Frank B. Gilbreth, Motion Study as an Increase of National Wealth. (Annals of the American Academy, 1915, May, p. 96 et seq.)
...“The motions of every individual, no matter what his work may be, have been studied and standardised....
...“In laying bricks, the motions used in laying a single brick were reduced from 18 to 5, with an increase in output from 120 bricks an hour to 350 an hour. In folding cotton cloth, 20 to 30 motions were reduced to 10 or 12, with the result that instead of ? || 150 dozen pieces of cloth, 400 dozen were folded, with no added fatigue. The motions of a girl putting paper on boxes of shoe polish were studied. Her methods were-changed only slightly, and where she had been doing 24 boxes in 40 seconds, she did 24 in 20 seconds, with less effort. Similar studies have cut down the motions not only of men and women in other trades but also of surgeons, of nurses, of office workers; in fact, of workers in every type of work studied”... (96-97).
Assembly of braiding machines ... “where eighteen braiders had been assembled by one man in a day, it now becomes possible to assemble 66 braiders per man per day, with no increase in fatigue” (97)....
The latest method 1) micro-motion studies ... 2) use of the “chronocyclograph” (97)....
I. The “micro-motion clock” is placed in front of the worker and it registers “different times of day in each picture of a motion picture film” (98)....
II. “The chronocyclograph method of making motion study consists of fastening tiny electric light bulbs to the fingers of the operator, or to any part of the operator or of the material whose motion path it is desired to study”... (the movement of the light, its track, is photographed) (98).
These studies are in the interest of society as a whole.... “One typical result is the gradual filling in of the gap between the school and the plant. An intensive study of motions is proving that there are far greater likenesses in trades, and even professions, ||| !! N.B. on the mechanical side, than we have ever believed possible. The demand of the industrial world will be more and more for young workers trained to be fingerwise” (101)....
This must be taught in the schools.
...“fingerwise, that is, training his muscles so that they respond easily and quickly to demands for skilled work”....
At present an “enormous waste” (102) is occurring from scattered, duplicated, etc., “investigations”.... “It is the work of the United States Government to establish such a bureau of standardisation of mechanical trades. The standards there derived and collected would be public property, and original investigators could invent from these standards upwards” (103)....
[[BOX ENDS: a splendid example of technical progress under capitalism towards socialism. ]]
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