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EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
feed machine has a revolving table ringed with holes or
pins which the operator has to keep filled with the parts
upon which the machine is operating. In some shops these
dials revolved very slowly and therefore did not require
fast operators. In other shops they revolved very quickly
and required very fast operators. The foreman of the
largest of these shops stated that seven girls out of ten
failed to make good as operators on his machines.
The test which was finally developed to meet these conditions
was similar to, and still quite different from, the
Bogardus piece. Its motive power consisted of an old
graphophone motor. The advantages of this motor were
its comparative compactness and simplicity. On the top
of the graphophone dial was placed a round, sheet-metal
disk, large enough so that it projected considerably over
the edge of the motor box. Near the edge of the disk
were cut two slots eight inches long and an inch and a half
wide. These slots were fitted with slides which made it
possible to regulate the size of the opening. Under this
disk, and attached to the motor box in such a position
as to be directly under the slots in the revolving disk,
was placed a funnel. At the neck of this funnel a Veeder
counter was attached in such a way that a one-inch steel
ball dropped through the funnel would cause it to register.
The object of the test was to revolve the sheet-metal disk
so that the slots in its border passed over the mouth of
the funnel at a certain number of revolutions per minute.
As the slot passed over the funnel, the operator, or person
being tested, was to drop the steel ball so that it would
fall through the slot and into the funnel below it, where it
would be registered. If the ball were dropped on the disk
or at one side of the opening, it would naturally fail to
register.
