12
EMPLOYMENT PSYCHOLOGY
ifications of his work to another gauge maker on the other
side of the continent, that gauge maker could turn out
an exactly similar piece of work. Moreover, he could
prove, by means of his instruments, that the work was
identical. The chemist does not make up his compounds
after a cook-book formula, so many cups of this and so
many spoonfuls of that. He weighs his materials on the
finest of scales which tell him to a thousandth of a gram
what amount he has. The cook-book method is the em
pirical or home remedies method and many excellent re
sults this method has produced; but no two cooks can ob
tain the same result from the same recipe. The scientist
can, because his method is standardized and minute, and
enables him to speak in terms that always mean the same
thing. This statement holds true in any field of facts
to which the scientific method has been applied. Another
excellent example is the weather report. The weather
man is still the subject of frequent jibes. It is a common
practice to look at the weather report and then believe
the contrary. But how many people are willing to have
the weather man replaced by the good old-fashioned goose-
bone prophet? And how many would stake their own
empirical judgment against the scientific inductions of
the weather man? Meteorology is the result of applying
the scientific method to the study of atmospheric condi
tions, that is, substituting for the crude and unaided
human faculties such scientific tests as thermometers,
barometers, rain-fall gauges, and other quantitative tests.
Consequently, weather men all over the country, in making
up their weather reports, can describe atmospheric condi
tions to each other in standard and unambiguous terms.
There is no Yankee or southern dialect in the science of
meteorology.