288 



REPORTS ON THE STATE OP SCIENCE.— 1915. 



machine itself that requires attendance, involve the activity of attention 

 for a 'cue ' difficult to perceive, and a quick reaction to the cue when 

 it occurs. 



Certain portions of a whole operation often do not consist in action 

 so much as in passive rests, ' waiting for the material to set ' perhaps. 

 This ' non-persistence ' is a characteristic here conditioned by the very 

 nature of the work, and in so far unavoidable even by the most 



* efficient ' of Efficiency Engineers. For different departments of the 

 iron and steel making process figures were collected in the U.S. 

 Eeport of the Conditions of Employment in the Iron and Steel Industry 

 (Senate Doc. 110, 62nd Congress, 1st Session, vol. iii., page 345) 

 to show ' the percentage of active work to idle; the actual time being 

 measured by stop-watch to the one-tenth of a minute for an average 

 of four or five days.' It is explained that ' active ' means essentially 



* that the employee was engaged during the time shown in actually 

 performing some particular function and not simply waiting for the 

 completion of some process or for his fellow-worker to finish some 

 particular job. Such time as this if it lasted more than a minute or 

 two would be included under the head of idle. ' 



Since we give in full the daily distribution of Iron and Steel 

 Accidents (Table X.) and of the output of Bessemer Converters 

 (Table VIII.) we will reproduce here as an example this table of active 

 time and its percentage of the whole time, which must to a large 

 extent have conditioned the two ' daily distributions,' cautioning the 

 reader to the effect that these are American conditions differing very 

 much from English. Americans generally work a longer day, but use 

 more machinery. (See notes at foot of Tables.) 



Blast Furnace. 



Hours in Worker 



Factory 



12 Furnace Keeper 

 12 First Helper 

 12 Second Helper 

 12 Cinder Snapper 

 12 Lorry Man . 

 12 Hoist Man . 



12 Hot Blast Man 



Active Time 

 h. m. 

 . 9 29 



Remarks": 

 Kind of Work % 



% Hard Mod. Light 



79 77-4 5-1 17-5 



9 56 83 67-4 32-1 105 



9 15 77 66-9 6-6 26-5 



9 17 77 640 17-9 18 



7 39 64 I Manipulating 



7 28 62/ ControUers. 



8 05 67 38-2 2-5 47-2 



Tap 



the 



furnace. 



frills. 



Signalled. 



Open Hearth. 



12 Charging Machine Operator . 5 06 



12 First Helper . . . . 3 16 



12 Second Helper . . . . 6 31 



12 Third Helper . . . . 4 26 



12 Ladle Craneman . . . 6 12 



12 Steel Pourers . . . . 3 36 



12 Brakeman Engineer . . . 5 58 



12 Stripper Craneman . . . 4 25 



% 



43 Quick. Many levers. 



27 



46 



37 



52 Ladle takes iron to hearth, 



30 



50 



37 



Note from Report in 1902 to British I.T. Ass. Com. : — There is no pig-lifting, no 

 hand-shovelling of stock. No hauling of charging barrows. All the tedious clay 

 work around the hearth and incessant changing of tuyeres is done away w ith. 



