From flint scrapers to wrenches in space

Larry's knife

In the beginning, prehistoric humans each made their own tools. If you needed a flint scraper to clean a hide, you made it yourself, chipping the edge to make it sharp. And then you used it, after cornering that wildebeest and bringing it down. You created and used your own tools, furthering the chief goal of survival by obtaining food and maintaining shelter and defending the homeland.

But over time, it became clear that one member of the clan was better at making scrapers and knives than anyone else. Let’s call him Larry. As the clan grew into a tribe, the chief appointed Larry to make things. Relieved of hunting duties, Larry churned out the best flint scrapers and knives in the valley. He traded them for food – the hunters and gatherers fed him in exchange for his sharp, sturdy tools. 

As families grew to clans, clans to tribes, and tribes to states, specialization became necessary and common. Hunters hunted. Fishermen fished. Farmers farmed. Weavers wove. Toolmakers made. And traders traded.

The basis for human production and commerce had been established.

The Deutsches Museum in Munich, Germany, chronicles this history of human activity in a wonderful series of exhibits. The evolution from early axes and bowed drills to steam powered lathes to the complex computer controlled milling machines of today is detailed. The exhibits make one thing clear – humans have excelled in learning how to make things with spectacular precision and in large quantities.

We have become exceedingly clever at removing material to achieve a desired result. This is what we are used to. It is called subtractive manufacturing. To make a wrench, we can start with a blank of steel, cut or drill out portions we don’t want, and finish the surfaces all to a precise plan. The wrench emerges from the block by the application of energy and human intelligence. In similar fashion, Larry’s scrapers emerged from chunks of flint. Michelangelo’s forms emerged from blocks of marble. And Toyota Camrys emerge from piles of raw materials.

The common thread in all this is the design, the plan, the vision, the details of the thing to be built.

We can extract out this essence of the thing, which describes it in precise detail, and represent it in a computer file. The dimensions, the angles, the faces, all precisely specified, the thing now exists, born from our imagination. All we need to do is manufacture it.

But instead of our historical approach of cutting and drilling and milling, we can now do something novel.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a technique for manufacturing things. Rather than subtractive, it is additive, with thin layers successively laid down in accordance with the plan, the 3D model, so that the thing slowly grows into existence. It seems like magic, but only because we are so accustomed to milling and drilling. But in a way, it is more natural. After all, cabbages and robins and human beings are all constructed according to a plan (their DNA) by addition, not subtraction, of materials.

While 3D printing is relatively new, it is rapidly gaining capability. Entrepreneurs at universities and start-ups are competing to develop improvements. An Australian company recently announced a new method they claim will be 25-100 times faster than existing technologies. This will be a race, and it will accelerate enormously in our lifetimes, driven by advancing computer power and materials science. It is human magic.

NASA is onboard.   In December, the agency emailed a wrench to the International Space Station. The design file of a ratchet wrench was transmitted to the station where it was downloaded to a 3D printer. Four hours later, the wrench emerged. Imagine the importance of this to a future moon base or Mars colony, where the delay of a resupply mission might be months or years.

NASA 3-D printed ratchet wrench

How about obtaining a replacement part for an old weed whacker that’s long out of production? No problem, Lowe’s Home Improvement has announced that they will soon install 3D printers in select stores. In addition to predefined design files, you will also be able to send your own computer models to Lowe’s for printing, and drop by later to pick up the finished product.

We are coming full circle. Soon we might each make our own stuff, if we so desire, unique to our individual wants and wishes. Larry would be pleased.  

Resolution for 2014 - Bring back the middle class!

Erie, PA, is nearly a perfect example. Situated on a rare natural harbor at the confluence of major railroad lines and highways, Erie grew to become a crown jewel in the armory of freedom. Foundries and metal working abounded. Huge factory buildings lined 12^th Street, employing tens of thousands of skilled and semi-skilled and even illiterate workers. During and immediately after World War II, this was a booming manufacturing economy.

But then in the 1970s, recession and the beginnings of globalization struck. Companies went bankrupt. Plants were relocated or closed. The noon whistle summoned far fewer workers to open their lunch buckets. It was the beginning of the squeeze on the middle class. Today, 12^th Street is lined with derelict factory buildings, windows broken and boarded up. This is what "the rust belt" means.

And the same is true of Lowell and Fall River and Pawtucket, where mill workers' jobs first moved south and then overseas. Attleboro, where jewelry making had supported many families for many years, has seen those jobs evaporate.

One would think that manufacturing is a game that we have lost, and we’d better get used to it.

But the truth is dramatically different. The United States is a huge contributor to the world’s manufacturing output. With nearly $2 trillion generated from manufacturing in 2011, the US equaled the total output of Germany, Italy, South Korea, Brazil, and Russia combined.

If this is the case, then, why is our middle class suffering? Why is our unemployment rate still over 7%?

The answer is that there is a huge skills gap for manufacturing jobs. This can be explained in part by the enormous productivity of the American worker. China requires nearly ten times the workers to generate the same manufacturing output as the US. Largely this is due to our manufacturing mix. They are making consumer electronics and hardware while we are making supercomputers and airliners.

But there is more. Even locally, in Erie PA and Attleboro, there are manufacturing and skilled trades jobs open that can’t be filled. Employers are looking for workers who can program a CNC machine, not just turn a wrench. Illiteracy, or worse, innumeracy, are huge disqualifications. So nationwide, millions of jobs go unfilled for want of qualified candidates. Students who fail to graduate high school can’t possibly compete for these jobs. And worse, many graduates lack the necessary skills that employers require.

When we see educational rankings by country, with the US listed 26^th in math, how can we expect to fuel our high tech manufacturing sector with qualified workers? It’s a serious problem when only 75% of American students graduate from high school, and many who do graduate are weak in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math). The needs of the future are clear – we will require more literate, STEM-qualified workers, not fewer.

So in this new year of 2014, what can we do? What can you, in particular, do? Here are a few suggestions.

1. Support your local literacy center. In Attleboro, it is the TLC (www.theliteracycenter.com). Literacy centers help retool adults who need a boost. Donate funds, volunteer as a tutor.
2. Support your local schools. But be demanding. What are they doing to reward and replicate the accomplishments of successful teachers? Are they cranking out graduates who need remedial training in the real world? Are local employers lining up at the door to snap up graduates?
3. Educate yourself and vote. Forget the party line. Vote for whomever explains how to improve the educational attainment of our youth. If that’s through the public schools, how?  Parochial or charter schools? Elevating the importance of trade schools? German-style apprenticeship programs?

If we want to see our middle class revitalized, the key is to rebuild our manufacturing and trades sectors. But to do that, we need to equip prospective workers with something of value. Employees must be able to fluently navigate the literacy and engineering and math requirements of the modern manufacturing job. And we can help them achieve that. 
 
The bottom line is that you can be an active part of the solution if you inform yourself and take action. This is a case where bottom-up social activism can be effective, but only if enough of us care. Make this a resolution for 2014.

Start with a call to your Literacy Center.

Happy New Year!