TESTING MEN ASSEMBLERS 
71 
you would know right away what to expect of him 
a s a filer.” 
Yes, but listen here,” broke in another. “All the 
filing required for this work can be learned by a likely 
Iaan in a few days, and it wouldn’t be fair to throw out a 
man because he happened to pick up the wrong file once. 
Inside of a week or two weeks at the most a man who has 
never had a file in his hands might be able to do filing well 
en °ugh to do this work.” 
This is an example of the kind of discussion which was 
reely indulged in by the men in these shops. It not only 
showed how well they understood and sympathized with 
what was being done but also gave many valuable sug 
gestions and viewpoints to the experimenter. Indeed, 
°ne of the most valuable features of an experiment con 
ducted in this way lies in the intimate touch with the men 
an d their work which it promotes. And as an additional 
Su ggestion it may be stated that nothing pleases the men 
rn ° re than the recognition that their work is important 
en ° u gh to merit a careful study. 
The work in which these men were engaged was the 
as sembling of gun actions and the final assembling of the 
Vari °us component parts of the gun into the finished prod- 
Uct - A thorough study of this work was made by the 
^ x perirnenters, not only by observation but by actually 
oing (-fig wor k. as we U_ J n S ome respects, this work was 
me the work of assembling done by girls. However, it 
Squired in addition some filing ability and a considerably 
. 5 guer grade of judgment. Instead of describing the work 
tninute technical details it is better for our purpose to 
e scnbe it in terms of the tests which were finally selected 
0r the experiment. 
*he first test given was the spatial perception test (51).