i8 INTRODUCTION. 



Furthermore, its records will be made continuously from day 

 to day, it may be from hour to hour, so that, being disposed of 

 in detail, the turmoil and anxiety of periodical accounting will be 

 unknown. 



Few will deny the advantages of such a scheme; many will 

 consider it Utopian. To such I offer the following account of 

 what it has done. 



While in charge of the workshops of Frankford Arsenal, in 

 order to keep track of the list of shop, or work orders, of which 

 80 to too were always in hand, I began a book in which they 

 were entered as received from the Commanding Officer and 

 crossed off when completed. This worked for but a short time, 

 when it became so inconvenient that I was led to give to each 

 order a serial number as a symbol by which it was to be 

 known. 



To communicate these orders to the foremen came the order 

 tickets, correspondingly numbered and distinguished as described 

 in the text. The analysis of the character of the work, and of the 

 objects and operations came later, and led to the Time Card now 

 in use at Frankford Arsenal, the idea of which was remotely 

 derived from that in use at the National Armory during my service 

 there. This carried the labor question as far as it was considered 

 at Frankford Arsenal, and completed by far the easier portion of 

 the task. 



For the reasons stated in the text, the question of material gave 

 much more trouble. One form of card after another was tried, 

 each one more simple and comprehensive than the last, until the 

 form of Material Card now used at the arsenal was devised. 



The plan was unfolded to the foremen by a lecture on 

 the 1 8th of June, 1881. Seven working days afterwards I was 

 detailed to other duty and have never since had anything to do 

 with the working of the system at the Arsenal. Yet, as official 

 reports lately made declare, it continues to give satisfaction and 

 is followed substantially as it left my hands. 



I have much for which to thank Colonel Lyford and Captain 

 Michaelis, the former for the support given as Commanding Officer 



