LIFE
IN A LARGE
MANUFACTURING
PLANT
UK-
CHARLES M R1FLEY
GIFT
LIFE
IN A LARGE
MANUFACTURING PLANT
By
CHARLES M. RIPLEY
Author of
"Romance of a Great Factory''
With iiit? odactiorf b^ %
E. W. RICE, JR.
President of General Electric Company
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
PUBLICATION BUREAU
SCHENECTADY, N. Y., 1919
&
BUSINESS IS BUSINESS
"Business is business" but men are men,
Loving and working, dreaming,
Toiling with pencil or spade or pen,
Roistering, planning, scheming.
"Business is business" but he's a fool
Whose business has grown to smother
His faith in men and the golden rule,
His love for a friend and brother.
"Business is business," but life is life;
Though we're all in the game to win it,
Let's rest sometime from the heat and strife
And try to be friends for a minute.
Let's seek^ to be comrades now and then,
And slip from our golden tether;
"Business is business" but men are men,
And we're all good pals together!
BERTON BRALET.
Through Courtesy of George H. Doran Co.
421110
CONTENTS
Introduction.
Chapter I.
Chapter II.
Chapter III.
Chapter IV.
Chapter V.
Chapter VI.
By E. W. Rice, Jr., President of General Electric Company
Continuity of Service
Remarkably Long Service Record of a Great Proportion of Present
Schenectady Employees.
Fifty-six Per Cent of Those Employed Five Years Ago are Still on the
Payroll. The Supplementary Compensation. Vacations with Full
Pay for Shop Workers. The Pension System.
Clubs and Associations
Men's Social Clubs.
Women's Social Clubs.
Vacation Clubs and Camps.
Athletic Clubs. Musical Clubs.
Garden Clubs.
Departmental Associations. War
Mutual Benefit Association
Health, Life and Accident Insurance for Nine Cents a Week.
Over $4,000,000 of Life Insurance.
How the Field Day and Other Entertainments Lessen the Dues.
Scheme of Operation.
Membership in the Different Factories.
Essential Points of Organization.
Safety Work or The Prevention of Accidents ».
The Dangerous Age.
The Safest Age.
The Hour and Day When Most Accidents Occur.
Eighty Per Cent Due to Carelessness.
Women More Careful Than Men.
Educational Campaign.
Mechanical and Electrical Safeguards.
Manufacturing Processes Modified.
Main Causes of Accidents.
Time Lost — One-quarter of One Per Cent.
Digest of Safety Bulletins. Classified According to Accidents Being
Fought.
Medical Work and Hospitals
All Employees Receive Medical Examinations.
What is an Accident?
Thirty Times Safer to Work in the General Electric Company Than to
Fish for a Living.
Thirty-seven Rest Rooms for Girls.
Nurses and Red Cross Classes.
Fire Protection
Company and Employees Both Benefit by Good Protection.
Average Money Loss Per Fire for Last Ten Years Only #39.
A Quarter of a Million Automatic Sprinklers in the General Electric
Company.
Equipment in Buildings.
Handling Inflammable Material.
Central Fire Station Equipment and Water System.
The Organization.
Fire Crew for Each Building.
Drill.
Chapter VI. Fire Protection (Cont'd)
Exit Drill.
Bulletins.
Chapter VII. Restaurants
Twenty-five Cent Midday Meal at Schenectady.
One Restaurant Sells Over a Million Meals a Year.
Four Conveyor Belts Speed the Serve-self System.
Regular Meal Served in Twelve Seconds.
Chapter VIII. The Apprenticeship Courses
Boys Out of Grammar School Become Mechanics in Four Years.
Paid from $2100 to #3200 While Being Taught.
Encouragement for Boys Who Cannot go to College.
Number of Graduates from the Different Factories.
Earnings of Graduates from the Lynn Factory.
Positions Held by Apprentice Graduates from All Factories.
The Necessity for Learning a Trade.
Class Room Instruction.
Home Work.
Mastering Use of Tools and Machinery.
Special Courses.
Present Number of Apprentices.
Environment.
Chapter IX. General Educational Facilities
Testing Department School.
Switchboard Department School.
Evening Vocational Schools.
Municipal Night Schools.
Union College Evening Classes.
Lectures.
American Institute of Electrical Engineers.
Publications.
Libraries.
Chapter X. The Electrical Testing Course
The Pathway Between College and Business.
The Democracy of Overalls and a Flannel Shirt.
Careers of ex-Test Men.
Electric Railway Officials Formerly General Electric Test Men.
High Positions Attained.
Cosmopolitanism.
Quarter of a Million Kv-a. Used in Testing Department.
Wide Variety of Work.
Steam Engineering.
Government Work.
Government Recognition.
Class Room Instruction.
Post-graduate Course at Union College.
Transfers.
Office Training.
Promotions.
Positions Now Held by ex-Test Men as Ascertained from National Mem-
bership List of A. I. E. E.
Percentage of Test Men in the Engineering Department.
Percentage of General Electric Officials, Managers, Specialists, etc., Who
Are ex-Test Men.
INTRODUCTION
By E. W. RICE, Jr.
President of General Electric Company
THE series of articles brought together in this book were first
prepared by the author for the GENERAL ELECTRIC REVIEW and
appeared, during the year 1917, in that journal. They were so
full of matters of human interest that they were widely copied by maga-
zines and papers throughout this country and in many foreign lands.
The demand for copies became so great that it was considered desirable
to reprint the entire series in the more compact and permanent form of
this modest volume.
The title of the book is most expressive, as it strikes the key-note
of the author's message. The fitness of the word "Life" is evident, when
one realizes that, after deducting Sundays, holidays and hours spent in
sleep, about one half of what remains for those engaged in industry is
spent in the workshop. As labor occupies so large a portion of the
time, happiness and success are largely dependent upon their work and
their attitude towards it. Health, education, and mental and spiritual
development are all strongly influenced, for good or ill, by our environ-
ment, and conditions which make for moral, physical and mental better-
ment are bound to add to the zest of our interest and enjoyment in our
work and in our play alike.
The various activities described in this book have not sprung into
existence at one time, but have grown in a natural manner to meet the
conditions of a changing and expanding enterprise. None of them are
perfect, none of them are finished, but have been and will continue to be
subject to growth, change and adaptation, with changing times and
circumstances.
As the writer of this introduction has been associated with this
enterprise since its beginning, and has seen the start and growth of all
the activities described, he was urged to say something about them.
We always like to know the reason why anything is done. This
question is often asked concerning the activities described in this book :
"What is the motive; what was the spirit which actuated the manage-
ment?" Whatever it was, it was not philanthrophy or paternalism!
It did not require much intelligence to realize that workers in in-
dustry were more important than tools or buildings. It was natural,
therefore, to do everything possible to increase their value by improving
conditions of life during working hours. It would be useless for an
industry to provide fine tools, buildings and the best of materials unless
it could attract and hold workers with sound bodies and intelligent and
educated minds.
Hospitals, medical service, safety devices, sanitary surroundings,
rest rooms and restaurants, where wholesome food at reasonable prices
could be obtained, all obviously justified their existence.
As the electrical business was highly technical, and inventions and
discoveries advanced more rapidly than general educational facilities
of the country, we were early led to undertake special educational
methods of our own — such as the "test course," which began with our
beginning in 1880, and has been continued ever since, with modifications
adapted to changed conditions of business and education. Our apprentice
course has a similar origin and history.
Many of the activities described had their origin with the manage-
ment. Many, however, originated among the workers, and where
agreeable to them, assistance was rendered by the Company. Many
organizations are managed and operated solely by the employees —
notable instances being the various Mutual Benefit Associations, the
athletic, social and musical clubs which have prospered and helped to
make life more interesting to thousands of workers.
Those of us who have been associated together with the Company
for many years feel a natural pride in the position which it has made for
itself in its own field, in this country, and throughout the world. We
believe that we have, each in his own way, contributed something to its
success, and we are conscious that the achievements of the organization
have been brought about by the joint effort of many workers. We take
great satisfaction, not only in the technical, commercial and financial
strength of our Company, but even greater satisfaction in the knowledge
that we have, to a considerable degree, made possible, by our joint
efforts, the great electrical industry, which has done so much for the
benefit of the world.
Many important electrical discoveries or inventions have had their
origin, either with our Company or with its predecessors — for example,
the electric light, the trolley car, transmission of power, electric welding,
and so on. We may all join in the satisfying thought that the world has
been made happier, better and richer, in every sense, because of the
"Life" which we have spent in our great electrical workshop.
Life in a Large Manufacturing Plant
CHAPTER I
CONTINUITY OF SERVICE
In his "History of Civilization" Buckle points out that the peoples
of nations situated in extremely hot and in extremely cold climates are
inferior to those in the temperate zone, because their continuity of
employment is less. In hot countries steady work is impossible due to
the extreme heat of the day, and in extremely cold climates steady work
is impossible due both to the severity of the winter and to the diminished
sunlight; for the "lands of the midnight sun" are, in winter, the lands
of the noonday shade. Buckle states that the peoples of the temperate
zone are less fickle, more energetic, and further advanced in all lines of
human endeavor, because they work more continuously; i.e., with less
breaks in their industry.
A business organization is very similar to a nation in that its strength
and its characteristics are but the summation of the strength and char-
acteristics of the individuals composing it.
