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Show It's Voup business! One day back in 1870 young H. B. Keiper, Lancaster, Pa., was hauling furniture from Lancaster to Middletown. One of -his horses cast a shoe and that was the starting point of a typically American story. Watching a blacksmith replace the shoe, Mr. Keiper got an idea for a better forge thai; the clumsy apparatus where the smith blew up his fire with a crude bellows. On returning home, he built a forge with a mechanical blower. Shop Facilities Rented Renting shop facilities and hiring hir-ing one helper, he manufactured 10 of the new-type forges. He had a hard time convincing suppliers that the forge would sell, but eventually a dealer in Allentown agreed to handle the "new-fangled contraption." Five years later Mr. Keiper opened his own forge factory in a remodeled tobacco warehouse. Today To-day the plant consists of 15 buildings," build-ings," filling part of three city blocks. Employing 230 workers, it markets forges, post drills, grinders, grind-ers, and allied products throughout the United States and in 25 foreign countries. More Opportunities Illustrating how Americans, free to develop ideas and build businesses in the past, produced labor-saving devices that made the nation rich and powerful, the story of young- Keiper also hints at what may happen in future. With scientists working on industrial applications of atomic energy, creating new materials, and perfecting per-fecting new machines, it is evident that there will be as many opportunities oppor-tunities as ever if Americans safeguard safe-guard freedom to develop them. |