June 28, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



645 



To illustrate tliat; if for instance the total 

 production of a milling division up to Jan- 

 uary 12 should be 460,000 barrels instead of 

 the expected 540,000 barrels production up to 

 January 12, 1918, equals the magnitude of 

 460,000 



FG» = 



540,000 



= 85 per cent. (Fig 2), 



■which is the total actual production up to Jan- 

 uary 12 expressed in percentage of the total 

 expected production up to that date. The 

 other 15 per cent, are a deficit which can only 

 be equalized through an accelerated produc- 

 tion rate during the rest of the time which is 

 available for production. Whereas : 



460,000 

 1,620,000 ^ 



28.4 per cent. 



is the production of the milling division ex- 

 pressed in per cent, of the total production in 

 barrels expected at the expiration date of the 

 total time interval in question. Both in- 

 stances are easily recognized in the diagram 

 and read off on the right-hand scale. The 

 left-hand scale in the diagram gives the actual 

 number of barrels of flovir produced. Through 

 this graphical method all the different func- 

 tions which are at work during the total pro- 

 duction period are easily analyzed and are 

 thus made available to the executive for rapid 

 information and decision. 



In the following one simple case of the de- 

 sign of such a diagram (Fig. 3) is given with 

 the statistical data. Given : 



Expected Uniform Average Weehly Produc- 

 tion Rate: 270,000 barrels. 



Time : 6 weeks. 



Total Expected Production at the End of 

 Sixth Week: 1,620,000 barrels. 



ACTUAL PBODDCTION, PEE WEEK ENDING 



January 5 227,000 



January 12 233,000 



January 19 211,000 



January 26 237,000 



Pebruary 2 

 February 9 



231,000 

 246,000 



227,000 

 460,000 

 671,000 

 908,000 

 1,139,000 

 1,385,000 



The actual production line shows that the 



production during the entire period has been 

 about 15 per cent, behind the expected output. 

 Suppose, to show the universality of the dia- 

 gram, production would have been according 

 to the next table: 



.\ctuiil Production DurlDR the Week Cumulative 



Ending In Barrels Barrels 



January 5 170,000 170,000 



January 12 430,000 600,000 



January 19 No production. Strike 600,000 



January 26 430,000 1,030,000 



February 2 ... 320,000 1,350,000 



February 9 . . . 200,000 1,550,000 



If these facts are plotted (as shown by light 

 dotted line) the diagram will give the follow- 

 ing analysis : On January 5 only 60 per cent, 

 of the expected output was produced. 



On January 12 the production rate was 

 above normal and therefore the intersection 

 with the " above normal line " indicates that 10 

 per cent, more than expected was produced. 



On January 19 the mills were not in opera- 

 tion on account of labor trouble. The parallel 

 line indicating no production. 



On January 26 again about 95 per cent, of 

 the expected output up to date is produced. 



In this way all actual production phases 

 against time and requirements, expected de- 

 liveries or needs can be graphically analyzed. 

 r. von huhn 



Washington, D. C. 



the specific conductivity of water 

 extracts of wheat flouri 



The attention of cereal chemists has long 

 been attracted to the development of methods 

 for determining the grade of flour and meals. 

 As early as 1884 Girard= suggested a procedure 

 for estimating the proportion of fibrous struc- 

 tures in a cubic millimeter of the material. 

 Vidriidi^ (1893) called attention to the close 

 parallelism between tlie grade of Hungarian 

 wheat flours and the percentage of ash which 



1 Published with the approval of the Director as 

 Paper No. 123 Journal Series Minnesota Agricul- 

 tural Experiment Station. 



2 Girard, A., Ann. d. Chim. et de Phys., 6 ser., 3, 

 293, 1884. 



3 Vidrodi, Ztschr. angew. Chem., 1893, 691. 