Since steady work makes a nation great because its individuals
become competent and expert, it would naturally follow that an industrial
concern whose employees' are steady workers, would be a stronger and
better organization than if its personnel were largely composed of
"floaters."
Lack of steady work weakens the character of the individual, and
individuals of weak character find it difficult to obtain steady work; so
it is apparent that there exists a vicious circle, and that the money
losses are cumulative; moreover this money loss is mutual with employee
and employer, inasmuch as both suffer through lack of steady productive
work.
LONG SERVICE RECORDS
Let us visit the gatekeeper at the main entrance of the Schenectady
Works of the General Electric Company and view the great army of
industrial workers which pours out here at the end of the day. In less
than three quarters of an hour most of the 22,000 people leave the
Works — in round numbers an average of 500 per minute. How many
of the 500 are "old" employees?
250 are "5-year men," of whom
100 are "lo-year men," and
15 are "25-year men"
Think what this means — four long-service men pass out every second,
for the better part of an hour.
REMARKABLE SERVICE RECORDS AT SCHENECTADY
Fig. i shows the continuity of service of the Schenectady employees.
Half the individuals have been steadily employed five years or longer.
One out of every five has been employed ten years or longer.
One out of every 34 has been steadily employed 25 years or longer.
The details of these service records are:
No. of Employees
Years of Service
No. of Employees
Years of Service
I
39
26
33 or more
3
38 or more
3H
29 or more
8
37 or more
632
26 or more
9
36 or more
660
25 or more
H
35 or more
4>309
10 or more
21
34 or more
11,102
5 or more
The lower end of this curve, covering the period between 25 and 39
years of continuous service, was easily obtained from the records of the
17000
6 0
JO /Z /4 /6 /8 20 2Z 24 ZG 28 30 3Z 34 36 38 40
Years Con£/ni/ot/s Service
Fig. i. SERVICE RECORD, SCHENECTADY WORKS
Quarter Century Club in Schenectady. The 660 members of the Schenec-
tady Quarter Century Club have served a total of 19,000 man-years;
i.e., their total years of service if represented by the life of one man would
amount to 19,000 years.
10
The five-year point was obtained from the records of those who
receive the 5 per cent supplementary compensation, described later
in the chapter. The ten-year point was obtained from the records of the
factory employees on the wage basis who receive the one week's vacation
with full pay after ten years of service, supplemented by the ten-year
salaried employees in the General Office and Works.
The upper portion of this curve, showing how many employees have
rendered less than five years of service was difficult to obtain, for it
involved the inspection of 20,000 records — one for each employee.
The figures from pay rolls 5, 10, and 25 years ago show
that the number of five-year men now on the pay roll is 56^ per cent
of the total pay roll five years ago. Similarly, neglecting transfer to and
from Schenectady, 39 per cent of those employed ten years ago remained
on the pay roll July i, 1918; and of the total of approximately 2600
employees at Schenectady 25 years ago, 660 or 25 per cent are still
working in the Schenectady Works.
The General Electric Company recognizes that steady work is of
value to all concerned, and has instituted the following measures to
promote it and to reward those employees who have long records of
continuous service:
FIVE PER CENT SUPPLEMENTARY COMPENSATION
In addition to the 10 per cent bonus of over $5,000,000,"!
paid to their employees in 1917, the General Electric Company dis-
tributed supplementary compensation in the year 1917 amounting to
over $1,330,000 to employees who had rendered five years or more of
continuous service up to that time. This supplementary compensation
will continue to be paid until further notice to all employees who have
rendered five years or more of continuous service. In 1917 this figure
for the entire organization reached nearly 22,000 employees, including
shop workers, clerks, engineers, commercial men, and office boys. This
supplementary compensation is paid semi-annually and is equivalent to
5 per cent of the wage or salary during the preceding term.
The distribution of this supplementary compensation is shown in
the following table which lists the different factories, and the number
of employees in each who received this bonus:
Schenectady Works 11,102
Lynn Works 4,364
Pittsfield Works 1,938
Erie Works 311
Fort Wayne Works . 734
Edison Lamp Division 982
National Lamp Division 1,266
At the present writing the number of employees who are eligible to
participate is increasing at every six-month period.
ii
VACATIONS WITH FULL PAY
No radical departures have been made in regard to the vacation
granted salaried employees; but in the field of shop labor, a decidedly
novel move has been inaugurated which has most interesting develop-
ments as possible or even probable in the future. Already the wage
earners, or those on the daily or hourly basis in the shops, receive one
week's vacation with pay after they have rendered ten years of con-
tinuous service. The following table will be of interest as it shows how
many ten-year men are now employed in the shops on the wage basis:
Schenectady .
Lynn
Pittsfield
Fort Wayne
3300
1482
250
192
THE PENSION SYSTEM
The pension system provides for retirement upon a pension at the
age of £p, of all employees who have rendered 20 or more years of con-
tinuous service. Employees who have been continuously in the service
for 20 or more years and who become incapacitated may be retired upon
e>vu
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^ensfon in Do Mars or
7/77 4% Liberty Bonds
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Income frt
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Fig. 2. PENSION RATE PER $1000 AVERAGE WAGES FOR VARIOUS PERIODS OF SERVICE
14 16 16 2O 2Z 24 Z6 ZQ 30 3Z 34 36 38 4O
En-jp/oyee'<s Yeans of Service;
a pension with the approval of the pension board. Men must be retired
at the age of 70, and women at the age of 60, unless special arrange-
ments have been made with the pension board.
This pension is based upon the average annual wages for ten
years prior to retirement, and the total number of years of continu-
ous service.
12
HOW THE PENSION IS FIGURED
/ After 33 years of continuous service, an employee's pension equals
49J/2 per cent of his annual earnings.
The exact formula for computing the pension is as follows:
The average annual wages for ten years prior to retirement, multi-
plied by the number of years in service, multiplied by ij^ per cent.
For example, for one whose service has been continuous for 30 years
and whose average earnings for the last ten years have been $2500 per
annum, the annual pension upon retirement would be $1125; or figured
per day, it would be $3.08 per day including Sundays and holidays.
Such an employee, retiring at the age of 70 and living to the age of 80,
would receive a total sum in pensions of $11,250 according to the schedule
in force at the present time. The pensions are paid monthly by check.
COMPARISON OF PENSIONS WITH LIBERTY BOND INCOME
The table is prepared to show not only the annual pension received
by employees who have rendered between 20 and 40 years of continuous
service, but the last column shows also the capitalization of this pension.
For instance, a man who draws a pension of $300 per year until death,
receives an income which is equivalent to that from $7500 in Liberty
Bonds bearing 4 per cent interest; that is, his pension would be equal to
his income if he owned $7500 of the 4 per cent Liberty Bonds. An
employee rendering 40 years of service would for each $1000 of annual
earnings, receive $600 annually, or the equivalent of the income on
$15,000 of 4 per cent Liberty Bonds. Obviously, if his earnings averaged
$2000 for the last ten years, he would receive twice that much, or $1200
per annum — the equivalent of the entire income of $30,000 worth of
Liberty Bonds at 4 per cent interest. For the purpose of permitting
rapid calculations, the following table and discussion are based on
average annual earnings of $1000 per year.
The curve, Fig. 2, shows graphically the pension received by retired
employees according to different periods of continuous service between
20 and 40 years. The figures under the curves show the amount in
Liberty Bonds which a man would have to possess in order that the
income from them would equal his pension.
No. of
Years
Annual
Pension
Until Death
Capitalization
in 4 Per Cent
Liberty Bonds
No. of
Years
Annual
Pension
Until Death
Capitalization
in 4 Per Cent
Liberty Bonds
20
$300
#7,500
32
£480
^12,000
22
330
8,250
34
510
12,750
24
360
9,000
36
540
I3oOO
26
390
9r75o
38
570
14,250
28
420
10,500
40
600
15,000
30
450
11,250
NOTE. — For retired employees whose earnings were more than £1000 per year the pension
and the capitalization are each increased proportionately.
13
An interesting and instructive feature of this diagram is the dotted
section of the curve. It may be commented upon as follows:
An employee who has worked less than 20 years should appreciate
that already a considerable sum of money has been set aside to
provide for his pension, but that by resigning his position before the
end of 20 years' service, he is forfeiting this asset which he has
created by his continuous service. This asset for the $1000 per year
man with only a ten-year service, already amounts to the income from
$3750 Liberty Bonds for the rest of his life; and for the $2000 per year
man amounts to $7500 in Liberty Bonds; and both of these will be
doubled when the full 2O-year record is complete. In other words,
by continuing in his present position for ten years more he will be able to
make secure this doubled asset; whereas by resigning from his position
he throws away this much capital, the income from which he would
begin to receive at the time of his retirement and which he would continue
to receive until his death. Similarly those who have served a greater or
lesser period can consult this curve to ascertain what has been set aside
for them; but all should bear in mind that the figures are based on annual
earnings of only $1000 per year and should be increased proportionately
for higher earnings.
Note. — Following extracts from Pension ruling may be of interest:
Any male employee who has reached the age of seventy years and who has been
twenty or more years in the service shall be retired and shall receive a pension, unless at
the request of the employee and with the approval of the Pension Board some later date
be fixed for such retirement.
Any female employee who has reached the age of- sixty years and who has been
twenty or more years in the service shall be retired and shall receive a pension unless at
the request of the employee and with the apprpval of the Pension Board some later date
be fixed for such retirement.
