THE SHOP-ORDER SYSTEM OF ACCOUNTS. 347 



work. But in a machine-shop where there is a production of a 

 great variety of articles, especially in a small shop where each 

 man works on from one to ten separate jobs each day, I do not 

 know whether it is best. I had recently a little experience in 

 this matter myself, and found that my associates were somewhat 

 averse to carrying out the ticket system, because in our shop, 

 employing seventy or eighty men, each man having from one to 

 ten jobs a day (averaging perhaps five), if separate tickets were 

 used for all the recording of time, it averaged five tickets to 

 each man per day, or thirty per week, which made the total 

 very large. If there were a hundred men in the shop, there 

 would be three thousand tickets. I have not any question in 

 my mind that it does pay to handle that number of tickets, for 

 the ease with which they can be assorted, compared with post- 

 ing and rewriting in separate books ; but when it comes to the 

 amount of paper and necessary printing, I do not know about it. 

 Of course, in the card system we only use ten tickets where a 

 man does ten jobs, and only one where a man does one job in a 

 day, and we waste no paper so far as that part of the ticket is 

 concerned where the writing goes ; but each one must have a 

 certain space for a printed heading, and there must be the waste 

 of paper due to that heading and, also, the cost of the print- 

 ing. If, however, you take one paper, or a larger card, for the 

 recording of one mans time for a week, you have only one 

 hundred such papers, instead of three thousand. A good deal of 

 paper is, of course, wasted in cases where a man fills only one 

 space out of ten provided. It is now a serious practical question 

 in my mind which of the systems is best for my own particular 

 case. I would like to ask Captain Metcalfe's opinion on this 

 point as to how great an evil is the necessary cost of extra 

 paper and printing on the numerous tickets used where a small 

 shop does a great variety of work, and where each of the men 

 has a great variety of jobs. 



Captain Metcalfe. I have had to depend largely for experi- 

 ments on what recognition my system might meet from private 

 individuals and corporations. I got it up in the government works 

 of which I had charge, but I have not had a full opportunity of 

 trying it as I should like, and so cannot answer him explicitly. Of 



