Motion Study
A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman

PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE OF MOTION STUDY 99 later without almost as much effort as that spent in learn- ing the trade. There is little incentive for an old mechanic to teach a boy so that he will excel his teacher, and per- haps run him out of a job about the time that he, the apprentice, becomes expert. One of the most common causes for neglecting the important subject of motion study is that the boss of the establishment is not himself really a master of the trade that is being taught, or, if he was master once, has for- gotten it because there are no books or systems that have so described, charted, and illustrated his trade as to refresh his memory. Again the teacher is often a mechanic who is not trained to impart what knowledge he has, has never studied peda- gogy, and is expected to do a full day’s work at the same time that he is teaching his apprentice. The arts and trades of human beings should be studied, charted, photographed, and motion-pictured, and every em- ployer, apprentice, and student should be able to receive bulletins of his trade for a sum equal to the cost to a farmer of a bulletin from the Department of Agriculture instruct- ing how to increase the outputs of cows, hens, and bees. One great aid toward cutting down the work of every one out of the trades as well as in, would be the standardizing of our written alphabet to conform to the laws of motion study. The most offhand analysis of our written alpha- bet shows that it is full of absolutely useless strokes, all of which require what are really wasted motions.