Any employee who has been twenty or more years in the service and who becomes
permanently incapacitated for further work may at the discretion of the Pension Board be
retired from active service and receive a pension.
WHAT IS "CONTINUOUS SERVICE?"
In connection with the pension system, the supplementary compen-
sation plan, and the ten-year factory service vacation, the expression
"continuous service" is used. The rules governing the determination
of each employee's service record are:
(1) Temporary absence and temporary layoff on account of illness
or because of reduction in force will not be considered as a break in the
continuity of service, but when such absence exceeds six consecutive
months it will be deducted in computing length of active service.
(2) If any employee, after leaving the service of the Company,
shall be re-employed, he shall be considered as a new employee.
14
(3) Leaving the service, as referred to in rule 2, is defined as follows:
(a) When an employee leaves voluntarily or is definitely discharged.
(b) When an employee absents himself from duty for two consecu-
tive weeks or longer, without satisfactory explanation.
(c) When an employee, originally laid offbecause of reduction in force,
fails to apply for re-employment within six months, or, being
notified that he may return, fails to do so within two weeks
of the date of such notice without satisfactory explanation.
(d) When an employee originally laid off because of illness fails to
keep his department head informed monthly, or otherwise
obtain approval of his absence.
(4) Leave of absence without pay may be granted individual
employees, at the discretion of managers, but in every case it must be
arranged in advance. If such absence exceeds three months it must be
approved by the Supplementary Compensation Committee in advance,
and the time, if it exceeds six months, shall be deducted in computing
the net term of service.
(5) Leave of absence, without pay, for the purpose of securing a
higher education and subsequently returning to active service in this
Company, shall not be considered as a break in service provided arrange-
ments are made in advance. If such absence is to exceed three months,
it must be approved by the Supplementary Compensation Committee,
and the time, if it exceeds six months, shall be deducted in computing
the net term of service.
(6) Military service, both State and National, is not necessarily
a break in the continuity of service. If an employee enters any branch
of military service, either as the result of draft or voluntarily with the
consent of the Company, and at the date of enlistment he shall have
been in the service of the Company six months or longer, the Company
will, after his honorable discharge from the service in the Army or Navy,
and if he applies for employment, endeavor to re-employ him whenever
possible, either in his original position or in such other capacity as may
be found practicable. When again so employed, after military service,
the employee's service with the Company for the purpose of computing
pensions and other benefits will be held to have been continuous; i.e.,
his term of service with the Company will be inclusive of the time spent
in military service.
(7) Supplementary compensation for five-year service shall be
calculated only on the regular and overtime pay roll earnings for service
actually performed, as will also the 10 per cent or any other bonus paid
coincidently with regular wage or salary payments.
CHAPTER II
CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Though much has been written about the electrical industry
comparatively little is generally known about the electrical fraternity.
'One of the factors which has contributed largely to the rapid develop-
ment of the electrical industry has been the spirit of comradeship which
animates and inspires the workers. This fraternal spirit manifests itself
in the voluntary formation of clubs and associations all over the country.
This chapter will briefly describe some of the more important clubs
and associations at 12 different locations, having a total of over 33,000
members. The membership or ownership of these clubs is exclusively
among the men and women of the General Electric Company.
MEN'S SOCIAL CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Members
Quarter Century Club 1 198
Edison Club at Schenectady 600
General Electric Club of New York 170
General Electric Club of Boston 130
Firemen's Association at Schenectady 130
Firemen's Association at Lynn 108
Thomson Club at Lynn 100
Mazda Club at Harrison 175
Coin and Stamp Club at Lynn 47
Volunteer Firemen's Association at Fort Wayne 36
THE EDISON CLUB
The Edison Club was formed in 1904 as a result of a petition which
was signed by 183 college graduates who were taking the test course at
the Schenectady Works. Today there are over 600 members, mostly
graduates from American and foreign colleges. These young men
have all pursued the same studies, have undergone the same training
in the test course, and have lived the same life while being initiated into
the electrical industry. The "camaraderie" exists not only between
the younger members, but the various social and athletic activities offer
opportunities for the student engineers to be brought in contact with
many of the officials and engineers of the Company. The Club has a real
"University Spirit" and contributes largely toward making the life of
the test man in Schenectady not only wholesome but happy. The six
photographs illustrate the three club buildings on a plot 90 ft. by 369 ft.,
and suggest good times of various kinds.
16
Among the aquatic sports canoe racing leads, and the club is affiliated
with the American Canoe Association and participates in the races of
the "Big League" in Schenectady and other neighboring cities. A score
Fig. 3. THE EDISON CLUB AT SCHENECTADY IS THE RENDEZVOUS FOR THE TEST MEN
FROM TECHNICAL COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD.
IT MIGHT WELL BE CALLED THE "COSMOPOLITAN UNIVERSITY CLUB"
Fig. 4. EDISON HALL CONTAINS AN ASSEMBLY HALL, SEATING 400 PEOPLE; FOUR BOWL-
ING ALLEYS, SHOWER BATHS, MOTION-PICTURE MACHINE, AND KITCHENETTE.
THE MEETINGS OF THE A.I.E.E. AND OTHER ENGINEERING SOCIETIES
ARE HELD HERE AND BY REMOVING THE PORTABLE
CHAIRS A BEAUTIFUL BALLROOM FLOOR IS
AVAILABLE FOR DANCING
or more of silver cups and other trophies have been won, and the Edison
Club boys stand for all that is good, clean, fair, and manly in the realm
of aquatic sports.
One hundred and twenty-five members of the Club, ranging from
the newest test man to the heads of departments in the general offices,
have formed the highly successful Intercollegiate Bowling League which
meets regularly throughout the year.
Fig. 5. READING ROOM OF EDISON CLUB AT SCHENECTADY. THE CLUB IS USED
NIGHT AND DAY BY THE TEST MEN. POOL AND BILLIARD TABLES,
CARD ROOM, AND LIBRARY ARE IN GREAT DEMAND
Fig. 6. BOWLING ALLEYS OF THE EDISON CLUB WITH THEIR AUTOMATIC PIN-SETTING
EQUIPMENT. INTERCOLLEGIATE BOWLING TEAMS HAVE
ROUSING TIMES IN THEIR MATCHES
Fencing, boxing, bag punching, hand and medicine ball, basketball,
and tennis are among the other sports.
Members who are musically inclined have formed an orchestra,
mandolin club, minstrels, and brass band.
18
Each year the members of the Club who are far away from home
gather together for a Christmas dinner at the Mohawk Golf Club.
Fig. 7. THE CONCRETE BOATHOUSE ON THE BANKS OF THE MOHAWK RIVER
IN THE REAR OF EDISON CLUB AND HALL. A DOUBLE TRACK IS
PROVIDED FOR RUNNING THE 200 CANOES IN AND OUT
OF THE FIREPROOF BOATHOUSE
Fig. 8. ONE OF THE REGATTAS OF THE AMERICAN CANOE ASSOCIATION.
EDISON CLUB TEAM HAS WON MANY TROPHIES IN MEETS ON
THE MOHAWK RIVER AND ELSEWHERE
THE
Addresses are given by Mr. E. W. Rice, Jr., Dr. Charles P. Steinmetz,
and other officials of the Company.
A salaried superintendent is in charge of the Edison Club.
7^ f •
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20
THE THOMSON CLUB AT LYNN
The Thomson Club was organized largely for the benefit of the
college men who entered into the organization, and has a normal member-
ship of 100.
Fig. 9. THE THOMSON CLUB IN LYNN FILLS THE SAME NEEDS AS THE EDISON CLUB
IN SCHENECTADY. THERE IS A MEETING ROOM, DINING ROOM, LIBRARY,
ETC., DOWNSTAIRS. IT IS AN EASY WALK FROM THE
FACTORY TO THE CLUB HOUSE
Fig. 10. MEETING ROOM OF THE RIFLE AND REVOLVER CLUB. THIS, TOGETHER
WITH THE GIRLS' GYMNASIUM, THE BOWLING CLUB, THE APPRENTICE ALUMNI
CLUB, AND THE FOREMEN'S ASSOCIATION, ARE ALL LOCATED IN THE
RECREATION BUILDING WHICH IS ALSO HEADQUARTERS
FOR THE ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
The photographs show interior and exterior views of the club house,
including one of the many sleeping rooms which accommodate 25 of the
members.
21
Fig. ii. SLEEPING ROOMS ARE PROVIDED AT THE THOMSON CLUB FOR THE ACCOM-
MODATION OF 25 MEMBERS. MOST OF THESE YOUNG MEN ARE COLLEGE
GRADUATES WHO ARE GETTING THEIR PRACTICAL TRAINING
IN THE SHOPS OF THE COMPANY
Fig. 12. GIRLS' GYMNASIUM AT LYNN, ATTENDED REGULARLY BY 40 GIRLS.
EQUIPMENT AND INSTRUCTOR ARE PROVIDED BY THE COMPANY
AND THERE IS A REST AND LUNCH ROOM NEAR BY
THE
22
MAZDA CLUB AT HARRISON
With sleeping accommodations for 20 members, this club includes
in its membership superintendents and department heads as well as
Fig. 13. RIFLE RANGE EQUIPPED WITH ELECTRICALLY DRIVEN TARGETS WHICH
PERMIT CONTESTANTS TO CHANGE TARGETS RAPIDLY WITHOUT
ANYONE SERVING IN PITS. ELECTRIC MOTORS WHISK
THE TARGETS BACK AND FORTH LYNN WORKS
Fig. 14. ALLEYS OF THE BOWLING CLUB AT LYNN. LOCAL CHAMPIONSHIP GAMES
ARE HELD HERE AND THE CLUB OWNS MANY TROPHIES WON
IN COMPETITION WITH OTHER LOCAL TEAMS
engineers. About 35 members take their meals here. The equip-
ment includes three billiard tables, bowling alleys, and two sets of
tennis courts on the property. The members have also formed a club
orchestra.
