Laurel outlook., 1950-07-12
Men Use Barn
And Good Idea.
To Escape City

QUAKERTOWN - Take a few
simple machines from a home work
shop, mix well with Imagination anc
at least n sound idea. put together
In a COW barn and allow to fermen'
for two years. The result will be def.
mite proof that opportunity knocks
as insistently in the smallest towns
as the largest cities.
At least, two men who turned their
backs on big cities found that was
so in Quakertown. George L. Set
man was a Philadelphia sales execu-
tive who decided the small town Of
fered the p~leasantest living. Harold
R. Johnson, a teacher Of aeronautics
and an aircraft technician. was
bored with New York's gaudy attrac-
tons. They met by chance in Quak-
ertown because of a common inter-
est in aviation.
Setman had a large cowbarn on
his farm which also served as the
Quakertown airport. Johnson had
some machinery in a guest house on
his country place and was eager to
put it to profitable use.
The idea was about as simple and
obvious as the rest Of their equip
ment. It was just this: business and
industry spend millions Of dollars
needlessly hauling dead weight be-
cause they make cabinets. boxes.
hand truck skids, pallets, and all
sorts of handling equipment out Of
wood and other heavy materials.
Why not make this material of
sturdy aircraft aluminium? With
labor costs what they are, wouldn't
it be worthwhile to save the wages
of one man when one man with an
aluminium container could carry as
much as two with heavier equip
ment?
Saves S120, 00e a Year
At the beginning. in October, 1947,
cows were undisturbed as the ma
chinery was set up in the mule
stables. One man did the work, as
sisted by airplane pilots on days
when weather halted flying.
Then a television manufacturer
adopted a handling idea suggested
by Johnson and Setman-saving
S120, 900 a year. Soon 10 of the II
.television manufacturers had Or
dered equipment. The cows were
sold, the barn remodeled, more men
put to work.
A pie baker complained that the
plywood pallets on which he hauled
pies sagged and ruined pies. 1t took
two men to scrape them clean of
juices. They didn't last long
when steam cleaned.
That problem was made to order
for the Bucks County Enterprises,
as Setman and Johnson were now
their company. Aircraft
pallets didn't sag, they
gave the pie bakery a clean and
appearance, the pallets could
be cleaned easily with steam with
40 hand scraping. Of course, the
cost was higher but the long
-un savings were substantial.
IS Men Working
More and more companies learned
If the imaginative ideas these men
had for saving them money and
;rouble. Orders flowed in. Workmen
.emodeling the barn were barely
able to keep one step ahead Of the
nushrooming production depart
nent. By early 1850 35 men were on
he payroll and workmen were still
saving and hammering
away to provide ever more o for
workers.
Setman and Johnson use airplanes
solve one problem the small
own manufacturer sometimes has
hat is, how to give prompt atten-
ion to his customers in larger cities.
10th make all sales and service calls
nd fill rush orders by plane. On
ne recent day, Johnson kept an
80 am. appointment in Lancaster.
IA, flew to Washington for an IL
m. call and was in New York at
pm. to service another customer.
aluminium, and especially the
luminum alloys, are relatively new
a the world Of metals" Johnson
xplains. Few businessmen realize
ne money saving potential offered
y a strong. lightweight metal. Our
in aviation had impressed
S with the possibilities of aluminium
1 other fields and we just adapted
ais big general idea to specific
eeds. We're in the business OF SELL
lg ideas as 96 per cent OF the
roducts we sell we design our
The market is never glutted
18th sound ideas and it's as easy to
ell them from a small town as the
city. And lots more fun"