This clip from Raw to Ready: Mack Truck focuses on how early experiments with the telephone led to a search for an alternative to the iron and steel cables being used at the time. Rust was a constant problem and highly conductive copper was the ideal alternative, however the technology didn't exist to manufacture copper strong enough for overhead lines. Thomas Doolittle introduced a new process to compress and strengthen copper. Today over half the copper extracted from the earth becomes wire and makes up the Mack Truck's drive-by-wire technology.