336 



National Resources Planning Board 



facturer of soap. Two oil companies mention the 

 lay-out and development of pipe-line projects which 

 are, in a sense, plant lay-out jobs, as the work of 

 mechanical engineers. 



Safety is an important aspect of plant management. 

 One large research laboratory writes: "Safety is a matter 

 of prime concern imder the general jurisdiction of 

 mechanical engineers. It involves statistical analysis, 

 detailed study of specific machines and apparatus, and 

 continuous inspection of conditions. The effort by our 

 mechanical engineers to increase safety in our plants 

 as well as safety of users of our products involves 

 research in its broadest sense." Several other infor- 

 mants mention safety work, either in general or m the 

 form of dust control. Two managers of engineering 

 and inspection departments of insurance companies 

 report extensive programs for promoting safety in the 

 plants of their chents. One writes: "By correlation of 

 industrial injuries, our mechanical guard-design unit 

 develops new safeguards for the point of operation of 

 industrial machines, either as a secondary protective 

 device or for installation upon the machine at the time 

 of originalmanufacture." 



Time and motion study is mentioned by a number of 

 companies, ranging from steel foundries to sQk mills, 

 and three informants mention the determination of 

 costs as a research function of their mechanical engi- 



FiQURE 100. — Wind Tunnel Apparatus, Aerodynamics Labora- 

 tory, Chrysler Corporation, Detroit, Michigan 



neers. One correspondent, a sales engineer, writes: 

 "In the organizations with which I have been connected, 

 it has looked to me as though the subject of cost analysis 

 should be a regular engineering function rather than a 

 clerical function." A large electrical manufacturing 

 concern is regularly recruiting mechanical engineering 

 seniors for its accounting and commercial departments, 

 as well as for its teclmical work. 



All tliis may be summed up in two sentences from the 

 admirable report prepared by the Detroit Edison Com- 

 pany for the Joint Patent Inquiry, which show the 

 persisting influence of the late Dr. Hirslifeld in his own 

 company. 



Under a policy of more than 20 years' standing, research 

 investigations arc not necessarily confined to engineering prob- 

 lems. The scientific process is equally applicable to other fields, 

 and has been successfully applied in this company by the research 

 department to the fields of purchasing, accounting, personnel, 

 sales, and particularly to standardization in all branches of the 

 company's activities. 



Product Research 

 Product Development 



Every manufacturing plant provides for testing its 

 finished product either by sampling or, in the case of 

 larger units, by block or other tests. Some of this 

 work is pure routine; some of it is indistinguishable in 

 method and spirit from inspection of work in progress, 

 which has already been discussed. But often either 

 the product or the circumstances are such as to make 

 this product testing real research. 



A striking example is the acceptance test of a large 

 unit such as a boiler or steam-driven turbogenerator, 

 particularly if it is of a new design or size. Often 

 facihties are not available for thoroughly testing such 

 a imit until it has been installed in its final location in 

 a customer's plant, and the elaborate tests which are 

 then made on it by the manufacturer and the customer 

 in collaboration constitute real research on the part of 

 both. To the former these tests yield confirmation of 

 theory and of assumed design constants and data on 

 which all further advances in his art will in part rest. 

 To the customer such tests give the data which he will 

 use in plamiing the operation of his whole power system 

 under all the varying loads that it will have to carry. 

 In such a case product testing is fact-finding research 

 of the highest order. 



More often the research aspect of product testing 

 consists of performance or endurance tests of selected 

 samples undertaken to check materials, design, or 

 fabrication with a view to future improvement of the 

 product. There are many examples of this sort of thing 

 in the letters on which this report is based. A steel-tube 

 manufacturer defines it as, "special testing to develop 

 more complete knowledge of characteristics of estab- 



