The Principles of Scientific Management

THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT 111 A quick solution was, however, so much of a necessity in our every-day work of running machine- shops, that in spite of the small encouragement received from the mathematicians, we continued at irregular periods, through a term of fifteen years, to give a large amount of time searching for a simple solution. Four or five men at various periods gave practically their whole time to this work, and finally, while we were at the Bethlehem Steel Company, the slide-rule was developed which is illustrated on Folder No. 11 of the paper “On the Art of Cutting Metals/’ and is described in detail in the paper presented by Mr. Carl G. Barth to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, entitled n Slide- rules for the Machine-shop, as a part of the Taylor System of Management” (Vol. XXV of The Transac- tions of the American Society of Mechanical Engi- neers). By means of this slide-rule, one of these intricate problems can be solved in less than a half minute by any good mechanic, whether he under- stands anything about mathematics or not, thus making available for every-day, practical use the years of experimenting on the art of cutting metals. This is a good illustration of the fact that some way can always be found of making practical, every- day use of complicated scientific data, which appears to be beyond the experience and the range of the technical training of ordinary practical men. These slide-rules have been for years in constant daily use by machinists having no knowledge of mathe- matics.