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Page i

ENGINEERING DESIGN

SIXTH EDITION

George E. Dieter
University of Maryland

Linda C. Schmidt
University of Maryland
Page ii

ENGINEERING DESIGN
Published by McGraw Hill LLC, 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New
York, NY 10121. Copyright ©2021 by McGraw Hill LLC. All rights
reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this
publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any
means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior
written consent of McGraw Hill LLC, including, but not limited to, in
any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or
broadcast for distance learning.
Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may
not be available to customers outside the United States.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 LCR 24 23 22 21 20
ISBN 978-1-260-57527-9
MHID 1-260-57527-6
Cover Image: Prints & Photographs Division, Library of Congress,
LCUSZ62-110332

All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are


considered to be an extension of the copyright page.

The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time
of publication. The inclusion of a website does not indicate an
endorsement by the authors or McGraw Hill LLC, and McGraw Hill
LLC does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented
at these sites.

mheducation.com/highered
Page iii

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

GEORGE E. DIETER is Glenn L. Martin Institute Professor of


Engineering at the University of Maryland. The author received his
B.S. Met.E. degree from Drexel University and his D.Sc. degree
from Carnegie Mellon University. After a stint in industry with the
DuPont Engineering Research Laboratory, he became head of the
Metallurgical Engineering Department at Drexel University, where
he later became Dean of Engineering. Professor Dieter later joined
the faculty of Carnegie Mellon University as Professor of
Engineering and Director of the Processing Research Institute. He
moved to the University of Maryland in 1977 as professor of
Mechanical Engineering and Dean of Engineering, serving as dean
until 1994.
Professor Dieter is a fellow of ASM International, TMS, AAAS,
and ASEE. He has received the education award from ASM, TMS,
and SME, as well as the Lamme Medal, the highest award of ASEE.
He has been chair of the Engineering Deans Council, and president
of ASEE. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
He also is the author of Mechanical Metallurgy, published by
McGraw-Hill, now in its third edition.

LINDA C. SCHMIDT is a Professor in the Department of Mechanical


Engineering at the University of Maryland. Dr. Schmidt’s general
research interests and publications are in the areas of mechanical
design theory and methodology, design generation during
conceptual design, design rationale capture, and effective student
learning on engineering project design teams.
Dr. Schmidt completed her doctorate in Mechanical Engineering
at Carnegie Mellon University and B.S. and M.S. degrees from Iowa
State University. Dr. Schmidt is a recipient of the 1998 U.S. National
Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Award. She co-founded
RISE, a summer research experience that won the 2003 Exemplary
Program Award from the American College Personnel Association’s
Commission for Academic Support in Higher Education. Dr. Schmidt
earned the American Society of Engineering Education’s 2008
Merryfield Design Award.
Dr. Schmidt is active in engineering design theory Page iv
research and teaching engineering design to third- and
fourth-year undergraduates and graduate students in mechanical
engineering. She has coauthored a text on engineering decision-
making, two editions of a text on product development, and a team-
training curriculum for faculty using engineering student project
teams. Dr. Schmidt was the guest editor of the Journal of
Engineering Valuation & Cost Analysis and has served as an
Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Mechanical Design. Dr.
Schmidt is a Fellow of ASME, and a member of SME and ASEE.
Page v

BRIEF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Engineering Design 1


Chapter 2 Product-Development Process 29
Chapter 3 Team Behavior and Tools 59
Chapter 4 Gathering Information 99
Chapter 5 Problem Definition and Need Identification 131
Chapter 6 Concept Generation 170
Chapter 7 Decision Making and Concept Selection 217
Chapter 8 Embodiment Design 256
Chapter 9 Detail Design 325
Chapter 10Materials Selection 348
Chapter 11Design for Manufacturing 392
Chapter 12Cost Evaluation 452
Chapter 13Risk, Reliability, and Safety 498
Chapter 14Quality, Robust Design, and Optimization 547
Chapter 15Design for Sustainability and the Environment
www.mhhe.com/dieter6e
Chapter 16Design with Materials www.mhhe.com/dieter6e
Chapter 17Economic Decision Making www.mhhe.com/dieter6e
Chapter 18Legal and Ethical Issues in Engineering Design
www.mhhe.com/dieter6e
Appendices A-1
Author and Subject Indexes I-1

