Full Employment And Automation Compatible

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28321, 5 July 1957, Page 7

Full Employment And Automation Compatible

Automation was not an evil system that would result in large-s'cale unemployment, neither was it a system to give a Utopian life to all workers, said Professor R. J. Rastrick. of the National School of Engineering, in an address to the Christchurch Club of Printing Craftsmen. last evening.

The word “automation” had been coined after the war to describe the mechanical transfer systems used for the automaticproduction of parts m the motdr industry in the United States. The essences of automation were the replacement of human effort by machinery to give faster and more accurate production, and the replacement of' controlling intelligence by feed-back control systems, generally electronic.

The use of machinery dated from an early age, said Professor Rastrick, but only came to be of real importance with the invention of practical steam engines towards the end of the 18th century. The first automatic factory had been in Portsmouth around 1810. for the production of wooden pulley blocks for the British Navy The use of machinery had enabled 130,000 blocks to be produced a year. Early Attempts

In 1925, a British motor firm had attempted to build a mechanical transfer system for the production of car parts, but the absence of any knowledge of feedback control principles, and the lack of electronic devices, had resulted in the project failing It was only after the war, with the vast developments in electronic control systems, that a truly automatic system could be developed

Machines were now operating that controlled themselves, replaced worn parts and produced a highly accurate, standardised product with very little human attention. The lack of skilled

Home Nursing Class. — A ‘home nursing class for adults will be held by the St. John Ambulance Association at the Brigade Headquarters. The classes open to the public will be held on Thursday nights for seven weeks fxsm July 25.

technologists to produce such machines, and their high initial costs, were the present limiting factors however.

“The future of automation in New Zealand will depend largely on developments overseas,” said Professor Rastrick, “but the appreciable effects over a long period will be an improvement in living conditions the stabilisation of costs of manufactured articles, and the gradual decline in the hours of the working week, with a consequent increase in the time available for leisure activities.”