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The "big wheels" at (Picatinny Arsenal) were adamant and would not permit deviations from the drawings of that era, 1940. They maintained that these gears had been made before so why couldn't Kodak make them? Of course they had, with non-generating milling cutters. We had a war to win and wanted to mass produce these items (with conventional generating cutters) . ... Millions of dollars could have been saved and much better fuses been made if it had not been for the asinine, arbitrary decisions of those who didn't know the "score."

At one time I spent 300 hours making enlarged metal templates of the diverse gears in the FM45 train . ...My tooth form was completely interchangeable with... the existing cycloid. Came the day when the fuse Committee met at Kodak for a regional conference, which occurred bimonthly. They came to my department -- the whole galaxy of "brains." I showed them my templates mounted on a big board about 5 x 10 feet. ...The brown plastic templates were cycloids and the steel ones involute. They toyed with these templates for a few minutes, ...and then walked away nonchalantly. My heart sank. George Ensign, Master Mechanic at Elgin National Watch, stayed behind ... and really got into the problem. ...When he left he said, "Lou, I am sorry for you, but what can you do with those S.O.B.'s? They might as well be working for Hitler."