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  suggestions ­
  and  viewpoints  to  the  experimenter.  Indeed,
°ne  of  the  most  valuable  features  of  an  experiment  conducted ­
  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).