Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1921 edition. Excerpt: ...the law of frequency of error, though it has since been shown by Karl Pearson and others that there is often a slight degree of asymmetry in the distribution. Other qualities 1 6f. British Association Report, 1863. 'Galton. "Natural Inheritance." London, 1889. such as intelligence and manual skill are likewise distributed according to the laws of chance. Hence we are able to formulate the following rules for our guidance in respect to the output of industrial workers. 25 p 1 1 1 1--WEIGHT IN POUNDS fv r.2f-Variation in weight. (1) In a group of experienced industrial workers, all of whom are doing their best, it will inevitably be found that there are distinct variations in skill, and in magnitude of output. (2) If a large number of (hourly) output values are sorted out, according to their magnitude, it will be found that the highest and the lowest values occur infrequently, the moderately high and moderately low values occur with moderate frequency, and the medium values occur with considerable frequency. (3) Any substantial departure from this distribution of output values is due to some limitation of output. Such limitation may be of mechanical origin, but it is usually due to the volition of the workers, i.e., it is an intentional limitation. These rules form the basis of the method I have suggested1 for testing the presence or absence of intentional limitation of output in industrial workers. Output Free From Limitation I have applied the frequency curve method to a large number of output data, and I will first describe some of the results which show no indication of any intentional restriction of output. My first example relates to the output of 264 experienced, drillers (i.e., journeymen) at a large shipyard. The...