where did the phrase state of the art come from
State of the art The origin of the concept of "state of the art" took place in the beginning of the twentieth century.[3] 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-post 1943), an engineering graduate (University of Pennsylvania, 1876), titled 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". The term "art" refers to technics, rather than performing or fine arts.[4]