Nothin's going to touch you ...

... in these golden years,” crooned the late David Bowie in one of his smash hits.

The term “golden years” is also used in Albert B. Albrecht’s book “The American Machine Tool Industry: Its History, Growth, Restructuring & Recovery,” which he revised in 2015 for the third edition. AMT—The Association For Manufacturing Technology sponsored the book.

Albrecht defines the golden years of the machine tool industry as being from 1948 to 1998. “It was during this period that the United States machine tool industry led the world in both machine tool production and consumption,” Albrecht wrote.

As former vice president of Textron’s Machine Tool Division, Cheshire, Conn., previous co-owner of drilling and dial machine builder National Automatic Tool Co. (NATCO), Richmond, Ind., and a holder of numerous cutting tool patents, Albrecht provides “a personal perspective” on the industry.

The 306-page, amply illustrated, hardbound book covers the machine tool industry from its beginning in the 19th century into the 21st century. It is divided into 24 chapters, including one about trade journals that serve the industry. 

The book is a fascinating read and provides a “who’s who” of the industry’s pioneers and first-generation innovators during those golden years. Nonetheless, Albrecht noted the latter were not particularly adept at succession planning. “When second generations took over, the business was often sold and came under the control of financial individuals and/or MBAs. They were not dedicated to the business, nor did they understand the machine tool industry. They judged performance solely upon the bottom line—selling (their businesses) during low economic periods.”

I don’t doubt that is what happened, but, partly because I started covering the industry in 2000, I have a different perspective on it. Although I was aware that many of the previously prominent U.S. machine tool builders that existed then were shadows of their former selves, I was introduced to an industrial world dominated by multinational conglomerates and generally found the equipment for machining metal to be remarkable for its engineering ingenuity.

Since then, the productivity-boosting and ease-of-use advancements from machine tool builders—and toolmakers—have been spectacular. However, I wouldn’t call it a “golden age,” because eventually today’s latest and greatest becomes tomorrow’s antiquated and obsolete.

In his letter that accompanied the book, Albrecht wrote, “One of the reasons behind AMT’s sponsorship and reprinting the book was to hopefully place copies in libraries of area community colleges to get the message across to young people that machine tools and manufacturing are challenging, productive and most rewarding.” 

Getting that message across will be necessary in order to realize AMT President Douglas K. Woods’ statement that concludes the book: “Our future is bright, and together we will persevere.”

For more information, email albertalbrecht@frontier.com.