Chapters: The formative years --Working on the Nolt special --Moving beyond Farmersville --The New Holland bonanza --"It changed everything" --The later years --1964 interview --Other stories.
Summary
"Subtitled "Everything Just Went Right," this book shows how Ed Nolt's early life shaped him and that the resources and relationships he formed allowed him to develop the baler, in spite of the struggles he endured. Ed Nolt's distinctive skills, personal habits, and fertile mind made him a remarkable inventor admired by engineers and entrepreneurs who recognized that his traditional Mennonite background and values were not impediments but were real resources for his success. His inventions helped to cement New Holland's reputation in the farm equipment industry." [from the publisher]
"Thomas R. Winpenny examines the formative years of the factory system in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the impact of industrialization on the community.The study focuses on the establishment of the Conestoga Steam Mills in the late 1840's and the following three decades. Professor Winpenny maintains that this industrial revolution brought progress and economic benefits without social upheaval and labor strife...Lancaster was able to absorb the factory system without discord because of local circumstances such as the wealth of the countryside, the stability of the long-established town, and the ready supply of resident workers. In a narrower variation of Thomas C. Cochran's geo-cultural concept, Winpenny argues that the character of the industrialization experience is molded by local conditions and that problems often associated with industrial progress are rooted in the environment in which industrialization occurs." [from a review of the book by Robert M. Blackson, Kutztown State College]
