The crude methods of early
building undoubtedly had much to do with this. The old ox-cart weighed a
ton--and it had so much weight that it was weak! To carry a few tons of
humanity from New York to Chicago, the railroad builds a train that
weighs many hundred tons, and the result is an absolute loss of real
strength and the extravagant waste of untold millions in the form of
power. The law of diminishing returns begins to operate at the point
where strength becomes weight. Weight may be desirable in a steam roller
but nowhere else. Strength has nothing to do with weight. The mentality
of the man who does things in the world is agile, light, and strong. The
most beautiful things in the world are those from which all excess
weight has been eliminated. Strength is never just weight--either in men
or things. Whenever any one suggests to me that I might increase weight
or add a part, I look into decreasing weight and eliminating a part! The
car that I designed was lighter than any car that had yet been made. It
would have been lighter if I had known how to make it so--later I got
the materials to make the lighter car.
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