Shop Management

8 FOREWORD neering, the second being the paper entitled “On the Art of Cutting Metals” (248 pages, with 24 insert folders covering illustrations and tables) which he presented as his Presidential Address to The Ameri- can Society of Mechanical Engineers at its meeting in December, 1906, in the discussion of which at that meeting I made the following comments: “Mr. Taylor’s paper on ‘The Art of Cutting Metals’ is a masterpiece. Based on what is un- doubtedly the longest, largest, and most exhaustive series of experiments ever conducted in this field, its summary of the conclusions deduced therefrom embodies the most important contribution to our knowledge of this subject which has ever been made. The subject itself relates to the foundation on which all of our metal-working industries are built. 11 About sixty years ago American invention lifted one of the earliest and most universal of the manual arts from the plane on which it had stood from the dawn of civilization to the high level of modern mechanical industry. This was the achieve- ment of the sewing-machine. About thirty years ago, American invention again took one of the oldest of the manual arts, that of writing, and brought it fairly within the scope of modern mechanical develop- ment. This was the achievement of the typewriting- machine. The art of forming and tempering metal tools undoubtedly is coeval with the passing of the stone age, and, therefore, in antiquity is at least as old, if indeed it does not outrank, the arts of sewing and writing. Like them it has remained almost unchanged from the beginning until nearly the