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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  empirical ­
  or  home  remedies  method  and  many  excellent  results ­
  this  method  has  produced;  but  no  two  cooks  can  obtain ­
  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  goosebone
  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  conditions, ­
  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  conditions ­
  to  each  other  in  standard  and  unambiguous  terms.
There  is  no  Yankee  or  southern  dialect  in  the  science  of
meteorology.