Pa, Ma & the Twins

At the junction of two country roads near Rockford, Ill. stands one of the queerest of all U.S. war plants. It is a white clapboard farmhouse with old-fashioned gambrel roof, dormer windows, neat flower boxes at the window sills. It is also the home office, sales branch and factory of the Harrington Bros. Machine Tool & Fixture Co., manufacturers of $1,000-a-month worth of machine tools for making shells and tank turrets.

In the big living room last week, grey-haired Pa John Harrington, 68, worked long hours at a grinder, grinned when the sparks flew, sometimes muttered: "I have more fun than a kid in this place." Buxom Ma Harrington, 58, wearing a house dress tucked into overalls, operated a lathe. Twins Richard and Russell, 34, wangled new orders, worked at machines, swept out the place at night, often were on the job 16 hours out of 24. Mrs. Richard kept books. Mrs. Russell did all the cooking.

The company started in the depression, when the Harrington boys borrowed money to build their own house and machine shop. The shop was a spare-time operation until the war began. Then the Harringtons set out to get some really big jobs.

The first offer was some tooling that could be done only on a new $4,000 machine. The twins, who had never even seen $4,000, made their own machine--out of a junked lathe, an old washing-machine motor, an oil pump from a 1926 automobile and one of Ma's old washtubs to catch the oil that leaked.

Now the Harrington twins have four subcontracts, have given jobs to two brothers-in-law and five other employes, who keep the same hectic hours and share the profits. Says Rockford's local WPB director: "They're doing a swell job. I don't think they knew what they were getting into when they started, but they had the nerve to make a success of it."

Big companies which gave the Harringtons subcontracts used to send inspectors to look over the shop, but have long since given it up. Says Richard: "I used to get a laugh out of those guys. When they spotted this place, they went nuts."

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