AUTHOR'S PREFACE 



RECENT investigations in the comparatively new science of 

 industrial work, and recent advances in its applications to the 

 economic life of the community render the issue of the present 

 work apposite. 



The work of Chauveau and Taylor has awakened widespread 

 interest. It is hoped that this volume may serve both, to guide 

 the practical application of their researches, and also to stimulate 

 further progress in the same field. It may also remind the student 

 of the fact often forgotten that the study of human labour, 

 and its mechanical and physiological conditions, originated in 

 France, for as far back as the year 1785 Coulomb made the first 

 steps by co-ordinating the physical and biological sciences. 



The author has thought it well to commence this volume with a 

 short and simple resume of the general principles of Theoretical 

 Mechanics which will be applied in the study of the Human 

 Motor. Also to devote some space to the explanation of the 

 laws of thermo-dynamics and ot the Conservation of 

 Energy. These provide us with the means by which muscular 

 work and fatigue can be measured with an accuracy not to be 

 found in the results obtained by the American scientists. Full 

 and accurate references to the bibliography of the subject will 

 also be found. 



It has been, in short, the author's desire to bring together in 

 one volume all the physical and physiological elements of indus- 

 trial work. The task of presenting, in a form suitable for general 

 reading, a subject of which the material is so scattered and com- 

 plex is indeed difficult. Success would have been impossible 

 unless due regard were given to the mechanical laws governing 

 the movements of the human body. The nature of the living 

 motor cannot be fully understood unless the physiological limits 

 of normal activity are appreciated. 



From these points of view, Taylor's system, which has produced 

 so profound an effect in industry has been carefully examined. 



The problem of obtaining from the workman an increased 

 output is intimately bound up with the question of the relations 

 of work and wages. Apart from some incidental observations this 



