retroelectro
numerical control and facsimile transmission as consultants in product development.
Retro Electro bonus fact: Morley has credited involvement with the invention of the floppy disc and anti-lock braking systems.
“Engineering is not solving problems (and) innovation is making problems. Innovation comes from the road and the observation of it, not the destination of the road.” – Dick Morley Ultimately, Bedford Associates was a group of ‘inventors for hire.’ The industry would send them requests for proposals and specifications for a machine, relay box, etc., and they would design and build it for the customer. Manufacturers like General Motors and Western Electric would hire them to build logic machines to help automate machine tasks and motors. Through a series of intricate and complicated relays, they would integrate relay controls into factory lines, along with other projects.
Modicon 084 According to varying accounts, on New Year’s Day 1968, Morley stayed up too late, getting drunk the night before. Some months earlier, General Motors sent a ‘Request for Proposals’ for a system that could better automate their new transmission factory. Morley had worked in the manufacturing industry for some years at this point, and most of the projects they completed had many things in common, so he felt that he could make a standardized and adaptable machine. He wanted to finish the proposal to send out before Christmas so it could get there before all the executives came back from their vacations and today was Monday, January 1st. The proposal itself isn't readily available online. In interviews, Morley describes it as a way to get General Motors to produce more trucks faster. He stated that it could take them four months to set up a new
Modicon 084 on Display in the Smithsonian Museum.
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