The Principles of Scientific Management

THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 105 make the experiments above referred to, to determine what constitutes a proper day’s work for a laborer, he also obtained the permission of Mr. William Sellers, the President of the Midvale Steel Com- pany, to make a series of experiments to determine what angles and shapes of tools were the best for cutting steel, and also to try to determine the proper cutting speed for steel. At the time that these experiments were started it was his belief that they would not last longer than six months, and, in fact, if it had been known that a longer period than this would be required, the permission to spend a con- siderable sum of money in making them would not have been forthcoming. A 66-inch diameter vertical boring-mill was the first machine used in making these experiments, and large locomotive tires, made out of hard steel of uniform quality, were day after day cut up into chips in gradually learning how to make, shape, and use the cutting tools so that they would do faster work. At the end of six months sufficient practical information had been obtained to far more than repay the cost of materials and wages which had been expended in experimenting. And yet the comparatively small number of experiments which had been made served principally to make it clear that the actual knowledge attained was but a small fraction of that which still remained to be developed, and which was badly needed by us, in our daily at- tempt to direct and help the machinists in their tasks. Experiments in this field were carried on, with