23
THE QUARTER CENTURY CLUB
The General Electric Quarter Century Club was organized in 1914
and its membership is limited to those who have spent a quarter century
or more in the employ of the Company. The membership is divided
as follows:
Schenectady 653
Lynn 318
District Offices 114
Fort Wayne 52
Harrison 27
Pittsfield 17
Sprague 12
Erie 5
Total 1 198
The total years of service rendered by the 1198 members reaches
the staggering figure of considerably over 33,000 years; and if expressed
in the terms of one man's life, would extend from 11,000 B.C. to 22,000
A.D.
The Club has annual outings, banquets, and athletic events. The
button worn by the members is attractive and is no doubt familiar to
tens of thousands of workers in the electrical industry.
WOMEN'S SOCIAL CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Members
Woman's Club at Schenectady 250
Girls' Gymnasium at Lynn 40
Women's Club of New York 90
Girls' Minstrel Club at Pittsfield 100
Elex Club at Fort Wayne 100
GENERAL ELECTRIC WOMAN'S CLUB
The General Electric Woman's Club at Schenectady has a beautiful
clubhouse, of which some pictures are shown. The cultural studies, the
social events, and wartime activities of this Club are the admiration of
all women and men who have had the opportunity of being brought in
contact with them.
The equipment includes dining room for daily luncheon and dinner,
sleeping rooms, library, piano, victrola, etc. Tennis, canoeing, picnics,
and corn roasts are popular in the summer, and the glee club, dancing
classes, parties, recitals, and lectures are chief among the winter enter-
tainments. Wednesday and Sunday the members may invite their men
friends. A competent steward and stewardess are in charge of the
clubhouse.
24
OTHER WOMEN'S CLUBS
The Gamma Epsilon Society at Harrison, the Elex Club at Fort
Wayne, the General Electric Women's Club at New York, and the yearly
get-together of the girls in the San Francisco office are typical of the
club spirit which exists among the girl workers.
Fig. 15. THE WOMAN'S CLUB NESTLES AMID A WEALTH OF FOLIAGE AND SHRUBBERY.
THE YOUNG BUSINESS WOMEN FIND REST AFTER THE BUSY DAY
IN THIS OASIS OF INDUSTRIOUS SCHENECTADY
Fig. 1 6. IT IS A HANDSOME BUILDING, FORMERLY THE RESIDENCE OF ONE OF THE
OFFICIALS OF THE COMPANY. THE PROPERTY EXTENDS
DOWN TO THE MOHAWK RIVER
The Girl Minstrels at Pittsfield, with a chorus of 28, have
attracted considerable attention at their two public performances.
Songs, dances, jokes, tableaux, and male impersonations were inter-
mingled on these occasions.
VACATION CLUBS
Members
Girls' Vacation Camp at French Point, Lake George 500
Camp Claverack at Association Island, Lake Ontario 1000
Camp Nela, Cleveland 270
Camp Edison 115
Camp National 1 10
Marshall Outing Club at Harrison 61
Fig. 17. LIBRARY AT THE WOMAN'S CLUB WITH CORNER OF DINING ROOM IN
BACKGROUND. LUNCHEON AND DINNER ARE SERVED DAILY
Fig. 1 8. THE GIRLS AT FRENCH POINT CAMP SLEEP IN 25 RAINPROOF TENTS
WITH WOODEN FLOORS AND TWO COTS EACH. EACH TENT
COMMANDS A VIEW ACROSS LAKE GEORGE
GIRLS' VACATION CAMP
The fascinating kodak views of the General Electric outdoor
girls are sufficient to suggest the good times which approximately 500
girls enjoy annually at Lake George. French Point Camp comprises
26
42 acres, and is equipped with private dock, boathouse, icehouse,
running water, rainproof tents, unsinkable row boats, motor boats,
piano, victrola, rustic smokehouse, Dutch ovens, rustic seats, basketball
and volleyball courts, hammocks and swings, games, and books. On
rainy days the girls gather around the cobblestone fireplace of the
"rendezvous" and in the evening dance on the piazza.
Delightful trails lead up into the mountain nearly 2000 feet above
sea level. A swimming instructor and physical director look out for
the girls' health. Any girl employed by the Company in the factories
in nine cities or in any of the district offices may spend her vacation on
this beautiful lake at a cost of less than $i a day.
CAMP CLAVERACK
Camp Claverack covering 65 acres is located on Association Island,
Lake Ontario. It is owned by the "Association Island Corporation"
composed of men prominent in the electrical industry — nearly all of
whom are employed by the General Electric Company. The open-air life
is available not only to the men of the Company, but also to their
families and friends. Camp Edison and Camp National are also located
on Association Island.
CAMP NELA
Camp Nela at Cleveland, Ohio, is an electrical community for
summer vacations and week-end trips. The camp contains swimming
pool, ten tennis courts, two clubhouses, four bowling alleys, football
field, grandstand, basketball court, gymnasium, library, auditorium,
kitchen, two pianos, three victrolas, rifle and revolver range, lockers
and shower baths. The architectural features of the camp suggest the
Roycrofters' art, especially the two outdoor rustic amphitheaters.
ATHLETIC CLUBS AND ASSOCIATIONS
Members
Athletic Association at Schenectady 300
Nela Athletic Association at Cleveland 400
Athletic Association at Erie 125
Rifle Club at Lynn 125
G-E Rifle Club at Fort Wayne 85
Rifle Club at Erie 10
Bowling Club at Schenectady (Shop League) 200
Bowling League (Edison Club) 125
Bowling Club at Lynn 200
Bowling Club at Erie 20
Football Club at Lynn 50
THE GENERAL ELECTRIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
To attend an Athletic Association field day is to witness an afternoon
of sport which will compare favorably with many inter-collegiate events.
27
The equipment of these athletic associations in general include a club-
house with lunch room, bowling alleys, training quarters, lockers and
shower baths, pool and billiard tables, basketball court, gymnasium,
library, auditorium, meeting rooms, with piano and victrola, and also
Fig. 19. THE GIRLS' CAMP LIES AT THE VERY FOOT OF TONGUE MOUNTAIN WHICH
RISES ABOUT 1800 FEET ABOVE SEA LEVEL. A HIKE UP THE MOUNTAIN,
WITH A PICNIC LUNCH ON THE TOP. MAKES A GOOD DAY'S SPORT
Fig. 20. MEETING THE BOAT AT THE PRIVATE DOCK OF THE GIRLS' CAMP. SINCE
THE BOATS STOP AT THE DOCK THE GIRLS ARE LANDED RIGHT
IN THE CAMP, THUS MAKING THE JOURNEY
PLEASANT AND INEXPENSIVE
a rifle and revolver range, baseball diamond, racing track, athletic
field, football field, cricket field, tennis courts, and grandstand. Many
members of the athletic teams are college men, and it has been found
that the college man is pretty evenly matched against the shop worker in
running, jumping, and other track and field events.
The bowling, baseball, and football teams and rowing crews in
some of the cities are local champions, and they are the proud possessors
of many trophies.
Fig. 21. THE PITTSFIELD BAND IN THEIR SMART UNIFORMS NOT ONLY GIVE
OUTDOOR CONCERTS IN THE WARM WEATHER BUT ARE ENGAGED TO
LEAD AND PARTICIPATE IN ALL BIG PARADES AND
SIMILAR TO MUNICIPAL CELEBRATIONS
Fig. 22. BASEBALL DIAMOND, TRACK, FIELD, AND GRANDSTAND OF THE ATHLETIC
ASSOCIATION AT SCHENECTADY. BASEBALL, FOOTBALL AND OTHER
CONTESTS ARE HELD AT FREQUENT INTERVALS DURING
THE SPRING AND SUMMER
These associations are practically self-sustaining with small annual
dues.
At the Lynn Works an entire building is appropriated for athletic
and social activities. It is known as the "Recreation Building" and is
available to any club or society that may apply for quarters in it.
29
MUSICAL CLUBS
Members
Schenectady Band 50
G-E Chorus at Fort Wayne 55
Fort Wayne Band 35
Pittsfield Band 28
Erie Band 18
Coupler Glee Club at Erie 128
Chorus Club at Erie 40
Glee Club at Lynn 32
THE BANDS
It is a familiar, but none the less inspiring, event when the stirring
airs of martial music reverberate between the great buildings of the
General Electric factories. The brass band welcomed Secretary Daniels
and Governor Whitman at the Schenectady Works during the present
Fig. 23. TENNIS IS A POPULAR GAME AMONG THE MEMBERS OF THE SCHENECTADY
ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION. THE COURTS ARE LESS THAN TEN MINUTES'
WALK FROM THE GENERAL ELECTRIC WORKS
year; the Liberty Loan parades are always headed by the General
Electric Band; the summer concerts are regular events in many of the
factories; and many city parades and meetings engage these bands for
special occasions. .
