I think, it shows a recognition thatnthings are now serious; “that labournshould cease” is not a wholly unthinkablenprospect.nWe had no such thing as printednnewspapers in those days to spreadnrumours and reports of things, and tonimprove them by the invention ofnmen. . . . Hence it was that thenrumour died off again, and peoplenbegan to forget it, as a thing we werenvery little concerned in, and that wenhoped was not true … till two menn. . . died of the plague.n—DefoenFew in number are new machine toolsnwithout a CRT—cathode-ray tube—display:nsomething that resembles a TVnscreen. To use equipped machines, datanare entered through an alphanumericnkeyboard. The whole setup is rather likena sophisticated cash register innMcDonald’s, and, indeed, it may be annexample of what is termed “technologyntransfer” by proponents of space exploration.nThe reason behind the use of thenCRT display is that the machines utilizensome form of computer control. SuchnJustice in AmericanUnder a lovingly wistful (as well asnthoroughly misleading, unfortunately)ntitle—“The Last Liberals: Legal AidnUnder Seige”—New York magazine,nthe journal of Gucci ideas, bewails thenhard times that have befallen the LegalnAid Society. That society is the singlenlargest ally of crime in America: its highlynskilled, fanatically liberal lawyersn”represented 159,614 criminal defendants,”nlast year—for free, no charge,njust in the name of compassion for then”needy” who have been turned intonbeasts by Ametica’s oppressiveness. Ofncourse, once they are freed from the jawsnof the police and the bestial judiciary, thenLAS’s young clients eagerly return to thenstreets to rape, mug, murder, etc..nassured that if they are apprehended, anothetnyoung, ferociously liberal lawyernwill be at their service, gratis. Hete is hovsnone James Vinci, “the head of the .socie-ncontrol for machine tools was developednat M.I.T. during the late 40’s and earlyn50’s; by 1955 numerical control was ancommercial product. The 70’s saw computernnumerical control as the advancednbut available control scheme. An examinationnof the trade press from 1952 to thenpresent shows that editors thought andnthink the controls marvelous and essentialndevelopments; few issues oi AmericannMachine magazine—the New YorknTimes of metalworking—have appearednwithout one type of control obvious or atnleast lurking in its pages in the past 30nyears. However, buyers and users ofnmachine tools have traditionally beennmore conservative than the articlenwriters; they tended to like things thatnthey could understand—gears rathernthan sophisticated Inductosyn devices.nNames from textbooks began to appearnin print: Descartes’s coordinate system,nthe PASCAL computer language. Expertsnand academicians touted the controlsnas necessary for any contemporarynshop or factory, for without them, thencompanies couldn’t be competitive withnshops that were so equipped. Few lis-ni)”^ Matih;man (.rimitial offjie,” de-n^iiilx’s hi.’s n)i»iuii:nI’lii iln- !;IIIMI L;I] .ind ilii- D.A i-. ihili.nlnj;i]. .•^ L’nixl mi^. »L- u-.-i lllfn•iVMllIl.nTli;a is (he j^i’-i ut Legal .id .”^oiieiv snpliiloMipliy .]iid eiliiis – ii’-ting thisy>iem;nno one Ls inierciied in .simpleniii’iTiie any inngir. We live in liberalnAinerii-.i. vvlu-re boih rlie |>hra.’:eand thennoiion ut ihe wage.’- ol xiii have hiennuMiuTiiUil in I he name of liberalnidciilisin. Ideali’imi’ Would thi’. suggc.Mndial Mr. ‘inii and his moral aberraiionisi.snwork lor rlie love “(a sacred vocur ion?nI low naic. In I’JHl rhe legal Aid Societynpumped our ol” the L’.S. governmentn(lonsiTvaiivegovernmeni, hee. hee . . .)nS2’J.f” millii)n. .Money ihat belongs tonyou. to me. and lo the laxpayirig victimsnof rhe rapists, muggers, and murderersnwho shake hands with rhe triumphantnlaw vers.nnntened. During the 60’s industrial robotsnappeared. Once again, there was hail innprint, neglect in practice. In the past fewnyears people began paying attention tonthe ubiquitous Japanese autos on then7jnerican roads. Soon, large numbers ofnJapanese machines, complete withnCRT’s and robot loading arms, emergednin the market with low prices and quickndeliveries. They proved to be as popularnas the Toyotas and Hondas. Then peoplenbegan reading about Japanese productivity;nthey knew firsthand about itsnquality. The article writers weren’t makingnthe story up. It became known thatnthe Japanese were using advanced equipment—CNCnmachine tools, robots, etc.n—to build cars, cameras, digital watches,nand the rest. Statistics showed thatnAmerican manufacturers, in large part,nwere using obsolete machines. It’s notnthat state-of-the-art equipment wasn’tnavailable—American ingenuity was responsiblenfor numerical control andnrobots—it just wasn’t used. Somenpointed to the fact that the Japanesengoverrunent supports its manufacturersnand that the U.S. government, with itsnOSHA and EPA, is at odds with it. But atnbottom, I think, it’s American stubbornnessnand skepticism that prevented use ofnup-to-date equipment and practices.nForeign competition didn’t lessen inntime, it increased. So now, it seems,neveryone wants a video-displayequippednmachine in this Age of Atari.nPaying for it is anothet thing.nHowever, not all of the TV-typenscreens in the exhibition halls were onnmachine tools. There were 30 freestandingnscreens in various groupings, whichncomprised the access ports to the “ElectronicnExhibitor’s Directory Service.” Itnwas childishly simple: all one had tondo to find the name of, say, millingmachinenexhibits or the location of thenrestrooms was to point at a message displayednon the screen and lightly touchnthe glass surface. Within seconds, the requiredninformation could be obtainednvia glowing green images. It was quitenlike the text shown on the screen of anword processor. A friend who does pub-nDecember 198Sn