From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Thu Mar 18 2004 - 16:59:30 GMT
Leland Jory wrote:
> Second, compare different examples of Quaker furniture, take a dozen
> chairs for instance. Scrutinize them closely and I'm sure you'll find they
> are not identical. The craftsman worked with the characteristics of each
> individual piece of wood, changing things slightly to guarantee the
> structural integrity of the piece.
>
> The problem with manufacturing today is all pieces are constructed
> identically from homogeneous materials. There is no sense of identity with
> any one example of construction, because there is no discernible example of
> construction. They all look the same, and they were all constructed per a
> programmed design by robots.
If I've given you the impression that I have something against
craftsmanship, perish the thought. In fact, to my mind one of the most
moving examples of someone dedicated to Quality comes from a short story
of the same name written by John Galsworthy about a boot maker in England
who, at the start of the industrial revolution, tried to compete with the
factory-made boots. You'll find it as the last essay in the MOQ forum. If
you haven't read it I highly recommend it to you. The ending brought tears
to my eyes.
Platt
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