Page vi
Page vii

DETAILED CONTENTS

Abbreviations and Acronyms xv


Preface xvii
Road Map to Engineering Design xix
Chapter 1 Engineering Design 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Engineering Design Process 2
1.3 Ways to Think about the Engineering Design
Process 5
1.4 Description of Design Process 12
1.5 Considerations of a Good Design 15
1.6 Computer-Aided Engineering 19
1.7 Designing to Codes and Standards 21
1.8 Design Review 22
1.9 Societal Considerations in Engineering Design 24
1.10 Summary 25
New Terms and Concepts 26
Bibliography 26
Problems and Exercises 27
Chapter 2 Product-Development Process 29
2.1 Introduction 29
2.2 Product-Development Process 29
2.3 Product and Process Cycles 37
2.4 Organization for Design 41
2.5 Markets and Marketing 44
2.6 Technological Innovation 50
2.7 Summary 55
New Terms and Concepts 56
Bibliography 56
Problems and Exercises 56
Chapter 3 Team Behavior and Tools 59 Page viii
3.1 Introduction 59
3.2 What It Means to Be an Effective Team Member
60
3.3 Team Leadership Roles 61
3.4 Team Dynamics 62
3.5 Effective Team Meetings 63
3.6 Problem-Solving Tools 65
3.7 Time Management 85
3.8 Planning and Scheduling 87
3.9 Summary 95
New Terms and Concepts 96
Bibliography 96
Problems and Exercises 97
Chapter 4 Gathering Information 99
4.1 Gathering Information 99
4.2 Finding Sources of Design Information 105
4.3 Library Sources 108
4.4 Government Sources of Information 112
4.5 Specialized Sources for Design and Product
Development113
4.6 Professional Societies and Trade Associations
115
4.7 Codes and Standards 116
4.8 Patents and Other Intellectual Property 117
4.9 Company-Centered Information 127
4.10 Summary 128
New Terms and Concepts 129
Bibliography 129
Problems and Exercises 129
Chapter 5 Problem Definition and Need Identification 131
5.1 Introduction 131
5.2 Problem Definition 132
5.3 Identifying Customer Needs 134
5.4 Customer Requirements 139
5.5 Gathering Information on Existing Products 143
5.6 Establishing the Engineering Characteristics 148
5.7 Quality Function Deployment 153
5.8 Product Design Specification 163
5.9 Summary 167
New Terms and Concepts 168
Bibliography 168
Problems and Exercises 168
Chapter 6 Concept Generation 170
6.1 Introduction to Creative Thinking 170
6.2 Creativity and Problem Solving 172
6.3 Creative Thinking Methods 175
6.4 Methods for Design Generation 181
6.5 Functional Decomposition and Synthesis Page ix
184
6.6 Morphological Methods 194
6.7 TRIZ: The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving
197
6.8 WordTree Method 209
6.9 Summary 213
New Terms and Concepts 214
Bibliography 214
Problems and Exercises 215
Chapter 7 Decision Making and Concept Selection 217
7.1 Introduction 217
7.2 Behavioral Aspects of Decision Making 218
7.3 Evaluation Processes 220
7.4 Using Models in Evaluation 226
7.5 Pugh Chart 236
7.6 Weighted Decision Matrix 240
7.7 Analytic Hierarchy Process 243
7.8 Summary 251
New Terms and Concepts 252
Bibliography 252
Problems and Exercises 252
Chapter 8 Embodiment Design 256
8.1 Introduction 256
8.2 Product Architecture 259
8.3 Steps in Developing Product Architecture 260
8.4 Configuration Design 265
8.5 Best Practices for Configuration Design 271
8.6 Parametric Design 280
8.7 Dimensions and Tolerances 284
8.8 Industrial Design 301
8.9 Human Factors Design 303
8.10 Life-Cycle Design 311
8.11 Prototyping and Testing 312
8.12 Design for X (DFX) 319
8.13 Summary 321
New Terms and Concepts 321
Bibliography 322
Problems and Exercises 322
Chapter 9 Detail Design 325
9.1 Introduction 325
9.2 Activities and Decisions in Detail Design 326
9.3 Communicating Design and Manufacturing
Information 330
9.4 Final Design Review 340
9.5 Design and Business Activities Beyond Detail
Design 341
9.6 Facilitating Design and Manufacturing with
Computer-Based Methods344
9.7 Summary 345 Page x
New Terms and Concepts 346
Bibliography 346
Problems and Exercises 347
Chapter 10Materials Selection 348
10.1 Introduction 348
10.2 Performance Requirements of Materials 351
10.3 The Materials Selection Process 362
10.4 Sources of Information on Material Properties
366
10.5 Cost of Materials 370
10.6 Overview of Methods of Materials Selection 372
10.7 Material Performance Indices 373
10.8 Materials Selection with Decision Matrices 379
10.9 Selection with Computer-Aided Databases 384
10.10Design Examples 385
10.11Summary 387
New Terms and Concepts 388
Bibliography 388
Problems and Exercises 388
Chapter 11Design for Manufacturing 392
11.1 Role of Manufacturing in Design 392
11.2 Manufacturing Functions 393
11.3 Classification of Manufacturing Processes 395
11.4 Manufacturing Process Selection 401
11.5 Design for Manufacture (DFM) 426
11.6 Design for Assembly (DFA) 429
11.7 Role of Standardization in DFMA 437
11.8 Mistake-Proofing 440
11.9 Early Estimation of Manufacturing Cost 444
11.10Process Specific DFMA Guidelines 447
11.11Summary 447
New Terms and Concepts 449
Bibliography 449
Problems and Exercises 449
Chapter 12Cost Evaluation 452
12.1 Introduction 452
12.2 Categories of Costs 453
12.3 The Cost of Ownership 456
12.4 Manufacturing Cost 457
12.5 Overhead Cost 458
12.6 Activity-Based Costing 460
12.7 Methods of Developing Cost Estimates 463
12.8 Make-Buy Decision 468
12.9 Product Profit Model 468
12.10Refinements to Cost Analysis Methods 472
12.11Design to Cost 477 Page xi
12.12Value Analysis in Costing 480
12.13Manufacturing Cost Models 483
12.14Life Cycle Costing 488
12.15Summary 492
New Terms and Concepts 493
Bibliography 493
Problems and Exercises 493
Chapter 13Risk, Reliability, and Safety 498
13.1 Introduction 498
13.2 Probabilistic Approach to Design 504
13.3 Reliability Theory 513
13.4 Design for Reliability 526
13.5 Failure Mode and Effects Analysis 531
13.6 Defects and Failure Modes 537
13.7 Design for Safety 539
13.8 Summary 542
New Terms and Concepts 543
Bibliography 543
Problems and Exercises 544
Chapter 14Quality, Robust Design, and Optimization 547
14.1 The Concept of Total Quality 547
14.2 Quality Control and Assurance 550
14.3 Statistical Process Control 555
14.4 Quality Improvement 559
14.5 Process Capability 562
14.6 Taguchi Method 567
14.7 Robust Design 572
14.8 Optimization Methods 577
14.9 Design Optimization 591
14.10Summary 593
New Terms and Concepts 593
Bibliography 593
Problems and Exercises 594
Chapter 15Design for Sustainability and the
Environment(www.mhhe.com/dieter6e)
15.1 The Environmental Movement
15.2 Sustainabilty
15.3 Challenges of Sustainability for Business
15.4 End-of-Life Product Transformations
15.5 Role of Material Selection in Design for
Environment
15.6 Tools to Aid Design for the Environment and
Sustainability
15.7 Summary Page xii
New Terms and Concepts
Bibliography
Problems and Exercises
Chapter 16Design with Materials
(www.mhhe.com/dieter6e)
16.1 Introduction
16.2 Design for Brittle Fracture
16.3 Design for Fatigue Failure
16.4 Design for Corrosion Resistance
16.5 Design Against Wear
16.6 Design with Plastics
16.7 Summary
New Terms and Concepts
Bibliography
Problems and Exercises
Chapter 17Economic Decision Making
(www.mhhe.com/dieter6e)
17.1 Introduction
17.2 Mathematics of Time Value of Money
17.3 Cost Comparison
17.4 Depreciation
17.5 Taxes
17.6 Profitability of Investments
17.7 Other Aspects of Profitability
17.8 Inflation
17.9 Sensitivity and Break-Even Analysis
17.10Uncertainty in Economic Analysis
17.11Benefit-Cost Analysis
17.12Summary
New Terms and Concepts
Bibliography
Problems and Exercises
Chapter 18Legal and Ethical Issues in Engineering Design
(see www.mhhe.com/dieter)
18.1 Introduction
18.2 The Origin of Laws
18.3 Contracts
18.4 Liability
18.5 Tort Law
18.6 Product Liability
18.7 Protecting Intellectual Property
18.8 The Legal and Ethical Domains
18.9 Codes of Ethics
18.10Solving Ethical Conflicts Page xiii
18.11Summary
New Terms and Concepts
Bibliography
Problems and Exercises
Appendices A-1
Author and Subject Indexes I-1

Content Available on the Online Learning Center


(www.mhhe.com/dieter6e)

Chapter 3
Team Organization and Duties
Team Contract
Suggestions for Dealing with People Problems in Teams
Example of TQM Tools

Chapter 4
Reading a Patent
Copyrights
Chapter 5
Some Notes on Free-Body Diagrams

Chapter 6
Axiomatic Design

Chapter 7
Decision Theory
Decision Trees
Utility Theory
Shot-Buddy Example
Computer Modeling
Simple Model for Finite Model Analysis
Types of Finite Elements and Steps in FEA Process

Chapter 8
A Parametric Design Example: Helical Coil Compression Spring

Chapter 10
Shape Factors in Materials Selection
Material Selection for Eco-Attributes
Example: Material Substitution

Chapter 11
Brief Descriptions of Manufacturing Processes
Design of Castings
Design of Forgings
Design for Sheet-Metal Forming
Design for Machining
Design of Welding
Residual Stresses in Design
Design for Heat Treatment
Design for Plastics Processing

Chapter 13
Techniques of Failure Analysis
Page xiv
Page xv

ABBREVIATIONS AND
ACRONYMS

AHP Analytic Hierarchy Process


AM Additive Manufacturing
ANSI American National Standards Institute
ASTM American Society for Testing and Material
BOM Bill of Materials
CAE Computer-Aided Engineering
CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics
CIM Computer-Integrated Manufacturing
COTS Commercial Off-the-Shelf
CPM Critical Path Method
CR Customer Requirement
CTQ Critical to Quality
DBD Decision-Based Design
DFA Design for Assembly
DFE Design for the Environment
DFM Design for Manufacture
DFMA Design for Manufacture and Assembly
DV Design Variable
EC Engineering Characteristic
ERP Enterprise Resource Planning
FEA Finite Element Analysis
FMEA Failure Modes and Effects Analysis
FTA Fault Tree Analysis
GD&T Geometric Dimensioning and Tolerancing
HOQ House of Quality
ISO International Organization for Standardization
JIT Just-in-Time
LCC Life-Cycle Costing
MARR Minimum Attractive Rate of Return
MRP Materials Requirements Planning
MTBF Mean Time Between Failure
NDE Nondestructive Evaluation
NIST National Institute of Standards and Technology
OEM Original Equipment Manufacturer
PDP Product Design Process
PDS Product Design Specification
PLM Product Life-Cycle Management
QC Quality Control
QFD Quality Function Deployment
ROI Return on Investment
RP Rapid Prototyping
SPC Statistical Process Control
SQC Statistical Quality Control
TQM Total Quality Management
TRIZ Theory of Inventive Problem Solving
USPTO United States Patent and Trademark Office
WBS Work Breakdown Structure
Page xvi
Page xvii

PREFACE TO SIXTH EDITION

THE SIXTH EDITION of Engineering Design continues its tradition of


being more oriented to material selection, design for manufacturing,
and design for quality than other broad-based design texts. The text
is intended to be used in either a junior or senior engineering design
course with an integrated, hands-on design project. At the University
of Maryland, we present the design process material, Chapters 1
through 9, to junior students in a course introducing the design
process. The whole text is used in the senior capstone design course
that includes a complete design project, starting from selecting a
market to creating a working prototype. Our ­intention is that
students will consider this book to be a valuable part of their
professional library. Toward this end we have continued and
expanded the practice of giving key literature references and
referrals to useful websites.
There has been a noteworthy reordering of chapters in the sixth
edition so to as align them more closely to the overall design
process utilized by this text. While the size of the printed book has
been reduced, the scope of the text remains the same, with a few
new and valuable sections.

