"It simply means that because a suit bears an inspector's stamp there is no reason to assume the suit is tested and perfect."
"Then what does it mean?" asked Lane.
"It means that we have a test department manned by thick-headed, vacuum-brained imbeciles," roared Kimberly. "Kids who play like engineers —"
Lane trembled before the blast, but remained standing. "Mr. Kimberly, we are engineers with reputations to maintain. We back up our reputations with our work and —"
"Would you like to back them up — on your back for a day or two in one of those blasted tested suits of yours?"
"I would appreciate knowing what factors we overlooked in our test procedures."
"That's simple. You forgot to put a man inside."
Lane swallowed. The others looked baffled.
"You don't expect us to give each suit an occupation test, surely," said Brown, "It's not practical and ... and surely not necessary. We test for operation, durability. We test the final suit for pressure. It seems to be there's nothing omitted."
"Piece by piece!" growled Kimberly, his fist banging the table. "And the whole is not the sum of the parts! Will you get that through your heads? A suit is not tested until it's shown that a man can wear it. Your tests do not show that. Look at this."