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Erie, Pa,
Tuesday, July 23, '40.

Today we had a big all day session here on electric drive for the 50 ton heavy tank, the Army finally having awarded the development job to Baldwin Locomotive. So we had Maj. Crawford, Capt. Cummings of the Ordnance Dept. here, Lynch, a designer from Rock Island Arsenal, Mellin and Geiger of Baldwin, and Hall of Wright Aeronautical here to have a round table discussion of the problem. We have a big selling job to do to get electric drive across and today we just wallowed around trying to get our feet on the ground. It looks like we "have something" but we need to in order to overcome the weight handicap we labor under compared to the mechanical drive they clam will work, but we don't think will. A conference like this is always a picture of men and here are some impressions.

[[underline]] Major Crawford [[/underline]] A tall, sandy haired, fortyish, hard as nails but fair and pleasant gentleman who seemed to know his tanks pretty well, and was quick to catch on to our lingo and line of thought. The major pretty well ran the show from the army end, leans toward mechanical drive but fair and receptive.

[[underline]] Captain Cummings [[/underline]] - A youngish, crispy haired, West Pointish fellow, nice, clean-cut looking, short stocky, bright eyed, well bred, well spoken, who could talk up well when necessary but seemed rather on the reticent side. Leans toward mechanical drive, but fair and receptive.

[[underline]] Mr. Lynch [[/underline]] - A jolly, heavy set mid-westerner, a designer from Rock Island Arsenal, who looked like a cross between Lionel Atwell and Madeline Elliott. He was pretty subdued - the Major did the talking on design.