New Topics
Information Literacy
Introduction to WordTree
Biomimicry Design Generation Methods
A significant change in this edition has been to move theoretical
and historical content online. This material is tangential to core
information and may divert student attention from the application of
the design process. One example of moved material includes
sections on decision theory, decision trees, and utility theory from
Chapter 7. Another change is in the presentation of total quality
management (TQM): The printed text demonstrates TQM tools in an
example, and a second example is given in the online material.
Another example of material moved online involves the process-­‐
specific define manufacturing and assembly guidelines.
Page xviii
Online Chapters
Chapter 15: Design for Sustainability and the Environment
Chapter 16: Design with Materials
Chapter 17: Economic Decision Making
Chapter 18: Legal and Ethical Issues in Engineering Design

Assigning online chapter material to students provides the


opportunity for students to build on their concept design decisions
and demonstrate independent learning. This material is easily
accessible at www.mhhe.com/dieter6e.
Other instructor resources that can be found online include:

Solutions Manual
Lecture PowerPoints
Image Library
Guidelines for Design Reports and Sheets

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We want to acknowledge the willingness of students from our senior
design course for permission to use material from their report in
some of our examples. The JSR Design Team members are Josiah
Davis, Jamil Decker, James Maresco, Seth McBee, Stephen Phillips,
and Ryan Quinn. Special thanks to Peter Sandborn, Chandra
Thamire, and Guangming Zhang, our colleagues in the Mechanical
Engineering Department, University of Maryland, for their willingness
to share their knowledge with us.

George E. Dieter and Linda C. Schmidt


College Park, MD
2020
Page xix

ROAD MAP TO ENGINEERING


DESIGN

Page xx
Page 1

1
ENGINEERING DESIGN

1.1
INTRODUCTION
What is design? If you search the literature for an answer to that
question, you will find about as many definitions as there are designs.
Perhaps the reason is that the process of design is such a common human
experience. Webster’s Dictionary says that to design is “to fashion after a
plan,” but that leaves out the essential fact that to design is to create
something that has never been. Certainly an engineering designer
practices design by that definition, but so does an artist, a sculptor, a
composer, a playwright, or any another creative member of our society.
Thus, although engineers are not the only people who design things,
it is true that the professional practice of engineering is largely concerned
with design; it is often said that design is the essence of engineering. To
design is to pull together something new or to arrange existing things in
a new way to satisfy a recognized need of society. An elegant word for
“pulling together” is synthesis. We shall adopt the following formal
definition of design: “Design establishes and defines solutions to and
pertinent structures for problems not solved before, or new solutions to
problems which have previously been solved in a different way.”1 The
ability to design is both a science and an art. The science can be learned
through techniques and methods to be covered in this text, but the art is
best learned by doing design. It is for this reason that your design
experience must involve some realistic project experience.
The emphasis that we have given to the creation of new things in our
introduction to design should not unduly alarm you. To become proficient
in design is a perfectly attainable goal for an engineering student, but its
attainment requires the guided experience that we intend this text to
provide. Design should not be confused with discovery. Discovery is
getting the first sight of, or the first knowledge of something, as when Sir
Isaac Newton discovered the concept of gravity. We can discover what
has already existed but has not been known before, but a design is the
product of planning and work. We will present a structured design Page 2
process to assist you in doing design in Section 1.5.
We should note that a design may or may not involve invention. To
obtain a legal patent on an invention requires that the design be a step
beyond the limits of the existing knowledge (beyond the state of the art).
Some designs are truly inventive, but most are not.
Design can be defined as either a noun or a verb. As a noun, it can be
defined as specific parts or features of an item according to a plan, as in
“My new design is ready for review.” The definition as a verb is to
formulate a plan for something, as in “I have to design three new models
of the product for three different overseas markets.” Note that the verb
form of design is also written as “designing.” Often the phrase “design
process” is used to emphasize the use of the verb form of design. It is
important to understand these differences and to use the word
appropriately.
Good design requires both analysis and synthesis. Typically we
approach complex problems like design by decomposing the problem into
manageable parts. Because we need to understand how the part will
perform in service, we must be able to calculate as much about the part’s
expected behavior as possible before it exists in physical form by using
the appropriate disciplines of science and engineering science and the
necessary computational tools. This is called analysis. It usually involves
the simplification of the real world through models. Synthesis involves the
identification of the design elements that will comprise the product, its
decomposition into parts, and the combination of the part solutions into a
total workable system.
One thing that should be clear by now is how engineering design
extends well beyond the boundaries of science. The expanded
boundaries and responsibilities of engineering create almost unlimited
opportunities. A professional career in engineering will provide the
opportunity to create dozens of designs and have the satisfaction of
seeing them become working realities. “A scientist will be lucky if he
makes one creative addition to human knowledge in his whole life, and
many never do. A scientist can discover a new star but he cannot make
one. He would have to ask an engineer to do it for him.”1

1.2
ENGINEERING DESIGN PROCESS
The engineering design process can be used to achieve several different
outcomes. One is the design of products, whether they be consumer
goods such as refrigerators, power tools, or DVD players, or highly
complex products such as a missile system or a jet transport plane.
Another is a complex engineered system such as an electrical power
generating station or a petrochemical plant, while yet another is the
design of a building or a bridge. However, the emphasis in this text is on
product design because it is an area in which many engineers will Page 3
apply their design skills. Moreover, examples taken from this area
of design are easier to grasp without extensive specialized knowledge.
This chapter presents the engineering design process from three
perspectives. In Section 1.3 the design method is contrasted with the
scientific method, and design is presented as a five-step problem-solving
methodology. Section 1.4 takes the role of design beyond that of meeting
technical performance requirements and introduces the idea that design
must meet the needs of society at large. Section 1.5 lays out a cradle-to-
the-grave road map of the design process, showing that the responsibility
of the engineering designer extends from the creation of a design until its
embodiment is disposed of in an environmentally safe way. Chapter 2
extends the engineering design process to the broader issue of product
development by introducing more business-oriented issues such as
product positioning and marketing.

1.2.1 Importance of the Engineering Design Process

In the 1980s when companies in the United States first began to seriously
feel the impact of quality products from overseas, it was natural for them
to place an emphasis on reducing their manufacturing costs through
automation and moving plants to lower-labor-cost regions. However, it
was not until the publication of a major study of the National Research
Council (NRC)1 that companies came to realize that the real key to world-
competitive products lies in high-quality product design. This has
stimulated a rash of experimentation and sharing of results about better
ways to do product design. What was once a fairly cut-and-dried
engineering process has become one of the cutting edges of engineering
progress. This text aims at providing you with insight into the current best
practices for doing engineering design.
The importance of design is nicely summed up in Figure 1.1. This
shows that only a small fraction of the cost to produce a product (≈5
percent) is involved with the design process, while the other 95 percent
of cost is consumed by the materials, capital, and labor to manufacture
the product. However, the design process consists of the accumulation of
many decisions that result in design commitments that affect about 70 to
80 percent of the manufactured cost of the product. In other words, the
decisions made beyond the design phase can influence only about 25
percent of the total cost. If the design proves to be faulty just before the
product goes to market, it will cost a great deal of money to correct the
problem. To summarize: Decisions made in the design process cost very
little in terms of the overall product cost but have a major effect on the
cost of the product.

FIGURE 1.1
Product cost commitment during phases of the design
process. (After Ullman.)
The second major impact of design is on product quality. The old
concept of product quality was that it was achieved by inspecting the
product as it came off the production line. Today we realize that true
quality is designed into the product. Achieving quality through product
design will be a theme that pervades this book. For now we point out
that one aspect of quality is to incorporate within the product the Page 4
performance and features that are truly desired by the customer
who purchases the product. In addition, the design must be carried out
so that the product can be made without defect at a competitive cost. To
summarize: You cannot compensate in manufacturing for defects
introduced in the design phase.
The third area where engineering design determines product
competitiveness is product cycle time. Cycle time refers to the
development time required to bring a new product to market. In many
consumer areas the product with the latest “bells and whistles” captures
the customers’ fancy. The use of new organizational methods, the
widespread use of computer-aided engineering, and rapid prototyping
methods are contributing to reducing product cycle time. Not only does
reduced cycle time increase the marketability of a product, but it reduces
the cost of product development. Furthermore, the longer a product is
available for sale the more sales and profits there will be. To summarize:
The design process should be conducted so as to develop quality, cost-
competitive products in the shortest time possible.

1.2.2 Types of Designs

Engineering design can be undertaken for many different reasons, and it


may take different forms.

Original design, also called innovative design. This form of design is


at the top of the hierarchy. It employs an original, innovative concept
to achieve a need. Sometimes, but rarely, the need itself may be
original. A truly original design involves invention. Successful original
designs occur rarely, but when they do occur they usually disrupt
existing markets because they have in them the seeds of new
technology of far-reaching consequences. The design of the
microprocessor was one such original design. Page 5
Adaptive design. This form of design occurs when the design team
adapts a known solution to satisfy a different need to produce a
novel application. For example, adapting the ink-jet printing concept
to spray binder to hold particles in place in a rapid prototyping
machine.
Redesign. Much more frequently, engineering design is employed to
improve an existing design. The task may be to redesign a
component in a product that is failing in service, or to redesign a
component so as to reduce its cost of manufacture. Often redesign is
accomplished without any change in the working principle or concept
of the original design. For example, the shape may be changed to
reduce a stress ­concentration, or a new material substituted to
reduce weight or cost. When redesign is achieved by changing some
of the design parameters, it is often called variant design.
Selection design. Most designs employ standard components such as
bearings, small motors, or pumps that are supplied by vendors
specializing in their manufacture and sale. Therefore, in this case the
design task consists of selecting the components with the needed
performance, quality, and cost from the catalogs of potential vendors.

