Why were so many consumer goods given streamlined forms in the 1930s?

Group of answer choices

The shape was found to be the most efficient for such items as clocks and pencil sharpeners.

The rounded edges of streamlined objects were much cheaper to mass-produce than other shapes.

Since the form was derived from studies of natural fluid mechanics, it implied the simplicity of nature and a refuge from technology.

The style was considered a modernized version of the popular Gothic-style ornament.

The public associated the shape with speed and the promise of modern technology.

Industrial designers in the 1930s were redefining the relationship between object and user. Design can affect what an object means to us. What does it mean to sheathe that washing machine or refrigerator in a smooth, metal skin? The smooth shapes of these new household items, which both hid functional complexity and proclaimed modernity, gave the products a personality.

For example, take Henry Dreyfuss' design for a the "Big Ben" alarm clock. Dreyfuss, you recall, was one of those star industrial designers of the day; he had redesigned the Sears Toperator washing machine. The Big Ben alarm clock was not a major commission for Dreyfuss, but it is typical of his approach to industrial design. He had been working with Westclox, the manufacturer, since about 1930 and the Big Ben had gone through several iterations. Dreyfuss' redesign for 1938 put the clock in a smooth metal case with rounded edges and thin bezel holding on the glass lens. It's an alarm clock, but the bells are hidden away inside. The disc of the clock sits on a flat metal base with an accent of a contrasting metal in the middle. For the numbers on the face, Dreyfuss uses a no-nonsense, sans-serif typeface; his early 1930s clocks had sans-serif numbers with a bit more of an ornamental feel. The 1938 model is more industrial, like something from the Bauhaus. The whole thing is a compact and consistent shape, and its ornamental decoration is simply lines of bare metal against painted metal.

For the Bauhaus in Germany, the machine was an example of logical process, but in 1930s America the machine is an emotional object. Machines are sexy. They are images of progress, and of the future. The smooth convex circle of metal surrounding the Big Ben alarm clock resembled nothing so much as the smooth, rounded cowling of a propeller airplane engine. On an airplane, the smooth, curved shapes help the air flow more efficiently around the machine as it flies. Of course, an alarm clock isn't meant to move, so airflow isn't a design concern. But the airplane shape is the shape of modernity, so the clock can partake a bit in the visual excitement of airplane form.