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EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY 
6. Q. Why chamber? A. If the chamber is too large 
the shell will swell and cannot be extracted in the regular 
way. 
7. Q. Why firing pin? A. If the firing pin is too long 
there will be the danger of premature fire, if too short, of 
misfire. 
8. Q. Why barrel? A. If there is a seam in the barrel 
when shot it will burst open and if the barrel is not straight 
the gun will not shoot straight. 
9. Q. Why sight alignment? A. The alignment of 
sight is essential to correct shooting. 
10. Q. What experience as an assembler other than on 
guns? A. Have had several years’ experience on sewing 
machines, typewriters, etc. 
11. Q. What kind of work requiring particularly close 
filing have you done? A. Small-tool work. 
These are valuable questions because they require 
specific answers about concrete and specific elements in the 
work of gun assembling. However, definite as they are, 
they could not be used as they stand with any certainty as 
to their value. It is first of all necessary to experiment 
with these questions on a sufficient number of men actually 
engaged in this work, in order to find out whether the 
questions are such that the best workers obtain the highest 
grade in the test and the poorest workers the lowest 
grade. In other words, it is necessary to find the correla 
tion between the performance of the men in the test and 
their actual ability at their trade. Moreover, it is also 
necessary, by the process of trial and error described in 
previous chapters, to eliminate ambiguous words, catch 
questions, “guess” answers, and questions which permit 
a lengthy or indefinite explanation. In short, trade tests, 
whether in the form of questions or any other form, must