and then a war broke out and all correspondence between torrington and germany broke down, until 1945, both countries served the war. the two boss said had lunch together and ruefully the american said, i still can't get over how you bored that hole in thats steel rod that you made o brilliantly. we were embarrassed, it was horrible. and the german said well that's the reason i've come to see you because in fact we cheated. we drew the hole first of all in a block of steal and then machined around it, which was perfectly easy thing to do. so i've come here to say what you did was the most perfect thing and we simple simply cheated can, he said which is why we lost the war. [laughter] >> stacy: so on that note i'd like to ask for a round of applause and thanks. [applause] simon winchester and stacy shiff. thank you so much and as you know autographing will be take place on this floor past the elevator on the north side of the floor and if you have a ticket for the next program, you may remain in the room. if you don't we ask that

the people in torrington worked long and hard and produced the steel rod, a 16th of an inch in diameter, perfectly straight and polished, unvarying, put in tissue paper and a wooden box, sent across to germany. then, just before the war broke out the germans responded by sending back a box which people in torrington opened and found in tissue paper identical steel rod, same diameter, same straightness and then they noticed their horror that in fact a whole was boarded down the center of the tube and they were aghast. how is that possible? the war broke out and correspondence broke down until the 1945 those companies survived the war and the managing director of the german company came over to america and came to torrington in the two bosses had lunch together and ruefully americans set i can't get over how you board that whole in that steel rod. we were embarrassed, it was horrible and the germans said that is the reason i came to see you because in fact we cheated. we drew the whole in the block of steel and then machined around it which was an easy thing to do. what you did was the mo