SYMBOLIC NOMENCLATURE. 105 



BRIEF DEFINITION OF THE SYMBOLS OF CHARACTER. 



P. refers to special tools, such as patterns, models, drawings 

 and gauges, made under the general provisions of a special order, 

 which will have a permanent useful value apart from that of 

 the product of the order, after the order is filled. It also refers 

 to machines, fixtures and tools in current service (except perish- 

 able tools solely for staple objects) held, and important repairs 

 to the same made, under a standing order. 



W. refers to labor and material required to execute a special 

 or a general order from which no product follows but that which 

 is actually called for therein. It also refers to the product. 



A. refers specially to the labor of superintendence, and to that 

 of clerks, porters, oilers and firemen. 



T. refers specially to perishable tools used in making staple 

 objects. 



3- O., or Object. 



Whether the third and fourth spaces, yet to be discussed, which 

 refer to the specific object worked on and to the operation per- 

 formed on it, are to be filled or not, depends entirely upon the 

 value of the information which the filling of these spaces will give. 

 If detailed knowledge is or may be required, there is no way of 

 obtaining it correctly except from data given in like detail. 



Where the object worked on is a staple object of manufacture 

 it is given a symbolic name represented by a combination of let- 

 ters and figures appearing on the Service and Material cards 

 under the heading O., or object. 



The necessity for symbols of objects, the difficulty of providing 

 them, and the best way of overcoming that difficulty are so well 

 described by Mr. Oberlin Smith, President of the Ferracute 

 Machine Works, Bridgeton, N. J., in a paper read before the 

 American Society of Mechanical Engineers, that I cannot do 

 better than transcribe his article entire. See page iro. His 

 paper has been of great assistance in this portion of my subject, 

 and its principles have been found capable of an application far 

 beyond its immediate scope. 



