We estimated that we could make one of four cylinders with 4 inch bore and 4 inch stroke, weighing not over two hundred pounds, including all accessories.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I can make just such ones if I had tools, and I could make tools if I had tools to make them with.
By the fourth grade, I graduated to an erector set and spent many happy hours constructing devices of unknown purpose where the main design criterion was to maximize the number of moving parts and overall size.
I made a written report which is still today in existence. I have a photocopy of it, and I am saying that in production this aircraft could perhaps substitute for three propeller- driven aircraft of the best existing type. This was my impression.
One of my primary objects is to form the tools so the tools themselves shall fashion the work and give to every part its just proportion.
I think there could be more experimentation if car companies didn't have to make such huge volumes. If you're making 300,000 vehicles, you have to play it safe. Ultimately, the companies want to make customized cars, and they are all working on ways to do that. Experiments with structural systems are usually about that.
When a project has an ample budget, I am interested now in using bigger units of materials.
If a horse has four legs, and I'm riding it, I think I can win.
I wonder if I could make an electric bass.
I'm not always optimistic. You wouldn't have all cylinders cooking if you were always like Mary Poppins.
With twelve horse power at our command, we considered that we could permit the weight of the machine with operator to rise to 750 or 800 pounds, and still have as much surplus power as we had originally allowed for in the first estimate of 550 pounds.