PRACTICAL DEVELOPMENT
"Everything in this world is a development. Nothing happens by
chance."
Can my invention be made to do better work by putting in gears in
place of that sprocket chain? Would canvas be cheaper and better than
leather in that belt? Won't a cotter pin be cheaper and better in
place of that nut? Won't a steel casting be cheaper and better than
that expensive machined steel bearing? Would not my machine do better
work and cost less if I stuck to just this one operation?
Questions such as this you must ask yourself. The successful inventor
is not a "one-idea" man. He must be on the watch for "something
better" all the time, until he and his expert advisers are convinced
by _actual tests_ in _actual service_ that it is absolutely right in
every way. No invention is complete and perfect when it is first
conceived. Its successful development is a series of changes,
substitutions, alterations, rearrangements, until finally it attains
marketable shape.
At a meeting of mechanical experts in Philadelphia one evening,
six men were asked the very best way to make a certain piece of
machine work. There were six different answers.--"Many men of many
minds."--Which was the best way, and why? If you take your own ideas
you will possibly have but one way to do it, and your way may not
prove the best way in the end. The successful invention of today
dominates its particular field. Why? Because it is better than others.
Successful development of any invention requires a great degree of
patience, unlimited hard work, belief in ultimate success, and
competent theoretical and practical knowledge of mechanics, physics,
mathematics, salesmanship, shop practice and the like. It is a science
in itself.
"Whatever I have tried to do in life, I have tried with all my
heart to do well; whatever I have devoted myself to, I have
devoted myself to completely; in great aims and small I have
always been thoroughly in earnest."--Charles Dickens.