MIT
MIT Faculty Newsletter  
Vol. XVIII No. 2
November / December 2005
contents
Medical Task Force Releases Final Report
The New MIT Museum:
A Vision for the Future
Scientific Integrity
MIT and the Nation After 9/11
Merritt Roe Smith
Of Supreme Importance
Tyranny Against a Whistle-Blower at MIT
MIT Libraries Offer Metadata Support
On Values and a Caring Meritocracy for MIT
The Benefits Game
Vietnam and Cambodia: Three Decades Later A Photo-Journal
Percentage Rating the Quality of the MIT Medical Department "Good," "Very Good," or "Excellent"
Printable Version

MIT Poetry

OF SUPREME IMPORTANCE

David Thorburn

The instruction sheet for the Papco Flaring Tool
fits in your palm when folded and opens
to three inches by four and a half,
both sides densely printed.
It is protected in a plastic sleeve that's yellow now
and hard enough to cut your finger tips.
Two machinist's drawings and 304 words
name its parts -- including Body, Lever, Strap,
Strap Bushing, Eccentric Adjusting Screw,
Clamp Yoke, Indexing Ball, Cone Dowel Pin --
and explain the working of this plumber's hand-tool,
how the compression screw and swivel cone swing aside for clear
sighting, the hexagon clamp expanding or contracting
on calibrated gears that turn precisely after seventy years.
Papco Forge and Foundry, Dayton, Ohio,
machined the instrument between the two World Wars
and produced this tiny, illustrated bible
which lauds one virtue of the tool,
its ability to close-flare very short lengths of tubing,
as "of supreme importance to refrigeration men."

         -- for Arthur Mattuck

David Thorburn is Professor of Literature and Director of the Communications Forum at MIT.

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