MACHINE OPERATORS
IT 3
slow machines have been and are being tended by operators
capable of feeding the fastest machines efficiently,
this discrepancy is evidently due in large part to the fact
that there has been no way of distinguishing beforehand
e tween operators who are naturally quick and those who
are naturally slow. To be sure, shops which are well
trianaged will in time eliminate the workers who are too
s ow; but this is a long and expensive process. Besides,
he process does not work so well the other way, and fast
°perators who are placed at slow machines are often content
to remain there,
In attacking this problem, the first task was obviously
tp find some means which would make it possible to dis-^guish
at the very outset between applicants who were
^ to operate fast machines and those who could not.
general survey of the work which had previously been
^one i n figjq by psychologists brought to light the
°gardus fatigue apparatus. This apparatus had been de-S1
gned and put into use by Bogardus as a test for machine
^Perators. (“American Journal of Sociology, 5 ’ XVII,
^912; ‘The Relation of Fatigue to Industrial Accidents.”)
s Purpose was not to distinguish between fast and slow
°perators but to detect the relation between fatigue among
^chine operators and industrial accidents. The apr
r atus consists of a small round table over which two
are revolved at given speeds. At the edge of the
j e ls painted a little square, and the person being tested
asked to take a small wooden cube of the same size
cut) ^ ace exactly upon this square. As often as the
e ls put in place, one of the revolving arms comes
0 0Utl d and knocks it off to one side of the table. The
P rator’g task is to pick it up and replace it on the square
° r e the next arm can come around and knock it off