1.3
WAYS TO THINK ABOUT THE ENGINEERING
DESIGN PROCESS
We often talk about “designing a system.” By a system we mean the
entire combination of hardware, information, and people necessary to
accomplish some specified task. A system may be an electric power
distribution network for a region of the nation, a complex piece of
machinery such as an aircraft jet engine, or a combination of production
steps to produce automobile parts. A large system usually is divided into
subsystems, which in turn are made up of components or parts. The
subsystems selected for the system’s design are usually already existing
products. For example, planes used for commercial flights can include
lightweight liquid-crystal display (LCD) screens mounted on the back of
each head rest. The design of the plane is a system design. The LCD
screen is an already designed product that is selected as a subsystem for
the plane.
1.3.1 A Simplified Iteration Model

There is no single universally accepted sequence of steps that leads to a


workable design. Different writers or designers have outlined the design
process in as few as 5 steps or as many as 25. Morris Asimow1 was one of
the first to write introspectively about design. He viewed the design
process as a transformation of specific information on needs and general
information on technology to produce a design outcome that must be
evaluated (Figure 1.2). If the evaluation uncovers deficiencies the Page 6
design operation must be repeated. The information from the first
design and all that was learned through the evaluation is fed back into the
design process as input. This type of repetition is called iteration.
Acquisition of information is a vital and often a very difficult step in the
design process. The importance of sources of information is considered
more fully in Chapter 4.

FIGURE 1.2
Basic module in the design process. (After Asimow.)

Once armed with the necessary information, the design team (or
design engineer if the task is rather limited) carries out the design
operation by using the appropriate technical knowledge through
computational or experimental methods. At this stage it may be
necessary to use an ideation process to generate a set of alternative
design concepts. Then a decision-making method is used to select one of
the alternative concepts to pursue. Next the design team may construct a
mathematical model and conduct a simulation of the design performance
on a computer, or construct a prototype model and test it for
performance. After the design is set, the result must be evaluated for
fitness.

1.3.2 Design Method Versus Scientific Method

In your scientific and engineering education you may have heard


reference to the scientific method, a logical progression of events that
leads to the solution of scientific problems. Percy Hill1 has diagramed the
comparison between the scientific method and the design method (Figure
1.3). The scientific method starts with a body of existing knowledge based
on observed natural phenomena. Scientists have curiosity that causes
them to question these laws of science; and as a result of their
questioning, they eventually formulate a hypothesis. The hypothesis is
subjected to logical analysis that either confirms or denies it. Often the
analysis reveals flaws or inconsistencies, so the hypothesis must Page 7
be changed in an iterative process.

FIGURE 1.3
Comparison between the scientific method and the
esign method. (After percy Hill.)
Finally, when the new idea is confirmed to the satisfaction of its
originator, it must be accepted as proof by fellow scientists. Once
accepted, it is communicated to the community of scientists and it
enlarges the body of existing knowledge. The knowledge loop is
completed.
The design method is very similar to the scientific method if we allow
for differences in viewpoint and philosophy. The design method starts
with knowledge of the state of the art. That includes scientific
knowledge, but it also includes devices, components, materials,
manufacturing methods, and market and economic conditions. Rather
than scientific curiosity, it is really the needs of society (usually expressed
through economic factors) that provide the impetus. When a need is
identified, it must be conceptualized as some kind of model. The purpose
of the model is to help us predict the behavior of a design once it is
converted to physical form. The outcomes of the model, whether it is a
mathematical or a physical model, must be subjected to a feasibility
analysis, almost always with iteration, until an acceptable product is
produced or the project is abandoned. When the design enters the
production phase, it begins to compete in the world of technology. The
design loop is closed when the product is accepted as part of the current
technology and thereby advances the state of the art of the particular
area of technology. Page 8
A more philosophical differentiation between science and
design has been advanced by the Nobel Prize–winning economist Herbert
Simon.1 He points out that science is concerned with creating knowledge
about naturally occurring phenomena and objects, while design is
concerned with creating knowledge about phenomena and objects of the
artificial. Artificial objects are those made by humans rather than nature.
Thus, science is based on studies of the observed, while design is based
on artificial concepts characterized in terms of functions, goals, and
adaptation.
In the preceding brief outline of the design method, the identification
of a need requires further elaboration. Needs are identified at many
points in a business or organization. Most organizations have research or
development departments whose job is to create ideas that are relevant
to the goals of the organization. A very important avenue for learning
about needs is the customers for the product or services that the
company sells. Managing this input is usually the job of the marketing
organization of the company. Other needs are generated by government
agencies, trade associations, or the attitudes or decisions of the general
public. Needs usually arise from dissatisfaction with the existing situation.
The need drivers may be to reduce cost, increase reliability or
performance, or just change because the public has become bored with
the product.

1.3.3 A Problem-Solving Methodology

Designing can be approached as a problem to be solved. Many


engineering science subjects use a traditional problem-solving process.
These subjects include introductory statics, dynamics, and fluid
mechanics. The problems in these subjects are clearly defined and usually
have a single, correct answer. Engineering science problem solving is used
when analyzing component performance and evaluating component
options. These components usually comprise a larger subsystem than has
previously been designed.
In contrast to engineering science problem solving, engineering
design tasks are ill defined and have multiple solution alternatives. A
design process has different steps than a traditional problem-solving
process. A general description of the design process consists of the
following steps.

Definition of the problem


Gathering of information
Generation of alternative solutions
Evaluation of alternatives and decision making
Communication of the results

Design is iterative. Iterative means that a design team often must return
to an earlier step in the process and repeat the steps, to move forward.
This is often the result of new information based on the design team’s
work. Page 9

Definition of the Problem


The most critical step in the solution of a problem is the problem
definition or formulation. The true task is not always what it seems at
first glance. The importance of problem definition is often overlooked
because this step seemingly requires such a small part of the total design
time. Figure 1.4 illustrates how the final design can differ greatly
depending upon how the problem is defined.

FIGURE 1.4
Note how the design depends on the viewpoint of the
ndividual who defines the problem.

The formulation of the problem should start by writing down a


problem statement. The problem statement should express, as
specifically as possible, the details of the design task. It should include
definition of any special technical terms, performance objectives, the
design of similar products, and any constraints placed on solution of the
problem. The problem-definition step in a design project is covered in
detail in Chapter 5.
Problem definition often is called needs analysis, identification of
customer requirements, or problem identification. It is difficult to
accurately determine the details of the design task at the beginning of
the process for all but the most routine design task. New needs are
established as the design process proceeds because new information is
obtained throughout the process. There is a paradox inherent in the
design process between the accumulation of problem (domain)
knowledge and freedom to improve the design. When one is creating an
original design, very little is known about its solution. As the design team
proceeds with its work, it acquires more knowledge about the Page 10
technologies involved and the possible solutions (Figure 1.5).
The team has moved up the learning curve.

FIGURE 1.5
The design paradox between design knowledge and
esign freedom.

Gathering Information
The most critical step in the design process is identifying the
information you need and acquiring it. This is challenging because the
design task typically requires information from more than one discipline.
The knowledge of new and best practices in engineering is continually
changing. This is one reason why an engineer must develop a habit of
lifelong learning.
Technical reports published as a result of government-sponsored
research and development (R&D), company reports, trade journals,
patents, catalogs, and handbooks and literature published by vendors
and suppliers of material and equipment are important sources of
information. The Internet is a very useful resource. Often the missing
piece of information can be supplied by an Internet search, or by a
telephone call or an e-mail to a key supplier. Discussions with in-house
experts (often in the corporate R&D center) and outside consultants may
prove helpful.
The following are some of the questions concerned with obtaining
information:

What do I need to find out?


Where can I find it and how can I get it?
How credible and accurate is the information?
How should the information be interpreted for my specific need?
When do I have enough information?
What decisions result from the information?

Some suggestions for finding relevant information can be found in


Chapter 4. Page 11

Generation of Alternative Solutions


The ability to generate high-quality design alternatives is vital to
successful design. Generating alternative solutions or design concepts
involves the use of creativity-stimulation methods, the application of
physical principles, quantitative reasoning, the ability to find and use
information, and experience. An essential difference between traditional
problem solving and design is that the design process generates multiple
solutions. Therefore, the design process must include a step to evaluate
the alternative design solutions and select the best alternative. This
important subject is covered in Chapter 6.

