THE DIMENSION OF HOW

Evening Star, Issue 22440, 10 September 1936, Page 12

THE DIMENSION OF HOW

MACHINES AND THEIR PURPOSE Since the time of the industrial revolution and the great speed-up in mechanical ingenuity, life has taken on a fourth dimension that has been sturdily disregarded by all concerned—namely, the dimension of How, says Richard Dana Skinner, in the ‘ Atlantic Monthly.’ The lack of imagination in answering this question of how the machines were to be used is simply staggering. Take that steam-pump on wheels that we call the locomotive. There is no reason in the world why it could not have been put on rails far cnougu apart to give stability' to a comfortably roomy coach. Instead of that, railway coaches and trams were developed along the lines of the old horse-drawn carriages, growing heavier and longer year by year, but not at all taking advantage of the new factor of increased comfort and stability that only widegauge wheel-base, made possible only by the steam engine, could give. So now we have sleeping coaches that illustrate the wonders of human endurance, but not of human ingenuity. . And take the motor car. Inherently the motor car is as safe a means of transportation as any that man has ever dreamed of. Given proper highways, it could tear along at 60 miles and over with perfect safety. One-way traffic lanes and separate tracks for freight and pleasure vehicles would do away with almost all danger of collision and side-swiping accidents. Motor highways built for motor cars are not an impracticable absurdity. There are millions of men unemployed, there is a great slackness in the construction industries, and there is a great need for proper highways all through the country. Putting a cold cash value of 50,000d0l on an adult human life, the yearly loss in traffic deaths in the States comes to one and three-quarter billions of dollars, in addition to the uncommercial but huge cost in human suifering. But automobiles continue to run on narrow, winding, dangerous horse-roads because no one has grasped the possibilities of mechanical transportation as such. But the lack of imagination goes deeper than this. Modern banking, for example, is as different from medieval hard-money banking as the _ train is from the stage coach. But it is used in much the way hard-money banks were used. Further, our whole productive equipment lends itself to a method of use that hand industry did not make possible. In hand industry, where one day’s work was what one man could do in a certain number of hours, the amount of goods that he could buy was strictly limited. But with machine industry, one day’s work is what one man and a machine can do in so many hours, which is a different thing. By improving the machine, a man can make more at less cost, which means that he can buy more as the efficiency of his machine increases. But industry is not trying to lower prices as fast as the machines allow. So now an air-condi-tioning unit for one large room costs very nearly as much as a motor car. Imagination that used to think in terms of “ what,” and “ when,” and “ where,” now has to consider the further question of “ how.” A young man setting out for a three-year trip around the world has no idea how he may be travelling when he comes home. He may come by air or on or under the water, and in no case can he describe the vessel he will travel on with any degree of certainty. Invention has caught up with and passed imagination. Now we have to set about using our imaginations to put the machines we have to their proper purpose.