The Erie Chorus and Minstrel Club last February gave two per-
formances to "SRO" audiences at the Park Opera House. The string
quartet, black-faced comedians, musical, and fancy dancing numbers
vied with the Japanese girls, the soloists, and the tableaux.
30
DEPARTMENTAL ASSOCIATIONS
Members
Foremen's Association at Schenectady 225
Foremen's Association at Erie 225
Draughtsmen's Association at Schenectady 400
Electro Technique Club at Fort Wayne 400
Cost Accountants' Association at Schenectady 123 /
Apprentice Club at Schenectady 112
Apprentice Club at Lynn 80
Order & Stock Department Association at Schenectady 56
Power & Mining Department Bowling Club at Schenectady 48
Power & Mining Department Girls' Bowling Club at Schenectady 13
Foreign Department Bowling Association at Schenectady 20
Building Maintenance Department Club at Erie 20
Whether chiefly for education or recreation, these Departmental
Associations add much to the spirit of co-operation in their several
spheres of influence. The Apprentice Clubs have an annual outing and
picnic; others have banquets, motor trips, clambakes, amateur theatri-
cals, etc.
WAR GARDEN CLUBS
Members Acres
Schenectady War Garden Club I IOO 95 )
Erie War Garden Club 250 55
Fort Wayne War Garden Club 118 6.5
Pittsfield "Allen Farm" 300 37
N.E.L.A. War Gardens at Cleveland 125 4.5
Officials, engineers, foremen, mechanics, and electricians — all put
their hand to the hoe and spade in this patriotic, economic, and health-
giving activity. Motor ploughs and harrows prepared the soil in advance
so as to lighten the preliminary work, and sheds were provided for
storing the garden tools overnight.
The effect of the new daylight-saving law in lengthening the play-
time after working hours, will doubtless be taken advantage of during
the coming season by the amateur gardeners. As early as March, 1918,
1000 applications had been received at Schenectady alone for garden
plots to be cultivated during the summer.
CHAPTER III
>^
MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION
An employees' organization largely under their own management,
with financial transactions totaling close to $200,000 per year and with
23,000 voluntary members in six different cities — this is the General
Electric Mutual Benefit Association.
The purpose of this chapter is to describe this Association, telling
what it costs and what it affords the members, and how and when it was
organized; to explain its scheme of operation and management and its
various sources of income; and lastly, briefly to review the main essential
points of its organization.
An enthusiastic member made the following comment on the
protection afforded by the Mutual Benefit Association:
"The great health and accident insurance companies of this country
have several different policies compensating for accidents and several
different policies compensating for sickness; but the 'accident' policies
do not recompense for sickness and the 'health' policies which protect
against sickness do not recompense for accidents.
"An exception to this is a combined health and sickness policy
W7hich costs considerably more than either of the above. Many of these
policies, however, which do protect against both accident and sickness,
do not pay any death benefit.
"The General Electric Mutual Benefit Association, however,
protects against both accident and sickness and, in addition to this,
pays a death benefit to the members.
"Therefore, it may be seen that the protection and benefits of the
General Electric Mutual Benefit Association are more comprehensive
and liberal than those of the companies who conduct their business for
a profit. This would naturally be expected, since the General Electric
Mutual Benefit Association is not conducted for profit, and has no rent
nor salaries to pay; even its stationery and printed forms are provided
free of expense."
PROTECTION
Briefly stated, the protection consists of a death benefit and a
weekly indemnity while sick or disabled. The death benefit paid out
of the treasury of the Mutual Benefit Association is $100, but the
General Electric Company supplements this by another payment of
$100; thus, in effect, making the death benefit $200. This is payable
at once in cash to the beneficiary of the deceased member.
32
The weekly disability payment in case of sickness is $6 per week
for men and $5 per week for women. Payment is continued for
fourteen weeks during any twelve consecutive months. In all periods
of disability members are excused from paying dues. A visiting com-
mittee is formed in each case to call upon the sick member, and in many
cases the Company's nurse likewise calls upon the patient.
The liberality of the arrangement is shown by the fact that even
though a member leave the employ of the General Electric Company
while disabled through sickness or accident, his right to receive payment
of the benefits to the full amount is not annulled for a period of two
years from the beginning of the disability, provided that he has not in
the meantime recovered from the disability or secured remunerative
employment. Putting it differently, the weekly benefits are limited to
fourteen weeks in twelve months, and the right to receive them is
extended over a period of two years from date of such disability without
regard to service in the General Electric Company. Similarly, if the
disability should result in death, the death benefit would be paid any
time during a two-year period, even though the member had left the
employ of the General Electric Company. The Association follows the
wisely established practice of most fraternal organizations by omitting
the benefit for the first week of disability.
MEMBERS ARE STEADY WORKERS
An interesting fact in connection with the Mutual Benefit Associa-
tion is that during hard times, when business is slack, the percentage of
employees who are members of the Association increases rather sharply.
In other words, it appears from the record that the members of the
Association are more steadily employed than those who are not members.
This does not indicate that when work is slack, members of the Associa-
tion are carried through the hard times because they are members of
the Association; but it does indicate that the steadiest and most far-
sighted employees who are interested in their work are those who have
already joined the Mutual Benefit Association; and these are retained
on the pay roll because of their ability, and not because they are members
of the Mutual Benefit Association.
OVER FOUR MILLIONS LIFE INSURANCE
Last year the Schenectady, Lynn, and Pittsfield Mutual Benefit
Associations paid benefits to members amounting to approximately
$80,000. The total of death and sick benefits in the various factories
of the General Electric Company approximates $100,000 per year. The
amount of life insurance carried by all these Associations is over
$4,500,000.
33
FINANCING THE ASSOCIATION
The cost of this triple protection against death, sickness, and acci-
dent varies from nothing a year in some sections, up to a maximum of
$5.20 per year. The cost per member averaged $4.07 at Lynn in 1916;
and the average at Schenectady was but $3.97 in 1917.
It would not be fair to health and accident insurance companies to
compare their cost and the protection offered with the cost and pro-
tection offered by the General Electric Mutual Benefit Association, as
the latter, it might be said, is literally "in business for its health." The
fundamental idea of the Mutual Benefit Association is to help one
another and not to make a profit. The administration expenses, including
FIELD DAY, PITTSFIELD WORKS SECTION, GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY
MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION
stationery and blank forms, are paid by the General Electric Company,
and these with the auxiliary $100 benefit, amount to approximately
$18,000 for the year 1916.
The combination of health, accident, and life insurance purchased
from corporations engaged in this enterprise is expensive. Factory
workers are not inclined to invest a large sum of money in advance for
such purposes; therefore, the method pursued by this Association in
collecting its dues of ten cents every week has been largely responsible
for its phenomenal growth. However, for industrial managers who care
to go into this question, it would be interesting to obtain data on death,
accident, and life insurance and see if any protection could be purchased
for $4 per year! It will be obvious that an internal organization can
34
perform a service among fellow employees which it would be practically
impossible for an outside corporation to carry on at a profit, or even at
cost under existing conditions. In other words, there are thousands of
employees who would not have any protection against the contingencies
of accident, were it not for this Association, formed and conducted by
fellow employees. This recalls the fact, shown in one of the following
chapters dealing with fire protection in the General Electric Company,
that a decided advantage results from adopting the plan of mutual
fire insurance; and just so the mutual life, health, and accident insurance
has proved a wonderful success.
OTHER SOURCES OF INCOME
The total receipts of the various Mutual Benefit Associations are
approximately $100,000 per year. In addition to the dues from members,
the Association has other small sources of income, principally the annual
field days held at Lynn, Schenectady, and Pittsfield. The receipts from
these field days are turned into the treasury of the Mutual Benefit
Association. Dances are held from time to time; and other entertain-
ments, more or less impromptu in their nature, assist in swelling the
treasury fund and in reducing the dues paid by the members. These
events meet with hearty response from the members, for the money
paid for admission to the various entertainments and amusements is
practically refunded to them by a lessening of their dues. This results
in a large attendance at such events, an illustration of which is seen in
the 1917 Schenectady field day, for which over 13,000 tickets were sold.
The slogan adopted for this fourth annual field day which appeared
on posters displayed throughout the plant, was: "Suspend assessments
to the death benefit fund. Twenty thousand tickets to be sold — two
tickets per member. Buy noV and cancel later payments."
Good-natured rivalry was shown in the ticket-selling contests
between sections, and $75 was divided as first and second prizes for
the two sections selling the greatest number of tickets. In preparing
for this field day a special committee was appointed, and one of the
indirect benefits which resulted was a wider acquaintanceship between
those sharing in the management of the event.
The receipts for the last field day were $1400. After expenses were
deducted for the prizes, etc., a net balance of $1125 was added to the
death benefit fund.
It might be well to mention that these field days are under the
direct auspices of the Mutual Benefit Association and are separate and
distinct from the General Electric Athletic Association.
The attendance at the Mutual Benefit Association field day at Lynn
was over 30,000, and the total proceeds of last year's entertainments
were $2836.
35
At Pittsfield special stress is laid upon the social features of the
Mutual Benefit Association and the fraternal spirit developed by the
various entertainments.
SCENES AT 1917 ANNUAL FIELD DAY AND PARADE OF LYNN WORKS SECTION,
G-E MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION
"The Mikado" was reproduced by members of the Association
at the Colonial Theater and the attendance was 1418 and included
about 100 outsiders. All of the performers were members, and the
rehearsals and various negotiations connected with the management
36
of the affair contributed in developing executive ability among the
employees.