Evaluation of Alternatives and Decision Making


The evaluation of alternatives involves systematic methods for
selecting the best among several concepts, often in the face of
incomplete information. Engineering analysis procedures provide the
basis for making decisions about performance. Design for manufacturing
analyses (Chapter 11) and cost estimation (Chapter 12) provide other
important information. Various other types of engineering analysis also
provide information. Simulation of performance with computer models is
commonly used. Simulated service testing of an experimental model and
testing of full-sized prototypes often provide critical data. Without this
quantitative information it is not possible to make valid evaluations.
Several methods for evaluating design concepts, or any other problem
solutions, are given in Chapter 7.

Communication of the Results


It must always be kept in mind that the purpose of the design is to
satisfy the needs of an internal review, a customer, or a client. The
finalized design must be properly recorded and communicated, or it may
lose much of its impact or significance. The communication is usually by
oral presentation to the sponsor or review committee and by a written
design report. Detailed engineering drawings, computer programs, three-
dimensional (3-D) computer models, and working models are frequently
among the “deliverables” to the customer.
It hardly needs to be emphasized that communication is not a one-
time occurrence to be carried out at the end of the project. In a well-run
design project there is continual oral and written dialog between the
project manager and the customer.
Thus, as Figure 1.5 shows, the freedom of the team to go back and
start over with their newly gained knowledge (experience) decreases
greatly as their knowledge about the design problem grows. At the
beginning the designer has the freedom to make changes without great
cost penalty, but may not know what to do to make the design better.
The paradox comes from the fact that when the design team finally
masters the problem, their design is essentially frozen because of the
great penalties involved with a change. The solution is for the design
team to learn as much about the problem as early in the design process
as it possibly can. This also places high priority on the team members
learning to work independently toward a common goal (Chapter 3), being
skilled in gathering information (Chapter 4), and being good at
communicating relevant knowledge to their teammates. Design team
members must become stewards of the knowledge they acquire. Figure
1.5 also shows why it is important to document in detail what has been
done, so that the experience can be used by subsequent teams in future
projects. Page 12

1.4
DESCRIPTION OF DESIGN PROCESS

Morris Asimow1 was among the first to give a detailed description of the
complete design process in what he called the morphology of design.
Figure 1.6 shows the various activities that make up the first three phases
of design: conceptual design, embodiment design, and detail design. The
purpose of this graphic is to remind you of the logical sequence of
activities that leads from problem definition to the detail design.

FIGURE 1.6
The design activities that make up the first three
phases of the engineering design process.

1.4.1 Phase I. Conceptual Design


Conceptual design is the process by which the design is initiated, carried
to the point of creating a number of possible solutions, and narrowed
down to a single best concept. It is sometimes called the feasibility study.
Conceptual design is the phase that requires the greatest creativity,
involves the most uncertainty, and requires coordination among many
functions in the business organization. The following are the discrete
activities that we consider under conceptual design.

