Packard Forum Index » General

For those Packard history seekers and data geeks among us, Big Kev just posted a 1949 Steel Magazine article that will keep us busy for a long time. It is a long and well-illustrated look at the history of Packard from the beginning until the Golden Anniversary in 1949. I have carefully read Turnquist, Ward and the Kime-edited books, but there were items in here that I have not seen elsewhere. From pictures and descriptions of the fifty or so most important/influential men (they are all men and that will quickly reflect the times) and what they did in their jobs, to the diagram of the production schedule of the post-WW II plant and sequence of how the cars went through the assembly process.

Knowing how history turned out five or six years later for the PMCC, there are points in this story where you see the mistakes beginning to be made, and the false premises they were acting on. It is not hard, given hindsight, to see what was happening and what might have changed the outcomes.

I made the mistake of reading the entire article before bedtime and my dreams were vivid about what was going on at Packard and wanting to shout "Don't do that!" Between all our forum's faithful historians and experts, this is must reading that will cause discussion and speculations aplenty. I do hope the regulars (Howard, Dave C, Leeedy, Tim, Steve and Fred have their chance to read and reflect on what is said. This is valuable stuff for a guy like me.

Hi Dave:

Thanks for the post, I have read the article and need to read it again; there were several things I found of particular interest that I'd not seen discussed elsewhere. One of those was the post WW II production order system. Those of us old enough to remember Teletype as a means of written communication have probably recognized the 47-54 build slips as tractor-fed Teletype format and the sidebar on that system was the first time I've seen it explained in any detail.

I'm definitely old enough! The information on Packard's Teletype system was of great interest to me. Teletype was a large part of the passenger reservation system used by the airline I worked for in the mid-sixties. When I found the build slip on my '49 (re-numbered as a '50) Custom, I immediately recognized the tractor-fed paper and print as Teletype.

In the mid 1960s my company built a chemical manufacturing plant in Belgium. Communication by telephone was far to expensive except for the most urgent items, so 99% of all correspondence was by International Teletype. If it was somewhat urgent you could go by direct wire to someone on the other end and chat back and forth, but for normal business all the day's outgoing messages were first prepared on punch tape and then the tape set to feed and send the messages during non-peak hours at more reasonable rates.

Sorry for digression, Teletype brought back a flood of memories.

JD, just curious - which airline?

Trans World Airlines.

By the time this radioman was in the navy, Morse code was almost done with. Radio teletype was the way we got most all of our communications. Then, after the navy, we had a teletype installed in the office. It was connected with a land line and had friction feed for the paper. It was the superintendent's office at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. Before that we had to go to the national guard headquarters for our messages. Ah, the good old days...

(o[]o)