Unfinished Rainbows (1942)

but here's a bonified order for 138 mil of wire we have the metal but no wire mail that's why we come to you all we want to do is to supply the aluminum and hire you to make the wire not interested what you made the sample for just the same I'm not making the wire why should we make wire for you to sell in competition to us you sold it now you make it well I guess there's only one answer to that we'll have to make it and so it happened when no one else would make their wire there was nothing left but to buy their own wire Mill and make it themselves later they stranded aluminum wire around a steel wire core to increase the strength of the conductor and there's something that often happens aluminum teams up with another metal to use the best qualities of each and expand the use of both today more than a million miles of aluminum cable span America its lightness permits longer stretches between towers and saves hundreds of thousands of dollars in costly erection but Professor yes that's all very well for aluminum but what about copper aluminum seems to have squeeze copper right out of the wire business not a bit of it cheap aluminum power lines made possible the electrification of Rural America think of all the additional homes and Farms that had to be wired more Copper House wiring than ever and more electrical fixtures and equipment everybody gets a break it's true that the history of aluminum is the story of substitution but that substitution always means more use for the other metals as well I see finishing more rainbows right then one day an aluminum representative called on a manufacturer of office furniture you're barking up the wrong tree this time Stevens but think how much lighter aluminum would be you can weld it no joints to work loose maybe so but we're not going to do the experimenting I happen to know no other furniture company will either well there's one company that'll do it if it has to who's that the aluminum company but you've never made any furniture it's more than bending a little Hollow tubing why you have to be a specialist in upholstery in leather and hair and paint be careful you don't bite off more than you can chew that's why I wish you were doing it you already know how but if you won't I guess we'll just have to go ahead and bite well good luck thank [Music] you well what do you think of the aluminum furniture business by this time oh we're doing all right I'll say you are I hear you're selling a million dollars worth a year or more more ouch listen Stevens I sent for you to find out if you'd still sell us aluminum and let us in on it too sure why not our main object in life is to make and sell aluminum not furniture and that's how aluminum furniture got started looks like the aluminum people went out every time oh no not by a jug fo more than once they work on a plan for years only to have it take a nose dive they just learn to take the bidder with a site and keep on plugging for instance look what happened in transportation nice looking cars too bad they're not aluminum yeah too bad for you too bad for us both you know how much it would cost us to build a train of aluminum yes do you know how much you'd save by it you'd reduce the dead weight by at least 25% right off the bat that means less power for operation one engine instead of two on some runs always more payload for the same power faster starts quicker starts greater safety less maintenance of cars and less wear and tear on Rails and Road bed you don't CH you'd save the extra cost in power and Maintenance of Way alone in a few years yeah but where would we get an 80ft channel for the Center Hill there's no aluminum channel that size M you know that no no Mill to make them uh can you supply them I'll see you later all right but what about the 80ft channels they'll take a whole new Mill let it run into millions and you haven't any Assurance we'd get a single order even if we did build a mill we have the assurance that we'll never get an order if we don't after the licking we took an automobile bodies now you want to build railroad cars what do you think Jack it's true we lost out on automobile bodies just at a time when they were a main stay of our business drawn steel bodies came along and were much cheaper but don't forget that's true in pleasure cars where low first cost is a big thing in the commercial field like buses and trucks where they are operated to make money where payload and service count we're in stronger than ever yeah the railroad field is our next logical move we've studied it from every angle and we're sure of course it'll cost plenty that's true of every forward step in this business I say let's go to the management and fight for it and so without an order for a single foot without even a market they went ahead and built the mill anyway to roll those large aluminum beams only a company with the vision would dare to do a thing like that only a company of willing and able resources could do it [Music] before the mill was finished even before they'd sold a single beam they had the grit to start running this full page ad in National magazines one of these days you will ride on an aluminum train talk about the courage of your convictions you really mean that we do here are the specifications on our new aluminum channels as strong as steel and half the wait there's one other ingredient here you haven't mentioned what's that nerve yes we carry that in stock [Music] too yes they're an adventurous lot these men of aluminum ready to tackle anything from wire 125th the thick of a human hair so fine that you couldn't see it without that microscope to a steam shovel Dipper big enough to scoop up 32 cubic yards at one bite that's more than enough to fill six 5ton trucks and deposited on top of a six-story building half a block down the street and the beauty of it is every last worker of the hundreds of thousands now engaged in the far-flung aluminum industry is holding down a job that never even exists Ed 50 years ago and wouldn't exist today were it not for aluminum and think of all the things you wouldn't have were it not for aluminum so because one young man met the challenge in his day your life and the lives of these men are all bound together with invisible but inextricable ties ties of aluminum [Music] la [Music] la [Music] la [Music]