An electrical fair was participated in by the members of the Associa-
tion, and the dance, attended by 1200 young people, netted a profit of
nearly $200.
FIELD DAY, SCHENECTADY WORKS SECTION, G-E MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION
FINANCIAL STATISTICS
The financial operations of the Mutual Benefit Association in
Schenectady over the period of four and a half years which it has been
in existence, may be summarized in round numbers:
Total receipts
Total disbursements..
Balance on hand
Number of sickness claims
Total sickness benefits
Death benefits:
(Mutual Benefit Association)
(General Electric Company) .
$86,800
68,700
$18,100
2,494
49,630
$10,500
7,800
Total $18,300
ESTABLISHED FOR 17 YEARS
The plan of organization and management of the six Mutual
Benefit Associations of the General Electric Company is practically
identical with the original plan conceived in the Lynn Works in 1902.
It is fitting to record that these great activities sprung from one man's
idea, whose faith in the success of the plan was so great that he personally
loaned a sum of money to form the nucleus of the Lynn Association.
37
It is impossible to estimate the amount of distress which has been alle-
viated by this altruistic deed and the idea which time has proved so
successful.
SCENES AT RECENT G-E MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION FIELD DAY, LYNN SECTION
SCHEME OF OPERATION
If the Schenectady death benefit fund is equal to $3000 or more, no
assessments are levied against the section treasuries; but when the
death benefit fund, owing to payment to families of deceased members,
38
falls to $1500 or less, monthly assessments are made on each section
equivalent to ten cents for each member of the section. This minimum
and maximum of the death fund varies in the different associations,
according to their size. In some associations $1000 is the maximum
and others $2000, etc. Similarly, when the treasury of each section
shows a balance of $300 or more, the payment of dues by members is
suspended until such time as the balance is reduced by the payment
of sick benefits to $200, when the maximum assessment often cents per
week is levied upon each member.
From this it will be seen how a payment of over $2800 into the
death benefit fund, resulting from the annual field day and other enter-
tainments at Lynn last year, resulted in a direct suspension of dues from
the members. Each section of the Association collects its own dues and
compensates its own members for disability.
The advantage of the subdivision into sections not only makes
the work of collection easier, but groups together, for mutual aid, the
employees in a department. It establishes, therefore, a community of
active interest in each small group. New employees of the department,
when approached with a request to join, will usually be attracted to an
organization composed of fellow workers in the same department, while
they might hesitate to join a large organization of the whole Works.
On account of the acquaintanceship among the members, the genuineness
of the disability claims can readily be established, and fraudulent
practices are, therefore, easily prevented. Finally, by a subdivision
of the Association into groups, the Company is given a better opportunity
of coming into touch with individual members than would otherwise be
the case.
MEMBERSHIP
Membership begins with the payment of an initiation fee of 50
cents and the first week's dues of ten cents. Thereafter, ten cents is
payable and collected every week in advance and no member can be
obliged to make any further contribution. As previously stated this
payment is suspended altogether for shorter or longer periods when the
section treasury shows a balance of $300 or more. This provision stimu-
lates economical administration of the funds in each section, and estab-
lishes a wholesome rivalry among the various sections. It arouses the
interest of the members themselves, who have it largely in their power
to secure inexpensive insurance for themselves by maintaining a full
quota of membership in their section, and by carefully but sympatheti-
cally scrutinizing all claims for disability payments, to the end that only
just claims shall be allowed. Finally, it prevents the accumulation of
unnecessarily large funds in the treasuries.
39
Many sections have thus been enabled to suspend payment of dues
for a part of the year; some have even afforded their members full
insurance for the whole year at no cost whatsoever!
SIZE AND GROWTH
With a membership of 22,675 in tne summer of 1917, the Mutual
Benefit Association stands in an enviable position among co-operative
employees' associations. Some large corporations have benefit associa-
Pittsfield -43%
Ft. Wayne -27%
Erie — —33%
Soraaue — 62%
-f-^ Equals 44.6% of Jotal
' Number of Em f/oytas
Total Membership
«•— Schenectady -4Z%
L y/7/7 59%
Fig. 233. CURVES SHOWING GROWTH OF MEMBERSHIP OF GENERAL ELECTRIC
MUTUAL BENEFIT ASSOCIATION
tions whose membership is compulsory; so the success of this Association
is all the more gratifying because membership is voluntary. It will be
recalled that the idea was first conceived in Lynn, Mass. Fifteen years
ago there were but 656 members and, as seen in the curves of membership,
the growth was quite gradual during the first ten years. However, the
membership in the past two years has increased very rapidly — 81 per cent
—as shown in Fig. 23 a.
Only in the year 1917 did the Schenectady Association, organized
four years and a half ago, in March, 1913, exceed in size the Association
at the Lynn Works. The Lynn Association, however, can boast of a
larger percentage of membership, 58.7 per cent of the employees being
members in 1917, against 42 per cent in the Schenectady Association
during this its greatest year.
The Association at the Sprague Works has the largest percentage
of employees as members, and the Pittsfield Association shows a greater
proportionate development in point of time than others, it being but
two years old and having 43 per cent of the employees as members.
40
Fig. 24 permits a careful study of the fluctuation in the total number
of employees and members at the Lynn Works. As mentioned earlier
in this chapter, when periods of depression occur, such as in 1908 and
1915, a sharp increase is noted in the percentage of employees who are
members of the Mutual Benefit Association. In 1915, 72 per cent of
the total number of employees were members of the Association.
13000
1000
1903 1905 /907
1911 1913 I9IS 1917
Year
Fig. 24. NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES AND MEMBERSHIP OF MUTUAL BENEFIT
ASSOCIATION, LYNN WORKS
A study of Fig. 29, which gives the same information for the Sprague
Works, reveals the same situation to an even more pronounced degree,
for here it is clearly shown that during the 1908 depression the member-
ship was 79 per cent, and during the 1915 slump it rose to 82 per cent
of the total number of employees in the Works. Very few of those who
were laid off were members of the Association.
Fig. 25 shows the phenomenal growth of the Association's percentage
at the Schenectady Works during its comparatively recent existence-
four and a half years.
Similarly, Figs. 26, 27, and 28 show respectively the situation at the
Erie, Pittsfield, and Fort Wayne Works, and it will be noted that the
progress of the Association clearly proves that the idea upon which it
was founded has finally met with a most enthusiastic reception on the
part of General Electric employees as a whole.
41
DOUBLY MUTUAL
The mutual features in connection with the Association are of two
kinds, viz., mutual advantages to the employees themselves, and mutual
22000
20000
18000
16000
14000
11000
ioooo
8000
6000
4000
WOO
0
-*•
X
i^
>
~~~.
-»
£•/
•"/
7/1
qt
es
j
X
X
>
x
/
\
^
4
.5
>S
X
^
^
'A
^
1
/^
p^
•^
7m
„*••••
n
6.T&
0**
1312 1913 1915 1915 1916 1917 191
Year
Fig. 25. EMPLOYEES AND MEMBERSHIP, SCHENECTADY WORKS
advantages in the relations between the employees and the Company.
The mutuality among the employees has already been discussed in
connection with protection, acquaintanceship, and entertainments.
The relation between the Company and the employees is almost entirely
\2700
\ 2400
g 2/^
•| 1800
^ /5^^
t 1X00
"I 900
* 600
300
0
ISIS 1916 1917 1918
Fig. 26. EMPLOYEES AND MEMBERSHIP, ERIE WORKS
indirect and psychological, but none the less important. The fact that
few of the members of the Association are laid off during the slack times
is one indication that the members of the Association are able and
trustworthy employees. And, since the Company encourages the
42
Mutual Benefit Association it may be inferred that the executives in
charge of its affairs consider such activities on the part of the employees
as really mutual with respect to the Company's welfare.
Number of Members and Emp/oyees
I ^ £ § & ^ c
/
/
f
/
'.
\
/
k
f
\
/
s
L
rr
/'
*
e
as
>
j
\
/
'•v
^
<
A
e/
«/(
o
•:>
S
'45.2%
]fS
4-i
V
'
I9IZ 1913 1914- /S/5 1916 1917 I?»A
Year
Fig. 27. EMPLOYEES AND MEMBERSHIP, PITTSFIELD WORKS
EXTENSIONS
TABLE OF MEMBERSHIP
Year
Schenec-
tady
Lynn
Sprague
Fort
Wayne
Pittsfield
Erie
Total No.
Members
1902
656
656
1903
1,285
1,285
1904
1,856
1,856
1905
2,591
2,591
1906
2,874
300
3,174
1907
3,076
305
3,381
1908
2,524
200
2,724
. 1909
3,684
200
3,884
1910
4,785
250
5-035
I9II
5,040
275
5,315
1912
5,9H
310
492
6,713
1913
I>346
5,963
315
601
8,225
1914
2,256
5,857
300
751
9,164
1915
3,620
6,143
250
111
10,790
1916
6,875
7,093
325
994
2,410
900
18,597
1917
9,460 7,408
400
1,205
3,052 1,150
22,675
Total No. of em-
ployees in 1917
22,6OO 12,644
650
4,372
7,050 J 3,500
Grand total number of employees in General Electric factories above 50,816
Grand total number of members in Mutual Benefit Association 222,675
Percentage of employees who are members of Mutual Benefit Association. 44.6 per cent
At the Lynn Works the Mutual Benefit Association activities are
extended to include additional features as follows:
i. Additional emergency benefits payable to disabled members
in such amounts and manner as the committee in charge of the emer-
gency fund may allow.
