COMFORT AND EFFICIENCY.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 3230, 22 June 1928, Page 4

COMFORT AND EFFICIENCY.

The results of further study of the expenditure of energy in heavy muscular labour have been issued by the British Industrial Fatigue Research Board. The subject of inquiry was the wheeling of barroAvs laden with bricks, and the conclusion Avas reached that the j methods used in the industry are good and that "A\_.th the optimum load and the optimum speed indicated by the results of this investigation are those already usually adopted in practice." This finding is in striking contrast with some of those to Avhich investigations in other occupations ha\'e led, and suggests that long experience has eliminated Avastage of energy such as scientific obsci'A"ers have discovered in newer

industries. "Efficfency and welfare, indeed, are now known to be so closely interrelated that to increase the one is always to increase the- other," says the Times, in commenting on the report. "The relationship between them is expressed, for practical purposes, by the word comfort, and consequently it has become an object of the most progressive employers to secure conditions of comfort for all their employees. In the case of the barrowman, fo_c example, it was found that efficiency depended to some extent on a nice adjustment of the height of the handle of the barroAv to the stature of the labourer. If the handle is too low an unnecessary expenditure of labour occurs in raising the barrow to the 'balance' height,' and consequently productive Avork is robbed of energy. This illustration is capable of a general application, to every industrial process. An uncomfortable seat, by imposing a stress on its occupant, Avithdraws energy from production; a badly arranged rack of tools, tile user of which

must stretch out his hands unnecessarily, brings about a similar loss. In each instance the aim of production is to concentrate and conserve energy and so turn energy into output. Discomfort is a tax which few enterprises can af-

ford .lo pay.''