Original invoice for the press when it was sold back in 1951. Many thanks to Dave Brown at REBB Industries for digging this out of the Hamilton archives for me.
The purchase price of $388 in 1951 equates to about $3500 in today's dollars. A new, modern, high precision press (like a Cameron) goes for a bit less than that today.
A little piece of synchronicity: when we started Tesla Motors, our first real site (after we moved out of the three room office suite in Menlo Park) was just down the street from the old Litton Industries site where this press was first used.
That neighborhood of San Carlos, CA was an old-school high-tech area long before there was a thing called Silicon Valley. This was back when microwaves and radar were the cutting edge of technology.
The purchase price of $388 in 1951 equates to about $3500 in today's dollars. A new, modern, high precision press (like a Cameron) goes for a bit less than that today.
A little piece of synchronicity: when we started Tesla Motors, our first real site (after we moved out of the three room office suite in Menlo Park) was just down the street from the old Litton Industries site where this press was first used.
That neighborhood of San Carlos, CA was an old-school high-tech area long before there was a thing called Silicon Valley. This was back when microwaves and radar were the cutting edge of technology.
That's enough clean up for now. Time to start working on the running gear, starting with the motor.