4000
g 3000
I
\20Q6
1000
1912 1913 1914 /9/S 1916 1917 1918
Fig. 28. EMPLOYEES AND MEMBERSHIP, FORT WAYNE WORKS
2. Temporary loans at no interest charge or other extra cost which
the loan fund committee may decide to grant to any member of more
than one year's standing.
3. Banquets attended by officers, committees, and members of
sections. These are held in the large, new restaurant, which is admirably
adapted to such events.
Number of Emp/oyees and Men
J
j
^
*
v:
es
X
'
\
LI
•fi[
%
i
\
*
/
^«
•*.
--TI
s,
f
g
t
s
0
^
61%
\
^
M
^^
en
H
7»
N,
t
^
'f><
~%
f>A
%
h
n
\
\
/^
S
7<?%
65
%
v
^
S
\
^
^
5o°/o
w
%
73
%
6
0%,
1902 1904 1906 1308 1910 I9IZ 1914- 1916 /S
Year
Fig. 29. EMPLOYEES AND MEMBERSHIP, SPRAGUE WORKS
At Pittsfield the presentation of theatrical entertainments, such as
the "Mikado," is a step in advance in fostering the social and fraternal
spirit.
ESSENTIAL POINTS OF ORGANIZATION
A study of the structural organization suggests clearly five features
as important factors in the achievement of success. They are:
1. Subdivision of the Association into small, self-acting and self-
administering though closely connected bodies — the sections.
2. Management of these subdivisions by the members themselves,
with only a general supervision of all by a representative of the Company.
3. Limitation of the trust funds in the treasuries to such amounts
as, under ordinary circumstances, would seem sufficient for the payment
of all guaranteed benefits.
4. Utilization of practically all contributed moneys for the purpose
for which they are contributed — sickness, accident, and life insurance.
5. Simplicity of administration.
These principles and the method of their application have proved
efficacious and afford the employees the cheapest insurance against
disability and death, consistent with safe and sane management; and
at the same time develop contentment among the members, and relations
of mutual loyalty between the employees and the Works' management.
CHAPTER IV
fifi
SAFETY WORK OR THE PREVENTION OF ACCIDENTS
In these days when the conservation of all our national resources
is given serious thought by all true lovers of America, the conserva-
tion of man-power through the prevention of accidents is a subject
of first importance.
It is the purpose of this article to point out the methods pursued
and the results accomplished by the Safety Committee of the General
Electric Company to reduce the number of accidents to employees.
While complete figures are not available for all of the factories of the
Company at this writing, an indication of the results accomplished by
the campaign for accident prevention is afforded by the adjacent figures.
•vThe growing tendency of the employee to have minor injuries
treated at the emergency hospital, in order that the danger of blood-
poisoning may be lessened, has resulted in a large increase in the number
of first aid cases treated, with a corresponding decrease in the number
of infections. The large number of new employees in 1916, many of
whom were inexperienced, resulted in many injuries which in all proba-
bility would not have happened to older and more experienced workmen
working under normal conditions.
HOW THE RESULTS WERE ACCOMPLISHED
A blank form was provided, on which particulars of all accidents,
however slight, were reported to the Safety Committee by the foreman.
These reports showed that most accidents resulted from a few causes.
The study of these records was supplemented by a check on indi-
vidual cases until it was established beyond doubt that the statistics
represented general conditions.
The methods of preventing specific kinds of accidents will be
discussed extensively later; but some interesting high lights revealed by
these statistics will be mentioned first.
PITTSFIELD WORKS
Percentage of
Year
No. of No. of Lost Employees
Employees Time Accidents Meeting with
Accidents
1912
4,913
1,850
37.6
1913
5352
i,353 23.1
1914
4,385
573
13.06
1915
3,904
353
9.04
I9l6
5,378
721
13-4
46
LYNN WORKS
1
Percentage of
Year
No. of No. of Lost
Employees Time Accidents
Employees
Meeting with
Accidents
1913
12,272
777
6.3
1914
10,895
513 4-7
1915
8,499
719 8.5
I9l6
10,562
1,096
10-4
SCHENECTADY WORKS
1913
19,977
1,284
6.4
1914
16,823
829
4-9
1915
14,347
662
4-3
1916
20,985
i>355
6.5
NOTE. — A "lost time" accident is one causing a loss of time of five hours or more.
INTERESTING FACTS DEVELOPED AT PITTSFIELD
The most careful age was found to be 37 years.
The ages showing most accidents in proportion to number of employees were between
22 and 26 years, and 50 years and over.
The hour showing most accidents was from 9 to 10 a.m.
Fifty per cent of the accidents occur to new employees, or those who have been less than
six months in one position.
Contrary to general belief, the foreign born employees are quick in acquiring the safety
habit, if taught.
More accidents occur on Monday than on any other day.
More accidents occur in the hot season than in the cold.
Over 80 per cent of the accidents are due to carelessness.
The average woman on the same kind of work meets with an accident only one third
as frequently as the average man.
THE EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN
A competent executive was engaged at Pittsfield to instruct the
employees inside the Works, as well as to extend the propaganda to the
entire population of the city.
INSIDE THE WORKS
While collecting the statistics, photographs were taken showing
the causes and results of specific accidents. Lantern slides were made
from these photographs, and these together with the data collected
formed the bases for lectures. The last half of the noon hour was fre-
quently employed to give these lectures, and the "horrible example" of
those who had been injured either through their own carelessness or
that of others was forcibly shown by the photographs and description.
The foremen served to radiate the general information, as well as
to personally instruct employees in certain processes which had been
found hazardous. As a result of this campaign, employees have been
47
urged to report carelessness in others, and those who show habitual
carelessness are encouraged to seek less dangerous fields of work, and if
they fail to improve are subject to discharge.
A magazine containing items of general interest but always some
article about safety is printed at each of the factories and distributed
gratis among the employees. These articles are made to supplement the
lectures, and in some of the factories the head of the safety work is
editor of the paper.
Safety literature is distributed among the men, and a series of
posters, almost half of them illustrated with photographs or artists'
drawings, are designed and posted in prominent places throughout the
Works. These posters are changed semi-monthly, and are written in
strong, simple English, in many cases the pictures telling the story.
OUTSIDE THE WORKS
The local newspapers gave prominence to the safety worker's
activities, and even commented editorially upon the value of his services
to the community.
Lectures were given in halls and schools and to the Boy Scouts,
so that the habit of carefulness could be instilled in the youth as well as
the skilled workman. The Y. M. C. A. co-operated generously, donating
its auditorium as a meeting place for many of these lectures, discussions,
and demonstrations.
MECHANICAL AND ELECTRICAL SAFEGUARDS
^Supplementing the educational activities, the Company'*; fngirip^rg
and production experts, upon recommendations of the safety committee,
Tpent lafge sums tor safeguards. A lengthy discussion of these will be
omitted Because of their technical nature, but in general, wherever a
machine could be instantly stopped by an electrical pushbutton or by
other means, and human life and limb thus made safer, the appropriation
was forthcoming for these devices.
Those responsible for the safety work in the various factories give
their first attention to providing proper safeguards on those machines
which present the greatest hazard to the workmen. For instance, punch
presses are recognized as dangerous machines unless properly guarded.
Accidents are likely to occur with this class of machinery from the press
repeating while the hands of the operator are under the die, in the act
of either placing or removing the work. Special attention was given to
eliminating this danger, in many cases the presses being changed from
foot tripping operation to a mode of operation which requires that both
hands be removed from under the die before the press can be operated.
In other cases non-repeating tripping devices were attached which would
48
only permit one stroke of the press at a time. Automatic mechanical
and pneumatic feeding devices have been developed for presses working
on long strips or rolls, which make it unnecessary to place the hands under
the die. Where large numbers of small pieces are required, a magazine
feed has been developed, so that the operator has only to feed a large
LIGHT AND VENTILATION IN BLACKSMITH SHOP
hopper. In fact, wherever the work will permit some rearrangement of
the work or of the machines is made, or some type of guard is used
which will obviate the necessity of the hand being placed under the
die, or the press is made inoperative while the hand is there. Where
guards are not practical, pliers are used for placing the work and a jet
of air is employed for removing it. The care which has been taken to
eliminate the danger incident to the use of this class of machinery has
reduced the number of accidents to a minimum.
The majority of protective devices for machines consists of Ixlt
and gear guards of great variety, and much constructive ingenuity has
been displayed in avoiding interference with the operation of the ma-
chines and at the same time affording adequate protection to the oper-
ator. It was found that in numerous cases where it was necessary to
remove the guard to make adjustments to the machine, the operator
49
would neglect to replace it, with the result that accidents occurred from
this form of carelessness. To obviate accidents of this kind, the belt
and gear guards are made part of the machine. They are rigidly con-
structed, and doors are placed so that the removal of the guards is
unnecessary for making adjustments.
The operation of grinding wheels would be dangerous, due to burst-
ing from excessive speed or to a fracture in the wheel, if proper pre-
BATTERY OF PUNCH PRESSES EQUIPPED WITH "SIMPLICITY" GUARD IN OPERA-
TION. PRESS CANNOT BE OPERATED WHILE GUARD IS UP
cautions were not taken to safeguard them. Experiments were made
which resulted in a reduction of the grinding speeds, and the wheels
have been completely enclosed, except that portion actually necessary
for performing the work. The results obtained by these precautions
have been very gratifying, as accidents from grinding wrheels have been
entirely eliminated.
