14 Materials and Their Handling 



year he tried the experiments with little success. 

 He even went so far as to chop up his furniture 

 to provide heat for his oven and was almost put 

 out of the house by his family. His friends said 

 he was crazy, but he finally succeeded in securing 

 the right kind of paint and the right kind of 

 baking effect. 



After we have the idea of doing a thing, or 

 after we see the possibility of accomplishing a 

 thing, many experiments are necessary before we 

 gain sufficient practical skill to bring the thing up 

 to the point of usefulness and of value. That is 

 why many industries today have experimental de- 

 partments where experts are engaged all the time 

 in trying out the different ideas and developing 

 them to the point where they show some value 

 and some probability of success. Very often, the 

 discovery of a new way of making a useful product 

 requires new machinery or new arrangements of 

 the work in order to put the new proposition 

 through. All this must be worked out before the 

 product itself can be made in sufficient quantities 

 and for a price that will make it a commercial 

 success. 



How Changes Are Suggested. When an ar- 

 ticle is first put out to serve us in any way, it is 

 inefficient. The first automobiles had a hard job 

 doing more than ten miles an hour and they did 

 not hold out for more than a few miles at a time. 

 They broke down about every three miles, and 

 twenty-five miles in a day was a good record. 

 Compared with the work which can be done by 



