"But there wasn't anything about that watch that should have cost three dollars. Nothing but a lot of plain parts, made out of cheap metal. I could have made one like it for one dollar, or even less. But it cost me three. The only way I could figure it out was that there was a lot of waste somewhere." Then he remembered the methods of production at the James Flower Company. He reasoned that probably that watch factory had turned out only a few hundred of that design, and then tried something else--alarm clocks, perhaps. The parts had been made by the dozen, some of them had probably been filed down by hand, to make them fit. Then he got the great idea. A factory--a gigantic factory, running with the precision of a machine, turning out watches by the thousands and tens of thousands--watches all exactly alike, every part cut by an exact die. He talked it over with the boys at the drydock works. He was enthusiastic. He showed them that a watch could be made for less than half a dollar by his plan. He juggled figures of thousands of dollars as though they were pennies. The size of the sums did not stagger him, because money was never concrete to him--it was merely rows of figures--but to the young fellows who listened his talk was dazzling. They joined enthusiastically in the scheme. Then their evenings became merely so much time to spend up in Ford's room, figuring estimates and discussing plans. The watch could be made for thirty-seven cents, provided machinery turned it out by tens of thousands. Henry Ford visualized the factory--a factory devoted to one thing, the making of ONE watch--specialized, concentrated, with no waste energy. Those eager young men planned the whole thing from furnaces to assembling rooms. They figured the cost of material by the hundred tons, estimated the exact proportions each metal required; they planned an output of 2,000 watches daily as the point at which cost of production would be cheapest. They would sell the watch for fifty cents, and guarantee it for one year. Two thousand watches at a profit of thirteen cents each--$260 daily profit! They were dazzled. "We needn't stop there--we can increase that output when we get started," Henry Ford declared. "Organization will do it. Lack of organization keeps prices up, for its cost must be charged in on the selling price; and high prices keep sales down. We will work it the other way; low prices, increased sales, increased output, lower prices. It works in a circle. Listen to this----" He held them, listening, while he talked and figured, eliminating waste here and cutting expenses there, until the landlady came up and knocked at the door, asking if they meant to stay up all night.