he has been placed over the heads of his enemies to direct the finance of the state, and by the practical interpretation of his dreams, to save them from famine. His task has been lightened by the closer co-operation of industryin itself an outcome of the forces of com petition. Not so long ago each type of industry was a specialized field. A man was a marine engineer, a civil engineer, and so forth. To the invention of the aeroplane can be credited the 177 break-down of this exclusiveness. This new machine had to be developed by men with no previous experience or specialized training for the job. It was something on which every established rule had to be tried afresh. For the first time men were obliged to face a transport problem from a new angle. They had avoided the effort until that moment by making a railway train out of a stage coach on railsby turning a horse carriage into a motor car through the substitution of an engine for horse powerstill placing it in the horse's traditional dragging position although it actually pro pelled from behind. The aeroplane borrowed the motor engine, but its structural principles could follow no existing form of transport. The science of aerodynamics was a new science. And, seeing that the air was becoming a serious com petitor, not only on speed but on appearance, the older forms of transport turned to it for inspiration. To-day the exchange of ideas between one industry and another is universal and invaluable. The consultant designer has come, and come to stay. He acts as a bridge between alien industries, and in his objective position as consultant is the chief condition of his usefulness to industry. A designer working permanently inside a firm, or even for too long a period in association with only one firm, loses this power of objective thought. The atmosphere of tradition is so compelling and so strong that he becomes a disciple of the firm and the firm's way of doing things. He reads the trade papers relating to his own particular type of product and has no interest in others. The consultant designer knows that the study of one set of problems will often provide the best stimulus for the solution of another. He is called upon to switch from designing a cosmetic pack to a standardized unit in a chain of petrol-filling stations; from a better- looking pencil sharpener to a speed record-breaking locomotive; from a domestic refrigerator to a cross country bus; from an easy chair to a ferry boat. This ability to seize on the essentials of a problem, whatever its nature, is the normal working outfit of a consultant designer, as a glance through the pages of Raymond Loewy's "Case Book" shows. In this article three solutions of the allied problems of speed transport only have been taken; in two cases with the illustrations of the original models besides the new designs. In designing the new K4s locomotive Raymond Loewy worked, as Consultant Designer, in close co-operation with the engineering department of the Pennsylvania 1803 1829 1840 1865 1889 1904 1920 1930 1934 1935 1936 1856 1867 1872 1879 1890 1905 1915 1920 1930 1934 936 One of the entertaining studies prepared in Raymond Loewy's studio to show the empyric ways in which designers began to practise streamlining before the principles of aerodynamics were understood.

Industrial Arts en | 1936 | | page 17