Ernest Hayes is rightly regarded a pioneer industrial designer, but not always for the right reasons.
Henry Ford, a pioneer industrialist of the 20th century, had little time for history.
"History'', declared Ford, "is bunk''.
But unlike much that has been written about his work, at least Ford's comment can be authenticated (it was reported in the New York Times of October 28, 1921).
History, however, is not just a matter of agreement or not about whatever the "facts'' may be, for as British design historian John Walker has argued, regardless of any agreement about the facts of history, the significance accorded to these is frequently disputed.
The work of Ernest Hayes, a Central Otago farmer, inventor, and manufacturer of farm equipment, provides a prime case study to illustrate these issues, as he is both credited for designs for which he is demonstrably not responsible, and remains without due recognition for others that have passed unnoticed.
Recent study has clearly shown that despite decades of claims to the contrary, Hayes was not at all responsible for the design of the Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer, a widely celebrated "icon'' of New Zealand design that is particularly treasured for its rural ingenuity.
Just how such misinformation (or mythinformation?) arises and subsequently becomes embedded as belief is a study in itself, but there appears to be no shortage of nationalistic flag wavers who remain committed to promoting such distorted accounts of "Kiwi ingenuity'' and in the process, straining history indeed.
But back to the chase.
Due credit for the design of the Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer rests almost entirely with the work of another Otago inventor, John Reid, the son of Donald Reid, a prominent Taieri businessman and politician of the latter half of the 19th century.
Reid's design was patented in the United States as the Triplex Wire Strainer in 1886, almost a decade before Hayes founded his company, Hayes Engineering in 1895.
The highly successful and much vaunted Hayes version of Reid's strainer was much more likely the work of his son Llew, and was only produced by Hayes Engineering following the expiry date of Reid's patents in the mid-1920s.
So what did Ernest Hayes invent and why is his work so significant?
Hayes invented a large number of tools intended for everyday use on farms and these he manufactured at his premises in Oturehua.
He also designed and constructed these premises, along with much of the equipment used for his highly successful manufacturing endeavours.
His products included such wide-ranging items as windmills, fencing equipment and a special cutting tool that enabled the rapid production of standardised pellets of pollard, a poison commonly used to control the district's rabbit population.
Typical of many entrepreneur-designers, Hayes was acutely perceptive of problems within his own environment and in 1897 he proposed a dual front wheel for a bicycle "to overcome the present defects in the narrow cycle wheels which are now used - viz slipping on soft roads and sidings and which are difficult to balance for beginners''.
Apart from a recently produced scale model of the wheel now on display at the Hayes Engineering Works in Oturehua, no additional evidence of this futuristic design appears to exist, but more than a century later, motor scooters featuring very similar wheels to these, have become relatively commonplace.
But it is the design of yet another form of wire strainer, the "Hayes Portable Wire Strainer'', that is arguably Hayes' most significant product, and for this work alone, a good case can be made for Ernest Hayes as a pioneer of New Zealand industrial design.
How so?
The Hayes Portable Wire Strainer worked on an entirely different principle to the Hayes Permanent Wire Strainer and served only to tighten the fence wires rather than remain attached to them.
Hayes developed the design of the former through a decades-long process of gradual development from his first example completed in 1905 through until his highly refined fifth and final iteration in 1924.
An original notebook held in the Hayes Museum, at Oturehua, reveals much about the advanced manufacturing process employed by Hayes over this time as it records carefully monitored observations regarding the production of various items produced in the Hayes factory.
These studies provide an explicit link between the work carried out at Hayes Engineering and Fredrick Taylor's highly influential model of scientific management in the workplace that emerged as a result of his time-and-motion studies carried out in the last decade of the 19th century.
Apart from its name, little has changed in the design of the Hayes Smooth Grip Chain Grab Wire Strainer, it remains in production today, almost a century after its inception.
Throughout this period it has enjoyed widespread and enduring success, including the 1981 award of a prestigious "designmark'' awarded by the now defunct New Zealand Industrial Design Council.
Although the profession of "industrial designer'' only emerged around 1920, the historical case for Ernest Hayes to be rightly considered as a pioneer of New Zealand industrial design can clearly be argued on the basis of this example alone.
I suggest that even Henry Ford would agree.
- Gavin O'Brien is a senior lecturer in product design at Otago Polytechnic School of Design.
