Editing State of the art (section)

== Origin and history ==
The concept of the "state of the art" originated at the beginning of the 20th century.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Haase|first=Fee-Alexandra |date=2010|title='The State of the Art' as an Example for a Textual Linguistic 'Globalization Effect'. Code Switching, Borrowing, and Change of Meaning as Conditions of Cross-cultural Communication|url=http://www.letramagna.com/Artigo6_13.pdf|journal=Revista de Divulgação Científica em Língua Portuguesa, Linguística e Literatura|volume=6|number=13|issn=1807-5193|access-date=24 December 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722002027/http://www.letramagna.com/Artigo6_13.pdf|archive-date=22 July 2011}}</ref> The earliest use of the term "state of the art" documented by the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' dates back to 1910, from an engineering manual by [[Henry Harrison Suplee]] (1856&nbsp;– after 1943), an engineering graduate ([[University of Pennsylvania]], 1876), titled ''The Gas Turbine: Progress in the Design and Construction of Turbines Operated by Gases of Combustion''. The relevant passage reads: "In the present state of the art this is all that can be done".<ref>{{cite book|last=Suplee|first=Henry Harrison|year=1910|title=The Gas Turbine: Progress in the Design and Construction of Turbines Operated by Gases of Combustion|url=https://archive.org/details/gasturbineprogre00suplrich/page/6/mode/2up|location=Philadelphia|publisher=J. B. Lippincott Company|page=6}}</ref> The term "art" refers to [[useful art|technics]], rather than [[performing arts|performing]] or [[fine art]]s.<ref>[[George Washington]] used the term in a letter to [[Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette|Lafayette]] (29 January 1798). Washington distinguished [[commerce]] from [[useful art]]s by stating, "While our commerce has been considerably curtailed, for want of that extensive credit formerly given in Europe, and for default of remittance; the useful arts have been almost imperceptibly pushed to a considerable degree of perfection". {{cite book|editor-last=Fitzpatrick|editor-first=John C.|editor-link=John Clement Fitzpatrick|year=1939|title=The Writings of Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745–1799 |url=https://archive.org/details/writingsofgeorge30wash/page/186/mode/2up|volume=30|location=Washington |publisher=United States Government Printing Office|page=186}} Other literary sources are collected in the [[United States Patent and Trademark Office]]'s Supplemental Brief in ''[[In re Bilski]]'', p. 11 n.4 (useful arts are manufacturing processes).</ref>

Over time, use of the term increased in all fields where this kind of art has a significant role.<ref name="Anderson">{{cite book|last=Anderson|first=John D. Jr.|author-link=John D. Anderson|year=1998|title=A History of Aerodynamics and Its Impact on Flying Machines|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1OeCJFJY3ZYC&pg=PA4|location=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|page=4|isbn=978-0-521-66955-9}}</ref> In this relation it has been quoted by the author that "although eighteenth-century writers did not use the term, there was indeed in existence a collection of scientific and engineering knowledge and expertise that can be identified as the state of the art for that time".<ref name="Anderson" />

Despite its actual meaning, which does not convey technology that is ahead of the industry, the phrase became so widely used in advertising that a 1985 article described it as "overused", stating that "[it] has no punch left and actually sounds like a lie".<ref>''Executive'' (1985), Vol. 27, p. 56.{{Full citation needed|date=December 2022}}</ref> A 1994 essay listed it among "the same old tired [[cliché]]s" that should be avoided in advertising.<ref>{{cite book|last=Zweig|first=Mark C.|year=2010|orig-date=11 July 1994|chapter=Better Writing|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pxk6xGMjdbkC&pg=PA115|title=Management from A to Zweig: The Complete Works of Mark Zweig |location=Fayetteville, Arkansas|publisher=ZweigWhite|page=115|isbn=978-1-60950-017-7}}</ref>