viii. Proceedings. [November i StA, 1 9 1 9. 



Ordinary Meeting, November 18th, 191 9. 



Professor F. E. Weiss, D.Sc., F.R.S., F.L.S. {Deputy Chairman), 



in the Chair. 



A vote of thanks was accorded the, donors of the books 

 on the table. These included : " A Sub ject Index to the Poems 

 of Edmund Spenser" by C. H. Whitman (8vo., New Haven, ^ 

 1918), presented by the Yale University Press, New Haven, 

 Conn. 



Professor T. H. Pear, M.A., B.Sc, read a paper entitled 

 " The Elimination of Wasteful Effort in Industry." 



The lecturer pointed out that, it being impossible to dis- 

 tinguish sharply between physical and mental effort, in the 

 investigation of the problems of economising human energy 

 physiology and psychology must work side by side. While in 

 many industries improvement of the external conditions of 

 work such as temperature, ventilation, humidity, illumination, 

 was rapidly proceeding, less had been attempted in the direc- 

 tion of improving the methods of work themselves. Examples 

 of such efforts illustrated the importance of certain funda- 

 mental principles. The first was the adjustment, both in 

 total length and in distribution, of resti pauses. By intro- 

 ducing suitably chosen rest pauses and by modifying the 

 working attitude of girls who were engaged in folding 

 handkerchiefs, the output increased 300 per cent, while the 

 folders worked only 45 minutes in each hour and were less 

 fatigued than before. The second principle was the substitu- 

 tion of habitual movements for constant acts of decision. 

 By rearranging the method of "assembling" a braid machine, 

 so that the parts were not only put together in a more efficient 

 order, but were more easily found by the workman, 66 units 

 were assembled by a man in one day instead of 18. The 

 third was the elimination of useless movement. By this 

 meam the separate actions required to lay a brick had been 

 reduced from 18 to 5; the output increased from 120 per 

 man per hour to 350. 



Insistence was laid upon the importance of teaching' the 

 best methods of work first, before the worker had acquired 

 less efficient methods which were difficult to 1 unlearn, and 

 upon the necessity of such training being carried out by 

 persons who knew how to teach. By analysing the results 

 of motion study in a British munition factory during the 

 war and similar improvements elsewhere, it was shown that 

 "speeding up," fatigue, and the exploitation of the worker 

 are by no means necessary results of such modifications. 

 The 'question of the monotony alleged to be caused by such 

 " shorthand " methods of work was also discussed. The 

 fundamental confusion between the terms " monotonous " 



