consultation where needed. And all were expected to do their share of teaching as well. It would be tricky maintaining the delicate balance between present needs and future goals. But to engineers who had been involved in research and development, and who had seen one generation of technology yield to another so rapidly in recent years, this atmosphere of tension, trade-offs, and optimizing choices would be familiar.
Finally, the subcommittee adopted a resolution proclaiming that the laboratories were to receive “every consideration” in the rationing of services and supplies. Tom Swift, who was named as one of the five directors of this enterprise, explained to Wil Hardy that this meant the R and D group would have to fight like tigers to get anything at all.
“That’s okay,” he said softly to his friend, with a wicked grin. “That’s what we’re used to.”
FROM THE JOURNAL OF WILSON HARDY, JR.
What a week that was! As the Joint Planning Subcommittee reached the afternoon of its seventh working day, Alf asked for a tally of the workforce allocations made to date. I ran the totals, and they showed that of the estimated 14,000 able-bodied workers, 12,900 had been assigned to specific tasks, leaving a balance of 1100.
At this point, Ichiro Nagasaka, whom I had come to like a lot, rose to address the meeting: “I’ve been thinking” he said, “and I conclude that we ought to have an iron and steel industry of at least a thousand individuals.” He bowed politely toward Alf, but smiled broadly at the same time. “It appears from the figures just reported that this will be possible.”
“Of course,” he continued, “I am not just thinking about getting iron out of the earth and using it to make steel. The idea is also to make things—first the hand tools we need so badly, and then machines, probably steam engines. And before we can start to make useful machines, we will have to make machines to make machines. There is much to be done and not a minute to lose. Can we meet tomorrow to discuss my ideas, and perhaps to endorse them?”
“Well, let’s wait just a minute, Ichiro,” Alf said, holding one hand forward like a policeman directing traffic. “I know that it looks as if there might be a thousand people available for your grand scheme, and I’d certainly like to hear more about how you would plan to use them. But I think we’ve reached a point where we have to stop for a breath and see where we are. We’ve been hard at work for a week, more or less with the bit in our teeth, and I think that it’s time for us to review our ideas with the Coordinating Committee that established us. They, in turn, will want to review them with the Governing Council and the Ulundi Indaba. I’d also like to let all of our Engineering Village people see what we’ve been up to. And I’m sure that our Ulundi friends will want to bring some of their folk into the loop as well.”
I could see that my father’s faith in Alf Richards as a leader—and as a politician—had not been misplaced.
“Let’s sum up what we’ve done,” he continued, “and for this purpose assume that you have your thousand people as requested. We’ll distribute a recap of our proposed labor allocations and ask for some feedback. I suggest that we allow five days for this process. In the meantime, work should proceed as if our recommendations have been approved. We can’t afford to miss a day of activity, and I’m sure that such changes as are suggested will be at the margins—a few extra workers on this project, a few less on that.”
Alf pretty much quelled further talk at that point, and the subcommittee gave me the assignment of preparing a summary schedule for distribution. So I recruited my Focus Group friends to help make duplicates—by hand, of course, in this post-Xerox world. Or this pre-Xerox world, as Tom Swift preferred to say.
“This is boring as hell,” Herb complained as we wrote feverishly in tight script (to save paper and to meet an impossible deadline). “Is this what old-time monks and scribes felt like?”
“Only partly,” Roxy put in. “They were celibate, remember.” This got us to laugh and loosen up a bit, and we bent to our task with renewed energy.
That evening, I posted copies of the annotated list on the several bulletin boards that served for the dissemination of news throughout Engineering Village. At the same time, copies were sent by Pony Express to Ulundi and beyond. The list is, of course, part of the official subcommittee minutes; but since it is such a key part of the story, I reproduce it here as part of my personal record:
January 26, 2010
Agriculture and animal husbandry.
Fishing 50.
Preservation of fish: drying and salting 25.
“The Scavengers”: collecting tools and scrap metal 100.
Construction: shelter, water supply and sanitation; roads, shops and factories 2000.
Architects and engineers, surveyors and helpers 100.
Artisans to work on the manufacture of pencils and pens 10.
Lumber and wood products:
harvesting, hand-hewing, and making charcoal; set up sawmills in conjunction with construction trades ; provide wood pulp for the manufacture of paper and as a raw material for future chemical industry 300.
Special task force for cultivation and use of bamboo 50.
Manufacture of brick 200.
Manufacture of clay tile products, including pipe, roof, and floor tiles, and containers for cooking and storage 100.
Special task force for development of fire brick and other refractory materials for use in furnaces 25.
Manufacture of cement 50.
Manufacture of glass 100.
Quarrying of limestone 100.
Quarrying of granite 100.
Mining; first priority, coal and iron 700.
Explosives 30.
Metallurgists, geologists, and mining engineers directing and assisting mining operations 50.
Iron and steel industry: starting with blacksmiths and primitive smelting facilities, evolving into the basic agent for industrialization, including development of machine tools and first steam engines 1,000.
Courier service, including Pony Express, for transmission of information 100.
Transporters of materials: the Teamsters 100.
Building of wagons and other vehicles 200.
Professionals and workers skilled in crafts of pioneer days, acting as consultants 50.
Manufacture of yarns, textiles, and clothing, done in “cottage industry” settings 200.
Mechanics to build and repair spinning wheels and looms 25.
Planners for textile industry of the future 25.
Other cottage industry manufactures:
shoes, leather and fur garments, hats, candles, and soap 50.
Food service for work sites and population centers where eating in a home setting is not feasible 200.
Schoolteachers 240.
Full-time government officials 200.
Police 100.
Medical 120.
Research and Development 200.
