FATALISM AND FINALITY—IN DESIGN.
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THERE seems to be a growing tendency in many quarters to accept, as inevitable and final, most of the features of orthodox design. The design of the heavy vehicle, some people say, has settled down; nearly all Problems of design have now been solved. We have developed our vehicles to a point where they are "good enough." We need
• go no farther. To all intents and purposes the designer's function in the scheme of things has been fulfilled. But has it?
Do the vehicles of thespresent day represent the best that can be done—commercially?
Are we fated to find ourselves—say ten years hence —using vehicles of which the mechanical details will differ, in no important respect, from those with which • we are now familiar ? Have we in short, arrived at finality ?
We hope such is not the case, because finality is but another word for death—it spells stagnation. It is a curious form of fatalism, this complacent accepta-nee of the idea of inevitable stagnation. It accords strangely with the British tradition of enterprise in all things. It must be particularly repellent to active members of an industry which, in pre-war days, at any rate, displayed more activity and enterprise than any in the country.
We think that there is an explanation of this tendency to regard design as in an impasse. It must be remembered that the motor industry was an in B14 . dustry which developed at a. break-neck! speed. Design succeeded design, invention followed on invention with a rapidity that was unprecedented in the history of industry. The motor industry grew like a hot-house plant ; its growth was forced, it reached maturity almost before it time, and the war, and especially after-war conditions, have settled on it like .'a blight. The war, moreover, diverted the efforts.. of very many of the designing engineers who had been largely responsible, for its rapid growth to other spheres of work. They ploughed newer and more attractive fields. They went in, for instance for designing aircraft engines and other most interesting machines. The motor veliiela was left out rather in the ,cold.
In consequence, it has not. altered much. •
On the other hand, the production engineers got busy on. problems-of production. They raised the standard of motor vehicle production enormously. They set out to make these machines, of which the design was by no means new, by the very latest methods. The brains Of the industry were concentrated not on the question of what new things should be made," but on how old things could be made better and more rapidly. If design stagnated, it was because of -neglect. It was because of the eclipse of the designer by the producing engineer. When the balance is .restored, perhaps we shall get some innovations.