In Columbus, Neb. (pop. 13,000) the mayors of 39 nearby communities gathered this week to break ground for an addition to Behlen Manufacturing Co. and pay their respects to its president, Walter Behlen, 53, a corn-belt Edison. Inventor Behlen, a man given to loud sport shirts and a pink Cadillac, made a gross profit of exactly $194 his first year in business in 1940; last year he earned $3,309,000 by ceaselessly following a simple inventor's rule: "Ideas are a dime a dozen—it's doing something with them that counts."
Behlen, a self-taught engineer who never got beyond high school, wasted few ideas. While...
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