MACHINE AND BRAINS

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 85, 20 October 1928, Page 20

MACHINE AND BRAINS

LABOUR AND MONEY. SAVING. : American enterprise in the use of machinery is shown by the statement made . at a recent meeting of manufacturers-■ that in the.motor .trade one man can; now do work which in 1914 required; three. The average, of the country's j industries does not show up so highly, but even so only 71 men are now needed; to do the work of 100 in 1914. ■■ In the '• last ten years. 56 per cent. .of the; machinery used in metal working has; been installed or replaced. This rat« of adding new machinery is considered very backward, and the editor of the "American Machinist" criticised it- as uneconomical, and held up, the standard of tho motor trade, where three-quar-ters of tho machinery is less than 10 years old. Pointing out the economy of machinery, he said- that it would pay for itself under American conditions in from fivo weeks to five years. In one case aii expensive milling machine was installed and paid for itself in 27 days. . Other instances of labour and money saving by machinery were quoted. One motor-car factory has adopted a system of hinjng rivets blown into tho places where they are wanted through compressed air tubes. One of the most olaborate machines in America is owned by the United States Coast Survey at Washington. It calculates the tidetables for a year in advance at all the important stations on the American

coast. American 'employers insist that' machinery is .creating, a finer.iyp.e. of workman. ; : It' takes more' brains', to watch a machine than to handle a pick and sljoyeL.th.ey. say. - : ,Th,e new problem is how, tb:-keep; the-worker,awake, and alert at his job. • One method now being tried is to design machinery which signals the need for attention by- sound and not by sight. The worker can thus read at his employment so-long as lie keeps his ears open. Another suggestion seriously made is that, a regular stimulus should.be.given to the worker,, perhaps in,thoform of a regular,yibra-' tion of tlie'platform, oivwliich'ho stands.