46 Materials and Their Handling 



to new experiments, until, finally, the new ideas 

 were proved sound and adopted or were proved 

 unwise and discarded. It is only necessary to talk 

 to men who have been in touch with this business 

 through the years of its growth to hear about the 

 many, many changes which were made from time 

 to time and which disappeared because they 

 proved to be valueless. 



It is well to remember that it is the user of 

 the product who sees the defects of its service. It 

 is he who puts pressure upon the maker in the 

 form of a demand for improvement, and it is this 

 demand which is constantly suggesting changes in 

 the product or its method of manufacture. 



JIow Development Continues. All these 

 changes which were effected in the automobile 

 were important, but none of them were as im- 

 portant as the organization development which 

 occurred at the same time. The most important 

 part of this growth was the rapid exchange 

 of knowledge between the men who were 

 making, those who were designing and changing, 

 and those who were using the automobile. Thirty 

 years ago, there was no automobile. Today there 

 is a scientific library written upon the subject which 

 extends into hundreds of volumes and the Society 

 of Automotive Engineers is one of the largest and 

 most powerful of the technical societies. 



It is the interchange of knowledge which is the 

 most important part of the development and which 

 has made the development of modern industry so 

 continuous. No sooner is it proved that an experi- 



