that three minutes of low pressure ... gives maximum moisture
test, we furnished each man on the wet machines with a clock and
asked him to leave this low pressure on just three minutes. As
long as the foremen kept constantly after their men and vigilantly
followed them up we obtained some slight increase in the test; but
it required a constant urging upon our part to focus the attention
of the men upon this three minute time of low pressure.... We
realized finally that in order to get the results we were after,
it was necessary for us to produce _a desire_ upon the part of
our men to do this work in the proper way ... so we designed an
instrument which would give us a record of the time lost between
pressing operations, also the number of minutes the low pressure
was kept on. It took us something over a year to perfect this
machine, but after it was finally perfected and a record of the
operations made, we found that the men actually were operating at
an average efficiency of 42 per cent, and our moisture test was
running about 54 per cent. Our next step was to post a daily
record of the relative standing of the men in the machine room,
putting the men who had the best record at the top of the list, in
the order of their weekly average efficiencies. (The efficiency of
low pressure, which proved to be the most important factor, was
computed by calling three minutes of low pressure 100 per cent and
two minutes either way 0 per cent.) As a result of simply posting
this record our efficiencies rose to over 60 per cent and our
moisture test increased a little less than 1 per cent. Some of the
best and most skilled men had an efficiency of over 80 per cent,
but quite a large percentage of them were down below 50 per cent.
We therefore decided that it was necessary to have the foreman
give more detailed information to the men as to what the machine
meant and how their efficiencies were obtained and to put the