Un-planned Obsolescence
The Only Constant in Life is Change
Product design can be achieved so that it becomes obsolete after a certain pre-determined period of time upon which it ceases to function. Often this previous design might be perceived as unfashionable when it is superseded by a fresher, newer version. Artificial, limited useful life is an intended product of a purposely frail design.
In the late 1920’s the legendary Hungarian-American designer Laszlo Moholy-Nagy drew a distinction between “forced obsolescence” and “artificial obsolescence”. The forced version is the normal course of things for technologies: plows gave way to reapers; cannons to machine guns; wooden boat hulls to steel ones, etc. In contrast, the artificial kind would come to dominate the modern economic world. People abandon consumer goods not because they are obsolete but to keep up with the proverbial Jones.
Moholy-Nagy referred to artificial obsolescence as materialistic, infantile, and morally repugnant.
Let us use a common day instrument to expand upon this thought…
George Safford Parker, American inventor and industrialist, started as a telegraphy instructor in Janesville, Wisconsin. He had a side gig repairing and selling fountain pens. Dismayed by the unreliability of the pens, he experimented with ways to prevent ink leaks. In 1888, Parker founded the eponymous Parker Pen Company.
His son Kenneth, taken by Nagy’s theories, introduced the Parker 51 in 1941 (named for the 51st Anniversary of the Company). While utterly superfluous, this gadget is widely considered the most successful pen in history.
The pen’s caps were gold or chrome plated with a gold feathered arrow for the pen’s clasp. The body was plump to the ouch and came in attractive colors such as blue cedar, Nassau green, plum and rage red. This is during a time when most products, including cars, came in black and various other bland color schemes. The pen’s head was modeled after a turtle’s head which tapered to a handsome calligraphic styled mouth. Atop was a gold nib to dispense the ink. Inside the sleek frame, the pen ran on a newly patented plastic called Lucite and a newly patented cylindrical system for delivering ink - which for the first time ever, relied upon not evaporation but by absorption into the paper’s fibers resulting in instantaneous drying. Moreover, the gold nibbed tip was made of ruthenium, an element rarely used and scrapped by most laboratories until then.
Now, besides some keen engineering and gadgetry, the Parker 51 was still merely a pen. Much like the latest version of the iPhone is simply a telephone. As the Parker 51 aesthetic superiority made it successful among its peers, the entire pen industry would soon suffer a sharp decline by newer technologies such as the typewriter and word processors. The only thing constant is change.
Need us to shed further light on the obsolescence issue …
Thomas Edison’s original light bulbs still illuminate a hundred years after they were made, but that is not profitable for modern-day manufacturers. By creating bulbs with a short lifespan, you must keep coming back for more. Longer-lasting bulbs may cost you a little more, but they will save you money in the long run. Invest in durable solutions, especially those from reputable manufacturers, and turn off your lights when you are not using them. Pay a little more, use them when you need them, and your bulbs will last for a long time.
