Posted by apb in the tropical rainforest on Sunday, November 19, 2006 at 10:50PM :
In Reply to: A Little Story of Precision Measurement posted by Paul (in NY) on Saturday, November 18, 2006 at 5:23PM :
A little story from the A P Bloom archives:
My Grandfather, Leon A. Eben, was a civil enginer and head draftsman for a large boiler company before the Depression.
There was good-natured rivalry between the engineers who made the drawings and the machinists who would take the drawings and make them into machinery. Most of these guys were first and second generation Germans.
One day, an old Kraut machinist did the unthinkable, and walked into the huge room where my Grandfather and several dozen other white-collar guys were working at their drafting boards. He said "Vere is dis man Eben?"
My Grandfather said "I am Eben, what's wrong?"
The machinist walked over and deposited a handful of oily metal shavings right on top of the drawing on Eben's board.
"Dis is vhat you ask me to make, so I make it!" he says. "You wrote dis on the drawink." "Drill a half-inch hole in the quarter inch stock."
"So, dere, Mr. Eben, I don't know vhat it is, but dat is vhat you get vhen you are asking for dat."
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