"Cheer up, Joe. But if this tablecloth won't run through the blueprint machine, we'll squawk!"
Joe looked downcast, and Franks hurried to explain: "It isn't that bad, Joe. We won't try it. We just want to have these figures so we won't have to run through the math again. We'll return the cloth."
"Yeah," said Joe at their retreating figures. "And for the rest of its usefulness it will be full of curves, drawings, and a complete set of astrogating equations." He shrugged his shoulders and went for a new tablecloth.
Don, Walt, and Charles took their improvised drawing to the machine shop, where they put it in the hands of the master mechanic.
"This thing has a top requirement," Don told him, "Make it as quick as you can."
Master Mechanic Walton took the cloth and said: "You forgot the note. You know, 'Work to dimensions shown, do not scale this drawing.' Lord, Don, this silly-looking cam will take a man about six hours to do. It'll have to be right on the button all over, no tolerance. I'll have to cut it to the 'T' and then lap it smooth with polishing compound. Then what'll you test it on?"
"Sodium light interferometer. Can you do it in four hours?"
"If nothing goes wrong. Brass all right?"
"Anything you say. It'll only be used once. Anything of sufficient hardness to withstand a single usage will do."
"I'll use brass then. Or free-cutting steel may be better. If you make it soft you have the chance of cutting too much off with your lapping compound. We'll take care of it, Don. The rest of this stuff isn't too hard. Your framework and so on can be whittled out and pasted together from standard girders, right?"