BRITISH GOODS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19258, 13 March 1928, Page 3

BRITISH GOODS.

DANGERS OF CONSERVATISM. N.Z. ENGINEER'S CRITICISM. Itrom oca owk coasESPOSDEnr.) LONDON, January 20. Mr William Wilson, 8.E., M.Sc, M.1.E.E., son of a former headmaster of the Normal School, Christchurcli, has established his reputation in England as an authority on electrical problems. Since his last book, "Electric Control Gear and Industrial Electrification, " was published he has been invited to write the section on ''lndustrial Electrification" for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. As chairman of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (South Midland Centre), he delivered some time ago an address on the "Importance of Psychology in Engineering Progress." in this he showed how trade had been lost through the conservation of the home firms, and theh refusal to see the point of view of their would-be customers overseas. It was a very clear and forceable address given by a man with a world-wide outlook. Mr Wilson was appiehensive of its reception. He considered that the rather outspoken criticisms of the usual British attitude would provoke hostility. Far from this being the case, he has had evidence of his remarks being endorsed pretty generally. Quite a number of prominent men of business and science have written to him to say they agree with every word, a fact which may be taken as a hopeful sign for colonial trade in the near future. The technical journals, notably "World Power" and the "Machinery Market," have also received his remarks with sympathy, as did the "Birmingham Post" and the "Gazette."

In his address, Mr Wilson gave three illuminating examples of trade, being lost owing to the sheer inability of the British firms to understand the purchaser's point of view. A South American buyer wanted needles, and it was requested that they should be supplied in red packets. Needles are generally supplied in black packets, and the manufacturer saw no reason why their standard practice > should be violated over a mere question of colour, and so the request was disregarded and the trade lost.

In a second case, a large Chinese order for crockery included a supply ot egg cups, and it was emphasised that the egg cups should be much smaller than thos<3 previously supplied. The manufacturer refused to be dictated to. though he was unaware that Chinese fowl are small and their eggs small A Continental manufacturer captured the trade. A third case concerned the refusal on the part of electrical firms in this country to supply to one of the Dominions apparatus with 4QO-volt a.c. motors because the English standards were 440 or 460 volts.

' Mr Wilson said that more visits had been paid by prospective customers from the Dominions to England than by English agents to the Ddminions. "This," he said, "is unfortunate, Bince the impressions formed concerning.an overseas visitor to our own country are not so informative as might be thought. For one tiling, he is being studied _ away from his environment, while he is conforming as closely as he can to our own characteristics and customs. When he is at home, on the other hand, it is possible to become acquainted not only with the psychology of the individual but also with the local conditions which are partly the cause and partly the result of this psychology."

Calamitous Conservatism. The study of our own psychology, Mr Wilson also maintained, mightbe instrumental in directly accelerating our own rate of progress. "In my opinion," he continued, "this disability is due, not, as is commonly supposed, to an inborn conservatism, but to a habit of mind engendered by the exaggerated system of party government in vogue in this country, to which we are made accustomed at every turn. The practice of forming one's conclusion first and then selecting arguments to support them, and especially that of opposing the efforts and proposals of others as a matter of course and without examining the circumstances from every rational point of view, may possibly give good results in national or local politics. But once we have become familiar. with these tactics in the one field it is inevitable that they shall bo applied in others' unless effective precautions be taken to the contrary; and whatever may be the justification for them in the process of government, their effect is nothing short of calamitous in connexion with industry, and especially engineering. "The result of such a habit of mind is that when a proposal is made of a sufficiently novel or far-reaching nature, almost the whole of those likely to be affected form themselves, automatically into an opposition party and unite in decrying the proposal and its author. There are innumerable instances of schemes and inventions that have in the end brought about great and undoubted improvements, which when originally proposed have attracted for their originators not merely indifference, but a degree of vituperation in keeping with the unwholesome traditions of political controversy. In order, therefore, that an innovator may secure the adoption of his idea, he must possess not only the valuable qualities that enable hiin to arrive at the original conception, but in addition a further set of qualities to enable him to withstand and overcome the totally unnecessary opposition to which he will be subjected. The disquieting thought obtrudes itself that these latter characteristics, which must include a tough skin, an unbounded self-confidence, a high degree of persistence, and probably also robust health, may not be possessed by more than one in ten of our inventors with tho result that 90 per cent, of the proposals that, should go to make our industries flourishing may be more or less wantonly neglected."