NA TURE 



[July 20, 1905 



AftcT all the organisation has been perfected and the 

 machinery lubricated and put in motion, it would be apt 

 to run wild if some trustworthy and absolute method of 

 control should not be at hand. This I have found com- 

 pletely accomplished by a department which has to do with 

 the compilation of facts and the deductions from them. It 

 is absolutely essential, in a company operating a number of 

 plants, that those in control should not only know what 

 each one of its manufactured products costs,' but what 

 enters into making up that cost, so that if for any reason 

 there is a drain going on it will be quicklv known, located 

 and stopped ; or if, on the other hand, something ad- 

 vantageous shall have been accomplished, that will also 

 be noted and imitated at other points. This may seem 

 like an exceedingly difticult undertaking in an industry of 

 such infinite variety, but a brief consideration will show 

 that it is not so. The statistical department, to which I 

 allude, is not only able to advise the officers within a 

 reasonable time after the end of each month of the cost 

 of every product and step, but also of the profit or loss on 

 each article and the total profit or loss of the company. 

 These results have been so exact that for several years 

 the profits determined by public accountants at the end 

 of the year have not varied i per cent, from those which 

 had been worked up in this statistical department month 

 by month. The importance of this information to those 

 in control will be readily understood. For my own part, 

 I do not see how it would be possible intelligently to run 

 a large enterprise involving a number of plants without 

 some such arrangement. 



The exact plan which 1 would recommend is as 

 follows : — 



Each factory furnishes monthly the following reports : — 

 raw materials received ; raw materials used ; shipments of 

 finished products; stocks of raw materials; stocks of 

 finished products. Productions and statement of statistical 

 charges (including manufacturing labour, labour on repairs, 

 material taken from the storehouse for repairs, all material 

 taken from the storehouse for manufacturing except fuel 

 and raw materials), packages, dry barrels, &c., included in 

 the selling price and not returnable, manufacturing cartage 

 {i.e. teams used around the works), steam and water. 



The first shows the number of pounds of raw material 

 received, together with cost of placing in the pile, and by 

 adding the amount of bills, freight, &c., we get the actual 

 cost per hundred pounds of each. These figures are used 

 m obtaining the material cost of each hundred pounds of 

 production, which, with sundries, labour, fuel, and repairs, 

 makes up the total manufacturing cost, and in connection 

 with that shows \vhat each department has accomplished 

 during the month. 



As each of the factory sheets is checked and everv pound 

 of raw material and finished product accounted for, nothing 

 escapes which should be considered in costs. 



Ih addition to the manufacturing cost are shown the cost 

 per loolb. of special factory charges (including such ac- 

 counts as docks, dredging, fire equipment, laboratory, 

 lightmg, roads, maintenance of yards, watchmen, gate- 

 men, _ &c.), and cost per looIb. of goods produced du'e to 

 salaries of superintendents and chemists, based on pro- 

 portion of labour of each department and the total manu- 

 facturing labour. 



The factory shipment sheets are checked with the ac- 

 counting department as well as repairs and net selling 

 prices obtained, lighterage, cartage, allowances, estimated 

 freights, &c., being deducted. 



By using the manufacturing costs and the net selling 

 prices, we arrive each month at the gross manufacturing 

 profits, and deducting taxes, insurance, office, and other 

 general expenses, the net results are obtained. 



All organisation, whether in the chemical industry or 

 any other, would fail to attain the best and most per- 

 manent results if the personal equation be forgotten. We 

 are not dealing with a collection of apparatus, but with 

 an organisation of men, everyone an individual, with his 

 own peculiarities and ambitions. The day has not come, 

 if it ever will, when from purely altruistic motives a mari 

 will give his most efficient services. He must realise that 

 while his best work must be done, it will not go unnoticed 

 and unrewarded. He must be sure that he will receive 

 just and proportionately liberal treatment. His proper 

 NO. 1864, VOL. 72] 



ambitions must not be smothered, they must be directed. 

 From an experience of many years, I believe the plan- 

 outlined above provides fully for this most important fact, 

 and I can point with the greatest pleasure to many men 

 as proof of my statement, and every one more enthusiastic 

 than at the beginning. The places of the leaders will some- 

 day be vacant. Who, then, shall fill them ? Those whose 

 lives have been spent in preparation for the work, and 

 who will enter into it without shock or derangement of 

 existing conditions, but as naturally as (he stream flows 

 into the river. Thus will the natural ambition of the young 

 man reach its fulfilment in due time, and thus will our 

 beloved industry progress to points of attainment which 

 some of us may dream of, but will never see. 



A vote of thanks to the president for his address was 

 then proposed by Prof. Divers and seconded by .Sir Henry 

 Roscoe, the first president of the society, in the course 

 of which allusion was made both to the valuable character 

 of the address to which the members had just listened, to 

 the origin of the society some twenty-five years ago, and 

 to the considerable growth in its membership which the 

 council's report indicated. In responding. Dr. Nichols 

 spoke of the advantage which ensued to the society as a 

 whole as a consequence of the visit last year to ."Xmerica, 

 followed, as it happily had been, by the present visit to 

 England of a considerable number of members from the 

 other side of the .Atlantic. He said how much he and his 

 fellow-countrymen appreciated the hospitality that had been 

 already shown them, and the efforts that had been made 

 in connection with the interesting and lengthy programme 

 that had been arranged largely for their benefit. He said 

 that in New York they had been anxious to provide some 

 souvenir of their visit that they might leave behind them, 

 and, on informing the meeting of the report of the 

 scrutineers, which declared that Prof. Divers, F.R.S., had 

 been elected president for the ensuing year, he desired to 

 place in his hands the little thing that they had ventured 

 to have prepared. This was a presidential badge formed 

 of a medallion of Sir Humphry Davy surrounded by an 

 emblematical device representing the union of England and 

 .America in the pursuit of chemical science. He trusted 

 that the council of the society would authorise the wearing 

 of the badge by all his successors in the office of president, 

 and hoped it would help still further to cement the good 

 feeling and cordiality which existed between members of 

 this great society on both sides of the .Atlantic. He con- 

 cluded by announcing the names of the vice-presidents an<l 

 ordinary menrbers of the council who had been found to 

 be duly elected to office. 



Prof. Divers expressed, on behalf of the society, appre- 

 ciation of the kindness which had dictated the offer of this 

 valuable presidential badge. 



On the motion of Dr. Bailey, seconded by Mr. Hiibner, 

 who on behalf of Manchester promised a very hearty 

 reception, it was resolved that the next annual general 

 meeting should be held in that city. 



On the motion of Prof. Chandler, of Colombia Uni- 

 versity, seconded by Sir Boverton Redwood, the hearty 

 thanks of the society were accorded to the senate and 

 council of University College for granting permission to the 

 society to meet in that building. This was responded to 

 by Sir William Ramsay, who incidentally referred to the 

 fact that University College as a separate corporation had 

 just ceased to exist, having become absorbed in and an 

 essential part of the University of London. The meeting 

 then adjourned. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD. 

 A .S has already been noted in these columns, the new 

 ■^ buildings of the University of Sheffield were on 

 ^^'ednesday of last w'eek opened bv the King and Queen, 

 and bv the act a new centre for research was created in 

 this country. 



Nothing seems to have been lacking to make the 

 ceremony a success; all taking part, from the King down- 

 wards, entered into the proceedings with enthusiasm. In 

 replying to the address of welcome presented by the citv, 

 the King said that he and the Queen were glad to be 

 present to open the university buildings and to inaugurate 

 a work which he was assured would tend to promote the 



