FACTORY LIGHTS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 139, 15 June 1938, Page 20

FACTORY LIGHTS.

INFLUENCE ON WORK. BRIGHTNESS IS NOT ALL. COUNTERACTING FATIGUE. In modern production efficiency 'has become the watchword and is being aimed at right down to the minutest part of the concern. I he lighting of factories or workshops has it considerable direct .and indirect influence on the product, on production costs and on the energy of the worker. The data that has been collected regarding the influence of light on the work output sfaows clearly the importance of good and abundant light; iu many eases the increase in production through better light amounts to anything from 10 to 2"> per cent. This is not due to the fact that the worker is better able to distinguish the details of his work, but rather to the exclusion of troublesome influences that occur in weak and incorrect lighting, whilst tfiie psychological influence is also of extremely great importance. Bad lighting, in which the eye is subjected to abnormal strain, soou causes fatigue which has a direct effect on the system, and an indirect one on the output.

In the problem of lighting the distinction imi£t be made between the brightness of light and the kind of light. The more light falls on the work

the more rapidly the worker will be able to see and the more calmly will he lie able to do his work. But besides ;his it is necessary to take into account the special requirements of certain work'as regards the positioning of the ligl'tsources and the distribution of the light. Sometimes it will be necessary to aive preference to powerful directional light, and at other times diffused light might be required; in one case local lighting at the work-bench might be essential, while for other purposes general lighting of the whole room might be desirable, hi connection with these numerous factors wlreli play a part, the managers of establishments are advised to call iu the help of a lighting expert. In any case the main thing is to use only good latins of first-class maiiiifacture. the efficiency of which is undoubted and where construction complies with the highest requirements <f the latest British Standards specification of .I une, There are many factors that can be favourably influenced by good lighting, such as their influence on the number of factory accidents and the restriction of the number of mistakes, with consequent material reduction in the rejection figures. Lighting is an important factor both from the technical and from the hygienic point of view, and it is of no little significance in its relation to efficiency in any factory.

In olden dav«. when men wore plumes in their liats, the plumes were always on the left, so that they should not interfere with the free movement of the sword arm. The custom still ]>ersists in the fact that the bows on men's 1 at-bands are always on the left.