MEASURING ENERGY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20740, 6 December 1930, Page 5 (Supplement)

MEASURING ENERGY.

"SLACKERS'" TERROR.

An apparatus which should create fear in the hearts of slackers has just been perfected by a 26-year-old scientist, Dr. Frank Britton, science master at Kempsey School, near Worcester, whose home is at Sutton Coldfield,, Birmingham. This instrument, known as the neurometer, measures with exactitude the amount of human energy in tho body, the amount of energy expended, £.nd consequently the amount of fatigue caused. "By its means," said the athleticlooking young doctor to a Daily Express correspondent, " an employer could examine his staff at the end of the day and easily find out who had actually done the most work, although, of course," he added with a twinkle,' " in some instances fatigue might have been caused by the expenditure of nervous energy on the search for the winner of the 2.30." He says that the greatest value of the apparatus will bo to schools and to hospitals and doctors in private practice, who will be able to estimate tho condition of their patients. Dr. Britton referred to tests he had carried out with the neurometer. One included the testing oi a class of boys before and after a French lesson. The record showed, on a comparison with the list of marks given by the French master —which included points for '' application in class " as well as for intelligence—that those boys who had the highest marks were those who shoved the most nervous fatigue at the second reading of the neurometer.

The apparatus does not require batteries, but, in a manner it is impossible to explain fully without going into considerable technical detail, it registers the amount of electricity in the body. " Mental and muiicular strain produce modifications in the nervous system. Dr. Britton explained, "with a lowering of tho heat values and a corresponding lowering - in the electrical responses. There are some people who do their best work when their temperature is higher than normal, and, consequently, their personal electricity i& greater than usual. Women are well below men in nervous energy, due to tho fact that men aie bigger and heavier." Dr. Britton intends to patent and market the apparatus.