The Old Furnace Repair That Proved Nothing
A man in Calumet pointed at the furnace in his basement and told me they do not make them like they used to. It was forty-one years old and still running. He was certain that furnace was proof the old way was the better way, and that modern furnaces, with their control boards and variable-speed motors, were over-engineered junk that would never last. I think about Abraham Wald every time I hear that. In 1943, the military wanted to armor their bombers where the returning planes had the most bullet holes. Wald told them they were looking at the wrong planes. The ones hit in the fatal spots…
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