Milford chronicle., 1938-12-09
I'VE KNOW SO
LITTLE ABOUT
ANYTHING G.
"What Are We Going To
Do When Our Supply Of
Fuel Runs Out?"

In this age in which we call our
selves scientific we know very littl
about anything, says Charles !
Kettering, famous scientist and phil
osopher and inventor of the automo
bile self-sfarter, and identified witt
Delco light plants, in the early days
and with so many other importan
public benefits that he is the recog
nized wizard of the General Motors
organization of which company he il
vice-president, and in charge of re
search.
He recently analyzed "a scientific
fellow as a fellow who doesn't know
what he is working on and is afraid
to admit it" and he observes that
I'VE have a wonderful future ahead
of us in any line of business today
if we will just lift the lid and say
we know so little about anything. u
I'VE are just learning about steel,
we are just learning about rubber,
we are just learning about OIL" stat
ed Mr.. Kettering. Never were there
such opportunities for young men
and women of ability as there are
LOQdyy hC anu CApAdAhCu
that there never were such Oppor-
tunities to do things, "but you can't
do the same things we are doing
now; we have got to open up a new
field, and there are thousands of
new fields standing waiting"
I'VE have today a very unusual
condition in this country where we
have an excess of materials, excess
of money and excess of men," said
Kettering. (which means" he con-
tinued that we are technOlogically
behind and not technOlogically a.
head, and if you could get this, idea
that we know very much about any
thing out of our minds, and that the
whole thing is ahead of us, then l
think we would have a shortage of
labor in a short time. People right
away would say, what are you go
ing to do? don't know. Any place
you pick up you could start, because
We don't know very much about any
thing" He recalled that at gather
ing of engineers the question came
up: What are we going to do when
our supply of fuel runs Out?"
We'll, don't know" replied Ket-
tering, who continued. Maybe we
can run our cars by radio at that
time. Maybe all you will have to dc
is to have some central power sta
tions with big antennae and have a
little antenna like you have now for
radio receiving set, and you can
pick up the fuel power that way"
These engineers were uncOnvinced
and disagreed. But you can't do
that" they said.
But, how do we want them rum"
We'll" they said, I'VE run them
with gasoline" Mr.. Kettering asked.
What is gasolihe?" They decided 1t
was distilled from petroleum, and
Kettering added: What is petro-
leum?"
We'll. petroleum is something
that is in the earth; it has been
there for long while" But where
did it come FROM" Kettering de-
manded to know.
caying vegetation, and so forth and
so on"
where did that come from?" at
came from the growth of plants"
was the reply. "Well, how did the
plants grow?" From the rays of the
SUM-"
so we are running our automo-
biles now by radio, but all we need
to do is to take out a few Of the
steps in there and run them direct"
replied KetteriuS.
Think that over and you'll likely
agree that I'VE know very little
about ANYTHING" but that the real
opportunities that Ketterihg has
,poken of are about us. everywhere.