STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM II
per cent of the severity rate of the Dye Works of the duPont Company
was attributed by its manager to what he termed ‘emergency methods’
—that is, conditions constituting a departure from the normal, =
“Safety and efficiency are unquestionably linked together by what is
best described as ‘continuity of operation.” For continuity of machine
operation—that is, useful operation—we must have continuity of feed
and stock removal, as well as continuity of power supply. The joint
effect on safety and production wrought by common-sense changes in
the methods of feed and stock removal is well illustrated in the opera-
tion of punch presses,” for instance, by the experience of the Simmons
Company, which is as follows: “In 1919, when there were 700 presses
operating in one department, thirty-six fingers were taken off in acci-
dents. With the above changes in the method of operation, the injuries
decreased to seven fingers during the first six months of 1920. In
the four years following not a single finger was lost and the production
per press had increased on the average 60 to 65 per cent. The Sim-
mons Company reports, ‘Our experience has been that whenever we
made a job safe we also increased the production from 1 5 to 150
per cent.’ ”
Dull cutting tools, whether machine or manually operated, not only
will not do their work efficiently, but are more dangerous than sharp
tools. Every man knows that this is true of a dull razor or a dull
hatchet. Equally important is the set which permits the tool to clear
itself as its cut progresses, and get rid of the waste material such as
sawdust, chips, or shavings. Improper or insufficient edge or set re-
tards cutting by increasing the friction and thereby the power required;
it creates a natural tendency on the part of the operator to force the
tool to do its work, thus subjecting both it and him to unnecessary
strains; it tirés and provokes him, distracting his attention from the
work itself and rendering him more liable to injury; it is likely to
cause the material or tool to jam or bind. which in some situations may
be dangerous.
Henry Schreiber, Deputy of the Industrial Commission of Wis-
consin, is authority for the statement that changing woodworking
saws when dull would reduce saw accidents 75 per cent and at the same
time increase production, and this regardless of existing guards. On
the other hand, he explains the relatively few injuries caused by
shapers and similar manually fed woodworking tools which give a
finished surface by pointing out that they must be kept sharp in order
to turn out a satisfactory product.
Another source of combined waste and danger lies in the use of
improper or improvised tools. The man who uses a Stillson instead of
a safety wrench to release the gates of a hopper-bottom coal car con-
