Handmade Fire Tools Still Necessary
Behind the false front of a centuryold frame building that haunts the center of the small central Wisconsin farming community of Iola, lies the machine shop of R. I. Anderson. And from here flows a small stream of products vitally needed in every town and city in the United States—parts for fire fighting equipment that must still be made by hand in small shops.
Mr. Anderson claims that his machine shop is but one of five places in the country that still hand-casts and hand-forges such items as hose plugs, spanner wrenches, reduction valves, couplings and ladder grips. In all, he maintains an inventory of some 83 different handmade items that automation has failed to conquer.
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