Identification of customer needs: The goal of this activity is to


completely understand the customers’ needs and to communicate
them to the design team.
Problem definition: The goal of this activity is to create a statement
that describes what has to be accomplished to satisfy the needs of
the customer. This involves analysis of competitive products, the
establishment of target specifications, and the listing of constraints
and trade-offs. Quality function deployment (QFD) is a valuable tool
for linking customer needs with design requirements. A detailed
listing of the product requirements is called a product design
specification (PDS). Problem definition, in its full scope, is treated in
Chapter 5.
Gathering information: Engineering design presents special
requirements over engineering research in the need to acquire a
broad spectrum of information. This subject is covered in Chapter 4.
Conceptualization: Concept generation involves creating a broad set
of concepts that potentially satisfy the problem statement. Team-
based creativity methods, combined with efficient information
gathering, are the key activities. This subject is covered in Chapter 6.
Concept selection: Evaluation of the design concepts, modifying and
evolving into a single preferred concept, are the activities in this step.
The process usually requires several iterations. This is covered in
Chapter 7.
Refinement of the PDS: The product design specification is revisited
after the concept has been selected. The design team must commit
to achieving certain critical values of design parameters, usually
called critical-to-quality (CTQ) parameters, and to living with trade-
offs between cost and performance.
Another random document with
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entirely unofficial channels. But Captain Patch is a very nice young
fellow indeed, and one can’t help feeling it’s a pity that he should be
victimized.”
“Perhaps he isn’t victimized. He may admire her.”
“So much the worse,” said Lady Annabel in her lowest, gentlest and
most inexorable voice. “Surely there are plenty of nice, innocent girls
to choose from without running after a married woman. The Rector’s
position makes it difficult for me to speak about these things, as you
know. But, if you remember, I said some time ago that it was a most
unwise proceeding to invite a person like Mrs. Harter to take part in
your theatricals.”
“She has, up to the present, come to no rehearsals, so the
theatricals can hardly be held responsible for bringing them
together.”
Lady Annabel bent her head. I knew, however, and she meant me to
know, that this was mere courtesy on her part—not acquiescence.
She was not the only person to talk about Mrs. Harter and Captain
Patch, of course. It is never only one person who talks; these things
get into the air, no one knows how.
Mrs. Kendal spoke to Claire, and Claire reported what she had said
to me.
“I have seen them myself, walking about the town,” said Mumma
impressively. “They actually went into the butcher’s together. Of
course, I suppose she does her own marketing, living in rooms. And
I distinctly saw them go into the butcher’s together.”
Claire said that it seemed an unromantic sort of trysting place.
“It shows how intimate they are, their going like that to the butcher’s
together. None of my girls would ever dream of taking a gentleman
to do their household shopping,” said Mrs. Kendal with absolute
truth. “I should think less of it, in a way, if Captain Patch and Mrs.
Harter went to the theater, or even to the cinematograph, together.
But when it comes to their going together to the butcher’s, I ask
myself what it all means.”
Mrs. Kendal had not been content only to ask herself what it all
meant. She had asked several other people as well, including her
four daughters and her son.
“It means,” said Dolly, with her most uncompromisingly sensible
expression, “that Mrs. Harter is trying to get up a flirtation with
Captain Patch.”
“She’s old enough to be his mother, I should think,” said Aileen.
When the twins had made these scathing statements, I think they felt
that the situation had been exhaustively analyzed. At any rate,
although they thereafter talked round and round the subject with
tireless persistency, the sum total of their observations never
amounted to more than that Mrs. Harter was trying to get up a
flirtation with Captain Patch and that she was old enough to be his
mother.
I did not think it worth while to point out that twenty-eight cannot be
the mother of twenty-six.
It was odd, and to me profoundly interesting, to compare the
comments which the situation evoked.
Mary Ambrey, of course, made none, and was, I should imagine,
almost the only person in Cross Loman of whom that could be said.
Sallie and Martyn, with their strange, passionless habits of
dissection, were coldly and impersonally interested.
I remember one exposition of their views. The spirit of it impressed
itself upon my consciousness so clearly that I can almost remember
the letter.
“There’ll be a scandal over Patch and the fascinating Mrs. Harter one
of these days,” said Martyn.
“She’s not fascinating,” Sallie asserted.
Her brother raised his eyebrows slightly, and she understood and
laughed.
“Flat contradiction is rather uncivilized, I admit. And besides, she
probably is fascinating, to some people.”
“She certainly is to Bill Patch.”
“I know. As a matter of fact, there’s more to it than that, I believe. I
mean, he’s more than just attracted by her.”
“Really? You once said he was a temperamental romantic, I know.
Are you trying to justify that now by building up a mountain out of a
molehill?”
“I am not. Events are simply confirming my previous psychological
deductions, that’s all,” said Sallie with bland dignity.
I was glad that Claire was not in the room. Like all egotists, she is
driven nearly to frenzy by a display of egotism in anybody else.
“In all this,” said I, “there is one person who is never mentioned.
What about Mr. Harter?”
There was a pause. Then Martyn remarked: “Negligible, I should
think.”
“Possibly, as a personality. But as a man and a husband, he exists. It
is even conceivable that he has feelings.”
“Oh, feelings!” said Sallie and Martyn, more or less together.
The tone of each expressed the utmost contempt.
“Some people might even go so far as to say that he has rights.”
“To a certain extent, so he has,” said Sallie, evidently determined to
be broad-minded.
“Presumably she made the usual undertakings when she married
him. But from all accounts, they’ve each gone their own way ever
since they married. From a sentimental point of view, it can hardly
matter what she does now. Perhaps she’s working up for a divorce.”
“If so, it’s bad luck on Patch. He can’t want to marry her.”
But to that Sallie replied thoughtfully, “I’m not so sure.”
“Are they together a great deal?” Martyn queried. “Mrs. Kendal
speaks as though they were never to be seen apart, but she bases
that upon their having gone into the butcher’s shop at the same time,
which she appears to regard as peculiarly incriminating.”
“He takes her for a walk every day and sees her home whenever
they’re at the same parties, but I can’t personally see why he
shouldn’t do that,” Sallie declared. “All this gossip and tittle-tattle
makes me sick. Whatever they do it’s their own business and
nobody else’s.”
Again I mentioned Mr. Harter’s name, and it met with as little
acclamation as before.
“He’d better come to England if he doesn’t like his wife to have
friendships.”
“Do you suppose she writes and tells him about them?” asked Sallie
ironically.
“One has links, as Lady Annabel would say. He’s probably heard all
about it, and rather more than all, from some officious soul who
thinks he ought to know. After all, Mrs. Harter was Diamond Ellison,
the plumber’s daughter, and pretty well-known, at least by name, to
everybody here, let alone that she’s the sort that always does get
talked about.”
“She interests me a good deal, as a psychological study,” said Sallie.
“But as a matter of fact, I don’t consider that she’s behaving well.”
“You mean that what she’s doing—getting herself talked about with
Patch, while her husband is abroad—is anti-social?” Martyn
suggested.
“Yes, exactly. I’ve no feelings, personally, as to the rights or wrongs
of anything, from an ethical point of view, but I do bar the sort of
thing that can only be called anti-social.”
They are both perfectly satisfied once they have found a label, and
affixed it, to any situation.
I should like to see Martyn or Sallie—but especially Sallie—in love.
There are times when I believe that she is quite incapable of it. She
would pin down and analyze every symptom of her condition and
then discuss it exhaustively, and very likely write a book about it.
Perhaps passion could survive all this. I am not prepared to say that
it could not, for I am conscious that the understanding of one
generation cannot project itself into that of another, whatever Claire
may say about the experience of a lifetime, which in reality has
nothing whatever to do with it.
Once upon a time, Martyn Ambrey did bring a very young girl, with
shingled hair and most beautiful slim ankles, to stay with his mother
for a week-end. They went out on his motor bicycle all Sunday, and
that evening—when the girl was out of the room—Martyn said
casually to Mary and Sallie:
“Lois has plenty of brains, but I didn’t realize how conventional her
upbringing has made her. She’d insist upon having her children
baptized.”
On Monday morning he took her away again on the carrier of his
motor bicycle, and that—so far as I know—was the end of it.
Mary said that Lois, from start to finish, remained as demure as a
Victorian school girl. They have their own standards, no doubt. Mary
says so, and leaves it at that. But Claire says, in one and the same
breath, that the Lois and Martyn type do not know the meaning of
reality, and are incapable of recognizing it when they meet it, and
that their attitude of detachment is all a pose.
Perhaps she envies them their undoubted immunity from the
perpetual emotional turmoil in which her own life has been spent.
But, on the other hand, there was bitter and passionate envy in her
condemnation of Mrs. Harter.
I could understand that, in a way. Claire, like many another woman
who is more or less incapable of self-command, holds the theory that
this lack of discipline constitutes a special and peculiar claim upon
Providence. Only a supreme call, they hold, can bring forth the
supreme response of which they feel themselves to be capable.
Failing that, it is impossible that they should fulfil themselves. They
go through life with a sense of frustration.
Claire has far too much perception not to appraise an atmospheric
value very quickly. She knew quite well that Bill Patch and Mrs.
Harter were not engaged upon the odious pastime, so odiously
described by Dolly Kendal, of “getting up a flirtation.”
Bill Patch himself, quite unconsciously, made one see that. He did
not very often speak Mrs. Harter’s name, but when he did, it was like
an electric spark in the room.
“What will happen?” Nancy Fazackerly murmured to me once, so
vaguely that I half wondered if she knew that she was speaking
aloud.
“You think something will happen? Sometimes these things die of
themselves, you know.”
“Sometimes. But this won’t. I can’t bear to think of it. You know, one
gets very fond of Bill.”
I knew.
But I doubt if anyone else would have added, as Nancy did, “And I’m
so sorry for her.”
“Why?” said Christopher, who was beside her as usual. He was one
of the people who did not admire Mrs. Harter.
“Well, she is married, isn’t she?” Mrs. Fazackerly suggested. “I
suppose things may be rather difficult, perhaps, when Mr. Harter
comes to England.”
One could not help remembering that Mrs. Fazackerly had the best
of reasons for understanding how difficult things could be made by
the return of a husband, even although the late Mr. Fazackerly had
had no serious grievances to provoke his habits of violence.
“I know nothing about Mr. Harter,” said Christopher, “but if he’s
