In the last issue of the PCI JOURNAL I described my involvement in the instrumentation and testing of the Walnut Lane and Pottstown prototype girders. I also gave my impressions of our fact-finding tour of European prestressed concrete developments in October 1950. Based on these experiences plus the wave of enthusiasm this new material was generating, I became convinced that pretensioned concrete, mass-produced under controlled factory conditions, had the potential of playing a prominent role in the North American construction market. My plan, therefore, was to rejoin my father Eivind and brother Thomas in Tacoma, Washington, and there establish a plant for the manufacture of precast prestressed products. However, prior to going back to Tacoma, I had to complete an important consulting job for the Austin Company in Cleveland, Ohio.
