U. S. Navy looks to Lycoming for air-cooled engines.

Patrolling endless seas in search of enemy subs . . . blasting them out of action with newest destruction devices . . . this Grumman S2F-1 “hunter-killer” depends on the stamina of twin Lycoming-built engines to keep it high and dry.
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Big “doings” in metal
Here are jusf four outstanding achievements of Lycoming’s precision production . . . samples that indicate how Lycoming solves metal-working problems for America’s industrial leaders and the Armed Forces.
Even these few samples demonstrate that Lycoming has the machines you can use—the skilled craftsmen you can use . . . the immense facilities you can use . . . the creative thinking you can use! For a more complete story on Lycoming, write for the illustrated booklet, “Let’s look at Lycoming.”
LYCOMING
AIR-COOLED ENGINES FOR AIRCRAFT AND INDUSTRIAL USES • PRECISION-AND-VOLUME MACHINE PARTS • GRAY-IRON CASTINGS • STEEL-PLATE FABRICATION

Strong “wrists” for America’s new hay balers

For sturdy, unfailing spur and bevel gears—”wrists” that drive the tying mechanism of its “one-man” hay baler— NEW IDEA looks to Lycoming for precision production.
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The hand that helps keep America ‘running’

For precision production so vital to products that contribute to America’s progress … leaders in industry look to the skilled hand of Lycoming.

This is the hand that machines vital components for GENERAL ELECTRIC J-47 jet engines . . . that turns out sturdy connecting rods for FORD trucks . . . that produces durable gears for NEW IDEA farm machinery . . . that makes rotor assemblies for PIASECKI helicopters . . . that creates air-cooled engines for executive aircraft such as AERO-COMMANDER, BEECH, GRUMMAN, RYAN and PIPER
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“Leg muscles” that cushion a jet’s landing

When the landing gear of an F-86 Sabrejet hits the runway at lightning speed, the shock is absorbed by hydraulic action within the tough, precision-made cylinder on each “leg.” To machine these 37-lb. cylinders to exact tolerances from solid 158-lb. steel forgings … to give them mirror-smooth inside finishes . . . Cleveland Pneumatic depends on Lycoming.
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How a jet engine runs on its “nerves”
Auxiliary “nerve center” of a jet’s engine, this complex gearbox transmits the power that runs oil and fuel pumps, generators, and other vital accessories. To produce this intricate unit for J-40 engines, Westinghouse looks to Lycoming for precision production.

From a jet’s mighty engine, these precision gears “take off” power and pass it along to vital accessory equipment at the specific rate required by each different unit. As many as 30 separate gears … as many as 2500 separate machining and assembly operations … go into this gearbox so essential to safe, efficient operation of a jet. And for this tremendously complex production, Westinghouse depends on Lycoming.

Lycoming stands ready to assist you, too. Whether you have “just an idea” that needs development, a problem in the blueprint stage, or a finished metal product that needs precise, speedy fabrication … you can depend on Lycoming’s long-tested ability to meet the most exacting and diverse industrial or military requirements. Whatever your problem—look to Lycoming!

Lycoming’s 2-1/2 million feet of floor space, its more than 6,000 machine tools, and its wealth of creative engineering ability stand ready to serve your needs.

AIR-COOLED ENGINES FOR AIRCRAFT AND INDUSTRIAL USES • PRECISION-AND-VOLUME MACHINE PARTS • GRAY-IRON CASTINGS • STEEL-PLATE FABRICATION
LOOK TO Lycoming
FOR RESEARCH FOR PRECISION PRODUCTION

How a helicopter hangs by its “elbows”

Straight up, straight down, forwards, backwards, or just hovering— the Piasecki “Work Horse” Helicopter’s peculiar flying maneuverability rests in its rotor assemblies. It is these flexible “elbows” that adjust the pitch of the ‘copter’s great blades. Each unit involves more than 625 separate parts. To machine and assemble them, Piasecki depends on Lycoming for precision production.
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It’s “twins” for Piper … by Lycoming
This is the Piper Apache… the all-new executive plane that brings new economy to the twin-engine field while maintaining high standards of safety and dependability.

It is powered by two proven Lycoming 150-h.p. air-cooled engines designed especially for the Apache. These power plants provide an improved horsepower-weight ratio, new compactness… and are so powerful that the Apache can safely fly and land with a full load on one engine alone.
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