coming here, mark my words, there’ll be trouble.”
Mrs. Fazackerly may or may not have marked Christopher’s words—
probably she did—but it was quite evident enough without them that
the arrival of Harter in Cross Loman would precipitate a crisis.
“Is he coming here?” I asked.
Mrs. Fazackerly nodded.
“When?” I said, and Christopher Ambrey at the same moment said,
“Why?”
“Very soon. And he’s coming because—” Nancy paused and then
said in a slightly awe-stricken way: “She’s written and asked him to
come.”
“Did she tell you so?”
“Captain Patch did.”
“And did he tell you why she did anything so astonishing?”
“Not exactly. I got an impression, though.” She hesitated.
“I think I’ll tell you. I think, in a way, he rather wanted me to tell
people—especially if anyone is talking about them.”
“Everyone is talking about them,” I assured her. “Please add to the
number.”
All the same, I knew that what she wanted to say was, by
comparison with the tittle-tattle that was going on, something
serious.
“Diamond Harter has written to her husband and asked him to come
here. She is very unhappily married—everyone knows that—and I
think she is going to try and put an end to it.”
“Put an end to it?”
“A separation, I suppose, or—or a divorce, perhaps.”
“And where, exactly, does Bill Patch come in?”
“I should have thought that was obvious,” muttered Christopher.
“That’s exactly where you’re mistaken, my dear fellow. There’s
nothing obvious about any of it. Neither of them are obvious people,
and I distrust profoundly the combination of an obvious situation and
two such unobvious protagonists. It is quite impossible to predict
what their reactions may be.”
I felt rather like Sallie as I spoke, and I also knew that Christopher,
by instinct, dislikes and distrusts the use of polysyllabic words.
He looked at me rather disgustedly, but did not say anything.
Nancy Fazackerly went on.
“Of course, it’s impossible not to see that she and Captain Patch are
—are always together. But really and truly I believe she’s written—or
they both have—to Mr. Harter.”
“To tell him that they’re making themselves the talk of Cross Loman?
How considerate!”
“It seems rather a brave sort of thing to have done,” Nancy said
wistfully.
Her own strong point is not moral courage.
“Of course, she’s older than he is, and besides, she’s married
already, and—and there are other things as well. But I can’t help
being very sorry for her. And I am fond of him.”
I thought Christopher Ambrey looked rather anxious, at that, and that
I had better give him the opportunity of going into the question of the
exact degree of fondness that Captain Patch had inspired in Mrs.
Fazackerly. So I left them together.
Their love affair was progressing very, very slowly, and I did not even
then feel sure that it was destined to a successful fulfilment.
Claire, I knew, would use all her influence to prevent it, which
seemed to render it rather more likely to happen, but old Carey was
capable of working seriously upon his daughter’s feelings to the
extent of making her think it her duty to remain with him.
There was no doubt that Christopher, hitherto singularly
unsusceptible, was attracted by her. He always turned over the
pages of her music for her at rehearsals, and once he had given her
a bunch of lilies of the valley.
There were pauses in his courtship, during which he evidently
thought over the next stage before embarking upon it, but on the
whole the affair was going forward.
Nancy Fazackerly was looking prettier than I had ever seen her. She
had one or two new frocks that summer, too, as though she thought
it was worth while to look her best.
“Nancy Fazackerly doesn’t look like a widow,” Mrs. Kendal said,
about this time. Her tone was not exactly disparaging, although
neither was it enthusiastic. But her wide, opaque gaze rested quite
blandly upon Nancy as she spoke.
“What does a widow look like?”
Mumma is not apt at definitions, and she only replied that a widow
generally looked like a widow, and that Nancy Fazackerly didn’t.
“So much the better,” said I.
“She is very young,” Mumma said tolerantly. “And I believe it is a
positive fact that her first husband was in the habit of throwing plates
at her head.”
She paused for a moment, and then, as far as Mumma’s large face
can express anything, it expressed confusion.
“When I say her first husband,” she incredibly remarked, “I mean to
say her late husband.”
I really thought that I had better not hear this at all, and so I turned
the conversation abruptly to “The Bulbul Ameer.”
It was very easy to do this, since everyone who knew anything at all
about the play, and many who did not, appeared to hold very strong
views about the manner of its production and to be eager to
advocate them.
Mumma was no exception.
Bill Patch and Nancy, however, were the joint authors of the piece,
and so the conversation gradually veered round to personalities
again.
Mrs. Kendal said that it was a great pity about Captain Patch and
that she had always thought him a nice young fellow, before.
I declined, tacitly, to unravel these implications, and on the whole I
was relieved when she worked her way back to the Nancy
Fazackerly theme once more.
Everybody’s inflections, if not their words, were friendly and hopeful
when they talked about Nancy Fazackerly and Christopher Ambrey.
Almost equally universal were the characteristics of the words and
inflections applied to Mrs. Harter and Captain Patch.
These were either condemnatory or regretful—and sometimes both.
Chapter Nine
It was an unusually eventful summer in Cross Loman.
The only large house in the neighborhood which is ever let,
Grainges, was taken for three months by a wealthy fellow of the
name of Leeds and his wife. Lady Annabel Bending was quite
excited and said that they had “known H. E. in his Zanzibar days.” It
was one of those links of which we had so often heard her speak,
and she naturally called upon them at once. Then there was a tea
party in their honor at the rectory, and Lady Annabel stood on the
steps smiling and said a few appropriate words to each guest as she
shook hands and at intervals raised her voice and said very clearly
and distinctly:
“To your right as you go in. The door is open....”
Most of Cross Loman knows the inside of the rectory pretty well, and
it is not a very large house, so that Lady Annabel’s directions were
not really exactly necessary, but it was all very masterly and well
organized, and we went into the drawing-room and avoided the
dining room, which was the only other room opening out of the hall.
After that, Leeds and Mrs. Leeds were invited to various small social
functions, and then, in return, they gave a monster picnic. It was, as
entertainments not infrequently are, the occasion for one or two
contretemps. Mrs. Leeds, a kindly, noisy, unperceiving creature, at
the last moment extended an invitation to Mrs. Harter, whom it
seemed that they had met in Cairo, when their yacht was coaling at
Port Said. I was present at Grainges when Mrs. Leeds announced
this to Lady Annabel.
“So very amusin’ to meet a well-known face unexpectedly,” she said
jovially. “And Mrs. Harter was almost too well-known, in Cairo—ha-
ha! Any amount of scandal was talked about her, I believe—so
interestin’, scandal, I always think.”
Lady Annabel looked pale and said in a very low voice that Mrs.
Harter was the daughter of the local plumber, she believed.
“Really?” said Mrs. Leeds. “I wish I’d asked her to bring her father—
he could have had a look at the range.”
We all met at Grainges, from whence a fleet of cars was to carry us
to Berry Down. Leeds had two cars and his wife one, and the
servants, besides a mountain of hampers, preceded us in a Ford
lorry.
“It is almost like the East again to see this sort of thing. Native labor,
you know....” Lady Annabel murmured to me rather wistfully.
However, she ceased to be wistful, and became austere instead,
when she heard about Mrs. Harter.
Captain Patch brought her and they arrived on foot. Mrs. Leeds
happened to be out of the room, giving final orders to one of the
chauffeurs, and there was a moment’s awkwardness.
We were all assembled in the big drawing-room and Lady Annabel,
for whom we waited instinctively, made no move at all.
Alfred Kendal said, “Hullo, Patch!” rather feebly and Mrs. Harter
stood by the door, waiting.
I looked at Claire. She had flushed a little and was obviously
undecided what line to take. And then Mary Ambrey got up and
walked down the length of the room and shook hands with her and
said very clearly:
“How do you do, Mrs. Harter? Mrs. Leeds has just gone out to see
about the car, I believe. She’ll be back in a second or two. How
brave of you to walk, in this heat!”
It was very like Mary, and more like her still to do it with perfect calm,
and the most absolute naturalness.
I doubt if she even knew that we all drew a breath of intense relief,
as she stood there, talking quietly, till Mrs. Leeds came dashing in at
one of the French windows.
“That was rather finely done,” I heard Martyn murmuring in my ear,
with his insufferable accent of patronizing approval. Claire heard
him, too, and I saw that she was vexed.
She had missed an opportunity of making what, from her, would
have been a very beautiful gesture.
The last guests to arrive were General and Mrs. Kendal with two of
the girls. Puppa is the most punctual of men, but he admits that he
cannot always estimate the time that it will take to drive anywhere in
the new car. I suppose that it depends upon the number and
promptitude of Mumma’s warning outbursts on the road.
As they entered, our host made his appearance. Leeds, what with
his wealth, and a fine presence, and one of the loudest voices that I
have ever heard in my life, is only to be described as an
overwhelming man.
He was very hearty and enthusiastic, and welcomed us all,
especially Mrs. Harter, to whom he immediately shouted:
“Last time we met, someone bet you wouldn’t drink six cocktails in
succession, and you did it. By Jove, I’ve never forgotten it! Lounge of
Shepherd’s Hotel, wasn’t it? Never saw a more sporting collection in
my life, than we had that evening. You ought to have been there.”
I think that he uttered the last clause in an indiscriminate sort of way
to all of us, perhaps conscious that his audience was not, so to
speak, altogether with him. But it was a little unfortunate that the
people immediately facing him happened to be Lady Annabel and
Mrs. Kendal. It was so extraordinarily evident to the rest of us that
they did not at all feel that they ought to have been there, on the
occasion of Mrs. Harter’s rather singular achievement.
Leeds, however, alternates between a childlike touchiness and an
egotistical obtuseness, and this time he was obtuse.
He went on talking to Mrs. Harter about Cairo, and the people there
whom he had known, and whom he took it for granted that she had
known also. Later on, I learned that the weakness of Mr. Leeds was
to have known everybody. He is a young-looking man for his years,
and people are always astonished, in a gratifying way, when he
claims acquaintance with the celebrities of forty years ago.
He is exactly the kind of man to whom one would expect Mrs.
Harter’s type to make a strong appeal, and he addressed his
conversation almost exclusively to her.
When Mrs. Leeds said, “How are we all goin’?” there was the usual
pause, followed by the usual demonstrations.
“Will you come in the Mercedes with me, Lady Annabel, and Sir
Miles? Hector,” said Mrs. Leeds to her husband, “will you take Lady
Flower in the two-seater?”
She did not make her suggestions with any assurance, and Lady
Annabel, while acquiescing graciously as to the place allotted to her,
seemed faintly amused. She said afterward that these things require
a great deal of experience—which indeed is quite true—and that
personally she had always instructed the A. D. C.s beforehand, and
left nothing to chance.
“I can seat three people,” said General Kendal. “Not more. The
springs, you know—and the hill up to Berry Down is a stiff pull.”
“You’d better let me sit in front with you, Puppa,” Mrs. Kendal said
