Motion Study
A Method for Increasing the Efficiency of the Workman

xxii INTRODUCTION time she tried to do as he directed she did twenty-four boxes in twenty-six seconds; the second time she tried it she did it in twenty seconds. She was not working any harder, only making fewer motions. This account the writer heard in Manchester, England, from the man himself who had put up the job on Mr. Gilbreth, and it is safe to say that this man is now about as firm a believer in motion study as Mr. Gilbreth is. H. L. Gantt. New York, Oct. i, 1910. Enough has been said, and sufficient instances drawn from widely diversified trades have been given, to show that motion study is a problem of the most vital importance to the world. Some day an intelligent nation will awake to the fact that by scientifically studying the motions in its trades it will obtain the industrial supremacy of the world. We hope that that nation will be the United States. Already rated as the most progressive nation the world has ever seen, it will take a position far in advance of all, once it begins to give its earnest attention to this subject. Certain it is, that if we do not some other people will, and our boasted progress and supremacy will then be but a memory. When one looks about him and sees the wasted time and money in every walk of life from useless motions, the mind becomes weary in contemplating the magnitude of the task. The bricklayer, the carpenter, the machinist, the shoveller, the clerk, even the editor in writing with his pen, make