CHAPTER VII. 



GENERAL OBJECTIONS TO PRESENT METHODS, 

 AND NEEDS OF A GOOD SYSTEM. 



OBJECTIONS TO PRESENT METHODS. 



From what has been said, it will appear that there is a certain 

 conflict between the needs of the Arsenal as a manufactory, and 

 those belonging to it as a public trust ; yet that neither of these 

 requirements is fully satisfied by existing methods. As a factory 

 its actions are not as free as is required for profitable work ; as 

 a storehouse its methods are not as precise as they are expected 

 to be for the safe keeping of its contents. 



I believe that the cause of this imperfect working lies in the 

 impossibility of successfully combining many functions in one 

 instrument, whether human or inanimate. 



The independence of function has long been a maxim in the 

 construction of machinery ; and the principle should be as true 

 for book-keeping, which is only construction of another sort. 



Without referring to proverbial expressions which epitomize 

 this idea, consider any of the combination tools which are so 

 constantly being invented, but which, however attractive at first, 

 one so seldom buys a second time. 



Take one of the best of them, the tack hammer with a claw at 

 its further end. Its sole advantage is that you save the cost of 

 one handle ; its disadvantages are that to get one piece you 

 must buy both ; that either end is in the way when you want to 

 use the other ; that only one person can work with it at one time ; 

 and that, like the rest of its kind, its construction is a series of 

 compromises between real efficiency, stability and economy, and 

 the appearance of these qualities only. 