firmly. “Then I can keep my eyes open. If one hasn’t been driving
very long,” she explained to the rest of us, “one is liable to get
fussed. I always say to my husband, at critical moments, ‘Don’t get
fussed, dear. Whatever you do, keep your head, and don’t allow
yourself to get fussed.’”
“But this won’t do at all—we must separate relations!” cried Leeds.
“We can’t all go about in family groups, like the Ark, or whatever it
was. Might as well stay at home as do that.”
“I certainly think there’s more sense in staying at home and eating
one’s food in comfort, than dragging it out of doors and eating it
under the most miserable conditions imaginable, for no conceivable
reason—” said General Kendal suddenly and strongly.
Everyone looked a little disconcerted, and Dolly Kendal said in a
determined tone that picnics were great fun, if one took the rough
with the smooth and didn’t mind things.
“Why not let’s walk—some of us?” Bill Patch suggested. “It’s not
more than a mile or so, through the woods.”
“No need to walk. There are plenty of conveyances,” said Leeds, in
rather an offended way.
“Well, who’ll go in the second car?” cried Mrs. Leeds. “Let me see—
Miss Kendal, Captain Patch, Major Ambrey—and what about you,
Mrs. Fazackerly?”
“I should love to,” said Mrs. Fazackerly.
“That leaves the other Miss Kendal, and Mrs. Harter and Mrs.
Kendal, oh, and Mrs. Ambrey—”
She began to look rather helpless again.
“My two-seater is here,” suggested Christopher.
“Oh, but do let some of us walk. It would be so nice to walk,” Sallie
declared.
Nearly everybody in the room then began to explain how very much
he, or she, would prefer to walk to Berry Down. It was a voluble
contest in unselfish determination. Then, just as it seemed that Mrs.
Leeds was reconciled to the idea of letting some of her guests start
on foot, Leeds reduced the whole thing to chaos again by suddenly
announcing that he would take Mrs. Harter in his small runabout.
“You are taking Lady Flower, dear,” said poor Mrs. Leeds. “We’ve got
muddled.”
We had indeed.
In the end, things were settled contrary to the wishes of almost
everybody. Bill Patch and Sallie and Alfred Kendal went off on foot,
Christopher, with a face of thunder, declared himself delighted to
take Aileen Kendal in his two-seater, and the rest of us were
somehow packed into the big cars, all except Martyn, who insisted
upon going off on his own motor bicycle and taking Mrs. Harter on
the carrier.
Mr. Leeds and Claire, mutually dissatisfied, went in our host’s
runabout.
I do not know exactly what they said to one another, of course, but I
do know that Claire is not in the least interested in the celebrities that
other people have met. Even the ones that she has met herself
appeal to her from only one point of view, which is what she thinks
that they thought about her. At all events, when they arrived at the
particular clump of Scotch firs indicated, Claire looked utterly
exhausted, and Leeds made straight for Mrs. Harter and threw
himself down on the dry, heathery turf at her feet and asked for a
drink.
It was, actually, only the second time that I had seen Mrs. Harter.
She looked better than she had looked in evening dress, wearing a
thin dark tweed and a purple felt hat properly rammed down over her
black hair. (The Kendals had large straw hats, the backs of which
almost touched their shoulder blades.)
Our host’s voice boomed on without ceasing and I caught the words
“cocktails,” “Cairo” and “moonlight” a good many times, but from Mrs.
Harter I hardly heard a syllable. She sat and smoked cigarettes, and
every now and then she looked across the gorse and heather and
bracken to the path along which the walkers would come.
The interval during which we waited for them was mostly passed in
discussion as to whether we should wait or not. I remember that Mrs.
Kendal kept on saying, “I should have thought they would have been
here by this time. I should have thought so,” and that each time she
said it, one or other of us replied, intelligently, that we should have
thought so, too.
Then Mrs. Leeds wanted us to begin lunch, and we said, “Oh no,
we’d better wait,” and then one by one capitulated, and said, “Well,
perhaps we’d better not wait.” And by that time the habit of
uncertainty that I had already discerned in Mrs. Leeds had got the
better of her again and she said, “Oh well, perhaps we’d better give
them a few minutes’ law.”
At last we saw approaching the emerald-green handkerchief that
Sallie wore knotted round her head, and they came up to us.
Captain Patch went and sat beside Diamond Harter without pause or
hesitation, and I very much doubt if he even saw the look of
astonished resentment turned upon him by Mr. Leeds.
The rest of us saw it, however, including Mrs. Leeds, who had not
been among us long enough to realize fully the inner subtleties of the
affaire Harter, and remarked with a loud laugh that Hector would be
simply furious with that red-headed young man. Hector had, as she
put it, made all the running with Mrs. Harter last time they met, on
board the yacht.
Nobody made very much response, and it was a relief on every
account when we at last began luncheon.
But luncheon was not without its perilous moments, either.
Mr. and Mrs. Leeds are the sort of people who provide cocktails at a
picnic, and these of course revived the reminiscences of Mrs.
Harter’s feats in Cairo. Even Leeds, however, must have seen that
he was not being a success. Mrs. Harter’s face showed that plainly
enough, and even more expressive was the way in which she
presently turned her back on him and left him to Sallie, who was
sitting on his other side. With Sallie, Leeds had only too much scope.
There is a colloquialism made use of in the servants’ hall which has
always seemed to me a wonderfully expressive one. Somebody is
described as “playing up” somebody else. It occurred to me very
forcibly, while watching and listening to Sallie and Leeds.
Sallie was shamelessly “playing him up.” She encouraged him with
artless questions, and listened to his loud and generally boastful
replies with innocent and unwavering interest, and all the time I
knew, and Mary Ambrey did, that the horrid little clever thing was
storing up every word of it, and mentally labeling, filing, and indexing
him for future reference.
Sallie will certainly write a novel some day, and all of us will
recognize one another in it.
Leeds told several stories, not very funny ones, but in such
stentorian tones that we were all more or less obliged to listen, and
twice Claire said, “That reminds me of how I once” but Leeds didn’t
hear.
Nancy Fazackerly took off her hat, and the sun shone on her
beautiful blonde hair, and she looked very happy and young.
Christopher Ambrey sat next her and looked at her a great deal.
“I wonder if old Chris has asked her, yet,” I heard Martyn say quietly
to one of the Kendals. And she replied in an interested way:
“I should think he’d do it to-day, anyhow. Wouldn’t you?”
“Too many people about.”
“They can go for a walk or something, after lunch.”
“We’ll have a bet on it, if you like,” Martyn suggested, and they
arranged the terms of a very mild wager, with some suppressed
giggling from Aileen.
I thought to myself that if I had been a young man, people like
Martyn and the Kendals would not have been given the opportunity
of exercising their wit upon my love affairs. But as a matter of fact I
knew well enough that if Chris and Nancy really did become
engaged, they would probably be told all about the bet, and would
find it quite amusing.
The servants from Grainges had solemnly laid an enormous
tablecloth over the heather, and weighted the corners of it—not with
stones, nothing so rural—but with plated ice buckets, full of broken
ice. We had lobster, and salmon-mayonnaise, and chicken salad,
and galantine, and an immense variety of cold sweets and pastries,
and our plates were changed by the servants after each course, and
our glasses filled with Moselle, or whisky or lemonade.
One felt ungrateful for feeling that it would have been a relief if only
the salt had been forgotten, or there hadn’t been enough rolls to go
round.
Christopher did, in an honest attempt to make the thing less
magnificent, suggest sharing a salad plate with his neighbor, but
Leeds overheard him, and roared to one of the men servants. As a
matter of fact, Mrs. Kendal was sitting on the missing salad plate,
which was afterwards found embedded deeply into quite hard
ground, but of course the servants produced an extra one without a
moment’s hesitation.
However, iced Moselle, whether suitable or not to a picnic on the
moors, was bound to have its effect, and, anyway, Leeds and Mrs.
Leeds undeniably came into the category known to modern slang as
“cheery souls.” So that by the time we were all eating cherries and
strawberries, the picnic had become a very animated and successful
affair.
Claire, while Leeds was telling Sallie that he had been through parts
of China where no other white man had ever been allowed to set
foot, got her opportunity, and gave Alfred Kendal and Mrs. Leeds,
and one or two others, an amusing account of an impromptu
charade party of the previous summer. The point of the story was her
own success in a tragic impersonation, but she brought it in very
skilfully. The contrast between her methods, and those of Leeds,
was rather amusing.
Lady Annabel talked to the Kendals. Puppa and Mumma have lived
sufficiently long in the East to understand her point of view.
Most of the younger people present were playing bob-cherry, but
Christopher, with his hat tipped right over his eyes, was talking to
Nancy Fazackerly, and Bill Patch and Mrs. Harter were silent.
He was industriously scraping together a small pile of fir needles and
dry twigs—one of those mechanical occupations that are generally
the sign of complete mental absorption in something else—and she
was lighting and smoking one after another of her interminable
cigarettes.
Mary Ambrey had been sitting next to me, but she gave me a little
nod presently, and changed her place, and went to talk to Mrs.
Leeds. She has out-of-date ideas of the courtesy due to a hostess
from a guest, which are not shared by her children. Then Mrs. Leeds
added the final touch to her lavish entertainment, and produced, with
the air of a benevolent conjuror, a couple of tooled-leather boxes
containing cards and bridge markers.
“I thought it’d be a shame to waste the afternoon,” she said simply,
clearing a space for a thin carriage rug to cover the purple heather,
and setting her back against a small, shimmering silver birch.
“Upon my word, that’s a great idea,” said General Kendal,
brightening for the first time since the expedition had started.
“Hector!”
“Hello!” said Leeds, turning half round. “Oh, I see—you want to build
card-houses, do you? Well, Miss Sallie, the end of it was that these
perishers, never having seen anyone like me before, absolutely
knuckled under. Most ridiculous thing you ever saw. Why, they’d
have made me crowned king over them if I’d allowed it. You must let
me tell you the end of the yarn another day—that is, if I haven’t been
boring you stiff.”
As he did not wait to hear Sallie’s answer, one supposes that Leeds
was happily confident as to its nature.
Of course, everybody began to be unselfish again about the bridge,
and those who most obviously wanted to play unanimously offered to
resign their places to those who did not care about it in the least.
But the present new generation, like every other generation, has the
qualities of its defects, and if it is graceless, it is also fearlessly
candid.
Martyn said that he would rather be shot than play bridge, any day of
the week, and Sallie said that she thought cards out of doors would
be a loathsome idea, and Bill Patch thanked Mrs. Leeds very much
but he’d a good deal rather not. Mrs. Fazackerly, however, said that
she would love to play, when she thought herself needed to make up
a rubber, and when she saw that she wasn’t, said that she didn’t
really care for bridge at all, and would honestly prefer not to play.

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