The science of labour and its organization / by Josefa Ioteyko.

  • Ioteyko, Josefa, 1866-1928.
Date:
1919
    board of His instrument. The experienced oarsman suffers from fatigue in the calves of his legs and insteps, after prolonged exertion. The paradoxical appearance of the answers is explained in the following way by Bloch : the fatigue predominates in the groups of muscles that become immovable when contracted. These experiments shew the existence of static fatigue, which sometimes predominates. They also shew that the groups of auxiliary muscles in industrial movements should be exercised as much as possible so as to break the continuity of contractions, whether auxiliary or principal. In his report laid before the Brussels Congress Imbert particularly insists upon the slackening of contraction and muscular relaxation which is the first sign of fatigue and manifests itself after quite a small number of contractions, even before the height of the movement is appreciably diminished. The fact, long known and noticed in the muscles of the frog, has been verified by Imbert and Gagniere in a man working at the ergograph. This diminution of the rapidity of contraction gives rise to a practical result of great interest. The accidents in connection with labour are generally the outcome of some fortuitous event. In such cases they often arise so suddenly that the workman finds it is impossible to escape from the c
    danger that threatens. In other cases, on the contrary, the menace is less sudden ; the workman sees it coming, and can ward it off. But then it is necessary that the workman’s muscular contraction should be achieved as rapidly as possible, because the time at the workman’s disposal is often only a fraction of a second. And in those trades where the workmen are, as it were, attached to a moving machine and have to regu¬ late the speed of their work by that of the machine it is easy to conceive the part played by fatigue in workmen’s accidents. Besides, one has also to take mental fatigue into consideration, and it is this which lengthens the psychic process inter¬ vening between perception and movement. The result of this, says Imbert, is that accidents connected with work must be more - numerous as the day advances, more numerous, too, in the corresponding hours, at the end than at the beginning of the week, if work is pressed too far. The statistics of the distribution of accidents connected with labour therefore constitute an indication of the degree of fatigue in the human motor (sec later). Other observations may also lead to the verifi¬ cation of physical fatigue. The attitude of the workman at the beginning and at the end of a hard day’s work may shew certain modifications.
    which follow the principle discovered by Marey, in connection with the vertical displacements of the centre of gravity during progress of the work. As a general rule, the useless expenditure of energy is suppressed during fatigue and the body in¬ stinctively adopts a more economical attitude. This attitude can be determined by chronophoto- graphy which also enables successive records to be taken during the progress of work.1 Whether the question is one of intellectual, or of physical, fatigue, can now be decided, as we have since then been in possession of general methods of investi¬ gation, and of general processes of measurement. Such is the conclusion arrived at in Imbert’s report 2 In an article which appeared in L’Annee Psychologique Imbert shews the importance of the problem laid down by social medicine. However useful these attempts may be, we must not ignore the almost hostile indifference with which they were at first received in the Syndicalist centres of working men. Moreover, the experimental 1 In an exhaustive inquiry into the labour of working men undertaken by the Solvay Institute of Sociology in Brussels, in which we, in colloboration with others, undertook the physiological part, the attitudes of workmen were determined, thanks to cinematography. Events and the tragic accident of which M. Waxwieilcr, director of the Institute, was the victim, delayed the publication of the inquiry. 2 Imbert, L'Elude scienti/iqiie experimentale (In travail professionel (Annee Psychologique, 1007, Vol. xiii., pp. 245-
    and exact study of a trade is a project which cannot be carried out without some difficulty. The author quite rightly insists on the inadequate information furnished by the valuation of mechani¬ cal work ; as a matter of fact, this puts us in possession of only one factor in the problem. He gives an account of experiments he made on the dock labourers at Cette in the unloading of colliers as well as those of A. Gauthier on the labour of wine and spirit storehouse workmen working a wine-pump. In both cases the mechanical labour was stringently estimated. But it would be misleading to rely upon a simple estimate in kilogramme-metres to fix the value of industrial labour. To compare in kilogrammes, labour achieved under different conditions, would lead to the conclusion, for instance, that to ascend to the next floor by going up a good staircase is the same thing as raising oneself by one’s arms up a long vertical rope, since the mechanical labour is the same in both cases. Such a conclusion is mechanically exact, but physiologically false. Thus, the wine and spirit storehouse labourers, studied by A. Gauthier accomplished, in their from nine to ten hours’ day, work estimated at 212,200 kilogramme-metres ; whilst the day’s work of the dock-labourers was equal to 75,000 kilogramme-
    metres. Judging by these numerical results, it would seem that the former labour must be about three times as difficult as the latter, because in these cases the same muscles came into play, viz., those of the arms and of the trunk. But the mechanical conditions in which the muscles operated in these two kinds of work are sufficiently dissimilar to completely reverse the conclusion. All the dock-labourers would be capable of per¬ forming the day’s work of a wine pumper, but the reverse would certainly not be the case. Consequently the eight hours’ day of the coalhcaver is paid at the rate of eight francs, whilst in the same town the wage of the wine pumper is only from 4-5 francs for a ten hours’ day. Compare with these figures the enormous amount of mechanical work a postman would produce who made two rounds daily, each of three hours duration, at a speed of 3,600 metres per hour. We should thus get 259,200 kilogramme- metres per day, whilst a dock labourer only achieved 75,000 kilogramme-metres. It is enough also to remember the works of Chauveau dealing with internal muscular effort (excess of animal heat), to judge of the well- known inadequacy of an estimate based exclu¬ sively upon the information derived solely from mechanical labour.