posted on 2023-08-30, 20:16authored byJohn Gardner
This paper examines Coleridge’s notion that 'a work has organic form if the structure has originated from the materials and subjects used by the author. [...] It stands in contrast to a mechanical form, a work which has been produced in accordance with artificial rules.' In arguing against this, I will examine the relationship between vernacular practice and the establishment of standards. While Joanne Yates and Craig Murphy contend that the engineering standards 'story starts in the late nineteenth century' (Engineering Rules, 2019), I will go back to 1798, when the lead-screw lathe came into use, to examine how engineering standards, like poetic metrical rules, emerged.