Before the curtain rises on the Drama of the Barn let us envisage the principal actors as they stood on the threshold of the great adventure. No two men could have presented a greater physical contrast. Deeds was ruddy, keen-eyed, broad of shoulder; Kettering was tall, spare, and spectacled. Deeds was the engineer by instinct and training with a flair for finance and organization. Behind him already lay considerable experience as an industrial executive. Thus he became the wise counsellor and negotiator. Kettering was the technical expert with a genius for invention. To scientific imagination he brought a rare insight into mechanism. Deeds had once said, in discussing the development of the electric ignition, lighting, and starting system, “Men must hunt in pairs.” For the enterprise now to be initiated, the ideal “pair” existed. The two men represented an unbeatable combination.
[Illustration: Some of the members of the “Barn Gang,” left to right: W. A. Chryst, W. P. Anderson, C. F. Kettering, E. A. Deeds.]
Kettering started work in the barn in the summer of 1908. The equipment was already installed because Deeds had assembled it for the production of “Suburban Sixty.” It consisted of a milling machine, a drill press, an engine lathe, a tool grinder, a forge, one ten-horsepower motor, an oscillograph, a long bench, and small tools. All the machinery was concentrated in the hayloft while the “Suburban Sixty,” the first guinea pig, rested on the lower floor. Because the equipment was in the old hayloft, Kettering was dubbed the “hayloft inventor.” Connecting the two floors was a narrow, winding stairway on which Kettering dashed up and down a hundred times a day.
[Illustration: Kettering in the early days when he was in the Inventions Division at NCR.]
[Illustration: Kettering after he started to work on the self-starter.]
In the early period of the project Kettering and Deeds could work only on weekends, nights, and holidays because they were both employed at the NCR. In 1909 Kettering realized that if the undertaking was to get anywhere, it would be necessary for him to devote all his time to it. He therefore resigned as Chief Inventor and set up shop in the barn, which was practically his domicile for the next two years.