Worm wheel

Talking about work. And companies. The value of doing business and of creating with one’s imagination and with one’s hands. The effort and pleasure of doing things well. And the importance of inventing, building, and moving forward. There’s a whole world that calls for words and pages and that, quite rightly, wants to end up in a book. A book like Vite senza fine, for example. Written most beautifully by Ernesto Franco and published by Einaudi, the novel tells us of Giò Magnaschi who, when he was still a child in the early twentieth century, played with a u-bolt and a washer and, as soon as he reached adulthood, founded what was to become the largest hardware company of his time, making him a sort of manufacturing hero. Using family memories, documents, and evidence found somewhat by chance, Franco reconstructs the story of his uncle who, in Genoa and around the world, managed to keep his factory and dreams together – the hard reality of nuts and bolts and the reveries of travel and burning love. “I like putting things together. And having them stay together”, he used to say. He talked of knots and dovetail joints, of keys and locks, of ships that in a way belonged to him, sailing across the seas. And he loved that special object that is the worm wheel, without which little is held together. But an object that, on its own, is not enough to hold the whole wheel of life together. Fortunately, there are words that give form and depth to memories and help continue a life lived well and intensely. Vite senza fine Ernesto Franco Einaudi, 2020 (first edition 1999)