[ExI] Respirators and ventilators

[John Clark]

On Tue, Mar 17, 2020 at 11:23 AM Dan TheBookMan via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>>Then get more manufacturing facilities. If during WWII Ford was flexible
>> enough to switch from making cars to making B-24 bombers in a matter of
>> months
>
>
> *> The B-24 was made by Consolidated, an aircraft company founded in the
> early 1920s. It was based on designs from before the US entered the war.*
>

And designs for respirators existed long before the start of this pandemic.

* > Also, there was a lead time before US entry into the war where US
> manufacturers of war stuff were supplying the UK and France*
>

They started to convert Ford's Willow Run plant to make B-24s in October
1941, it took about a year before  B-24s were coming off the assembly line
but B-24s are a lot more complex than respirators especially in 1941 when a
B24 was a very high tech thing. I can't think of anything more high tech
that was mass produced in 1941 than a B24.

>*Look at the history of US torpedos as an example.*


That was not a problem cause by the massive acceleration of production but
by a lack of testing and a fundamental error in design, several of them in
fact; a flaw in the magnetic detonator, a flaw in the contact detonator,
and a flaw in the depth gage that made them run 10 feet deeper than what
they were set to do. The gyro-compass was also unreliable but that is a
problem all torpedos of the period had to some degree or another, except
for the Japanese, they had by far the best torpedo in the war, the US had
by far the worst.


> *>The Sherman tank was likewise designed and prototypes before US entry
> into the war.*
>

Forget prototypes we already have respirators that are the real deal, just
not enough of them.

>  *Much waste and idiocy happened during WW2 particularly because of
> federal oversight. *
>

Yes, but no process is completely efficient and no doubt there will be lots
of waste and idiocy in the mass manufacture of respirators too especially
when you try to do it so fast, but despite it all they got the job done in
WW2 so I don't see why we can't do the same today. Well no that's not true
I do see why we can't do the same today and its name is Donald Trump.


> > *workers could be easily shifted over to manufacturing because of
> chronic unemployment then (unlike now)*
>

That may have been true a few weeks ago, but not now.

John K Clark
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