Journal Article

Necessity drives invention and the gradual development of machinery, with perseverance and collaboration together playing key roles in the process.
* Evolution of Design. Inventions of real engineering importance are comparatively rare, and most engineering work consists of the production or operation of machinery of more or less standard type. Notable advancements include the adoption of electric welding, which has significantly improved efficiency, reliability, and reduced manufacturing costs in power generation and boiler construction.
* Problems of Development. In the general work of a manufacturer producing a more or less established article, the design staff has to deal not only with the problems of development but also with the still more pressing problems of service troubles. Close co-operation between works staff and designers is therefore essential in the elimination of service faults.
* Improvements in Plant and Equipment. Improvements in plant and equipment may fall into several categories. They may be improvements in efficiency, in reliability or in reduction of manufacturing costs. Rare indeed is the improvement which covers all three, but the development and extended use of electric welding is such a one.
* Machine tools. Many instances could be cited of startling improvements in machine tools and shop methods, for many years the subject of experiments and propaganda before their adoption in sufficient quantities to ensure their success commercially. Sometimes such improvements have been replaced or made unnecessary before the great expense of development and propaganda has been recovered. Machine tool makers, particularly, have suffered in this way as it is quite exceptional for the ultimate demand for an improved machine tool to re-imburse its makers for their development expenses. Three periods of machine tool development have been: the Carbon Steel Period, the Tungsten Steel Period, and the Tungsten Carbide Period.
* The Carbon Steel Period. In the latter days of the carbon steel period the production of metal goods was still in a very simple state. As the development of shop technique occupied very many years the workmen employed in such production became highly skilled and were generally capable, by the application of this traditional technique, of producing an acceptable quality of product with the use of fairly simple machine tools.
* The Tungsten Steel Period. About the year 1900, and the years immediately following the state of affairs just described, production was greatly disturbed by the introduction of cutting steels containing large percentages of tungsten and capable of cutting speeds three or four times as fast as carbon steel, and capable also of maintaining its strength and cutting qualities even when heated by the work or by the removal of heavier chips at such higher speeds. Existing machine tools immediately proved quite unsuitable, and a rapid and rather frenzied development of machines suitable for the new cutting steel started.
* The Tungsten Carbide Period. Within the last 10 years the cutting materials known generally as tungsten carbide have appeared and it is largely due to the enterprise of machine tool makers, arising out of their speeding up experiences during the period under review, that this new cutting material has made such rapid steps as compared with previous cutting materials.
* In conclusion, the question may be asked, what truly constitutes progress in engineering design? The commercially minded will say that a reduction in manufacturing costs, with a large margin between selling price and production cost, constitutes progress. The service man claims that progress is measured by the reduction of operating troubles. The scientist measures progress by improvement in the inherent efficiency of the machine. The purchaser demands each form of progress but claims as his natural right a reduction in the production costs effected. The engineering designer of to-day is thus deserving of the most sympathetic consideration in his perplexities and worries. Ultimately, progress in engineering is achieved through the collective efforts of designers, manufacturers, and operators, ensuring continued advancement toward greater efficiency and effectiveness in industrial practices.