OTHER SCHEMES FOR ACCIDENT PREVENTION
In one building at the Schenectady Works, every week 3,000,000
screws are made, and 2,000,000 are used in wiring devices. Most of
the screwdriving is done by power, and in this building over 300
electrically driven screwdrivers are being operated by girls. The
principal feature of this device is the auto-start and auto-stop
mechanism. The screwdriver does not begin to rotate until the work
has been brought in contact with it, and after the screw has been driven
home the screwdriver ceases to rotate, through the operation of a
cleverly devised slipping clutch.
In metal spinning, spring making, and on kick presses for light
punching and perforating, metal saws, milling machines, and a score of
TYPE OF EXPANDED METAL GUARD USED ON DRILL PRESSES
other machines, all dangerous moving parts are completely enclosed.
This has been done so thoroughly that one girl voiced her appreciation
in the following comment: "Everything that is movable cannot be
touched, and anything that can be touched is not movable."
In walking through the Schenectady Works one is impressed with \
the miles of ventilating pipes which convey dust, offensive odors, and
injurious gases to the external air. These ventilating systems are motor-
driven, and they give the observer a new appreciation of electricity, for
little motors hardly larger than a quart bottle are faithfully protecting
the health of hundreds of workers. Many rooms in which manufacturing
processes are being carried on, such as melting wax, spraying lacquer, or
handling powders, were found to be entirely free from odors or dust.
This result was accomplished by providing large metal hoods into which
the objectionable materials were carried by the inrushing air of the
ventilating system.
A thing of interest was a metal finger used to indicate the precise
point at which melted sealing wax was being dropped from a melting pot.
As one man remarked: "That one metal finger has saved many a burned
thumb."
I
BELT GUARD ON PROFILER
On many of the small kick-presses for light perforating work, a
metal finger attached to a swivel guard automatically pushes aside the
hand of the operator before the ram descends to pierce the metal. One
girl operator said: "This machine is almost human, for if I were to forget
and leave my hand in danger I would not only be saved from injury, but
likewise slapped on the wrist for my carelessness."
Some of the processes involve the cutting of millions of little strips
of metal from ribbons of zinc. These ribbons are fed into the machine
through a narrow slot scarcely larger than the metal itself, and no part
of the operator's body can get into the danger zone by accident.
On the stamping machines which are power- driven this method of
protection is used, as well as another which makes it necessary Tor both
of the operator's hands to be clear of the material being worked before
the ram descends upon it. The trigger releasing the machinery is also
the safety device itself, for in order to make the machine operate it is
necessary to pull down the guard. This is not a case of adding a safety
device to a machine, but of redesigning a machine so that a vital portion
of the operating mechanism is the safety device.
OPERATOR WEARING RESPIRATOR WHICH IS USED IN PLACES WHERE VENTILATING
OR EXHAUSTING SYSTEMS CANNOT SUCCESSFULLY REMOVE INJURIOUS DUST
An interesting variation of punch press operation consists in having
a revolving table carry the work under the punch press; sometimes the
metal is worked upon by the tool at as great a distance as 18 inches from
the operator's hand.
A general principle observed by the safety experts of the General
Electric Company is: "Bring the work to the tool and not the tool to
the work." By this means the number of possible combinations of
movements is materially lessened; because with a moving tool and a
moving hand the possibility of lack of co-ordination is increased. This
practice has been specially followed in tapping machines where a jig
holds the work secure and the jig is then brought to the tap.
The same practice is followed in most soldering processes and has
prevented numerous burned fingers. The electrically heated soldering
53
iron is permanently fixed at the proper angle and the parts to be soldered
are brought into contact with the hot point. Identical methods are
employed for melting sealing wax.
In a few cases where a variety of soldering is to be done, the weight
of the soldering iron is carried by a helical spring — taking advantage of
the well-known fact that if the strength of the operator is conserved and
fatigue is lessened, inaccuracies are minimized. Where intermittent
soldering processes are performed, a rack is provided to hold the iron
HELMET USED BY ARC WELDERS, PROVIDED WITH WINDOWS OF SPECIAL GLASS
WHICH SHIELD THE OPERATOR NOT ONLY FROM INJURIOUS LIGHT
RAYS BUT ALSO FROM THE HEAT RAYS
when not in use — thus preventing fires and needless damage and inter-
ruptions. One young lady solders 7000 electric light sockets every day.
Anyone who has handled solder is familiar with the fact that the
metal when melted has practically the same appearance as when cold.
To guard against burns from this cause each electrically heated soldering
pot is provided with a pilot light; when the light is burning it serves as a
warning that the metal is hot.
The Company provides the girls with a becoming cap to be worn
when operating machinery having exposed moving parts which might
entangle the hair and cause an accident.
One of the details in safety work consists in fixing a plate of sheet
iron to the inside rim of an exposed "flying" pulley, thus shielding the
spokes and making it impossible for metal rods or clothing to be drawn
into the machinery.
Safety and efficiency are sometimes closely related: when one man
with a machine can drive thousands of nails by electricity every hour
54
and never touch one of the nails it is obviously a safe process as well as
an efficient one.
The same thing can be said of electric motor trucks which go all
through the buildings, up and down the elevators — they need no rails or
trolley wires, carry very heavy loads, and require but one man to operate
them. When we consider that 47 per cent of the accidents which occurred
in 1916 were due to handling of materials, it is again evident that safety
and efficiency can be made natural running mates.
SAFETY WORK AT THE ERIE PLANT. THE GRINDING MACHINES ARE FITTED WITH
GUARDS AND THE MEN ARE IMPRESSED WITH THE NEED FOR WEARING
GOGGLES TO SHIELD THE EYES FROM FLYING PARTICLES
Elaborate automatic electric stops have been devised for overhead
cranes, and large sums spent for fire prevention, detection, and fighting,
and both automatic and hand apparatus is supplied extensively in all
buildings. An organized fire department is maintained in each of the
Works.
The devices designed to prevent electric shock have been so success-
ful that only one quarter of one per cent of the major accidents in Pitts-
field in 1916 were due to this cause.
FIGHTING SPECIFIC ACCIDENTS
The study and ingenuity displayed in the safety bulletins and other
educational phases of safety work will be illustrated in the following
pages.
55
A machinist is shown what kind of a cravat he should not wear, and
a foundryman what kind of shoes he should wear. New employees are
taught just how to pile pipes, castings, heavy timbers, etc.; special
methods are devised for preventing blindness by acids, metal, sawdust,
stone dust, and by the weird "ultra-violet and actinic" light rays.
Instruction is given in how to avoid burns from steam, molten metal,
gas, acids, and electricity; how to handle a ladder; how to keep tools in
condition; how to choose a hammer; how to protect the lungs from dust;
how to prevent nail punctures of the feet — a wealth of detail which to
those with an interest in his fellow man reads like a revelation. Think
NON-SLIP DEVICE FOR LADDERS. SHARP TOOTHED WHEEL MAY BE
ADJUSTED WHEN TEETH BECOME WORN
of grown men being taught how to lift so as to avoid ruptures; how to
drink water; how often to bathe in warm water; how to attend to a
scratch on his ringer; why he should clean up rubbish; how to carry tools
up a ladder; what kind of sleeves he should have; and whether his jacket
should be on the inside or outside of his overalls!
Surprising as these statements may sound to the laymen, they are
nevertheless some of the problems with wThich the captains of industry
are grappling, and in the solution of which they are engaging able
executives whose entire time is spent in teaching safety habits.
THE MAIN CAUSES OF ACCIDENTS
The duties of the safety committee are becoming more and more
of an educational nature, as the factories are now generously equipped
56
with mechanical and electrical safeguards. This is clearly pointed out
in a report recently issued in which an analysis is made of the causes of
accidents at the Schenectady Works in 1916:
"A little less than ten per cent of the Schenectady Works accidents
last year were classed as 'machine' accidents, and only about two and
DEVICES FOR HANDLING ACID CARBOYS. THE DESTRUCTIVE ACTION OF ACID MAY
LEAD TO THE CASE BECOMING ROTTEN, SO TONGS ARE PROVIDED WHICH
REACH UNDER THE BOX AND WOULD PREVENT THE BOTTLE
FALLING EVEN IF THE BOTTOM CAME AWAY ENTIRELY.
WHEN SMALL QUANTITIES ARE REQUIRED THE
CARBOY IS HELD IN AN INCLINATOR
WHICH IS EASILY TIPPED
WITHOUT DANGER
one half per cent of that number might have been prevented by guards
or were due to worn-out or defective apparatus or equipment.
"Forty-seven per cent were due to handling of materials; 12 per
cent to the slipping of hand tools, such as wrenches, chisels, hammers,
etc.; 12^/2 percent to stepping on chips, scrap, nails, etc., or striking
SHIELD FOR FOUNDRY LADLE
some part of the body against some object; ten per cent to machine
accidents; about four per cent to slipping and falling; one per cent to
locomotives, cars, or cranes; one per cent to electrical shocks and burns;
and the remainder to miscellaneous causes."
57
TIME LOST IN 1916 WAS y± OF i PER CENT
"Exclusive of two fatal cases, the aggregate amount of time lost
on account of accidents in 1916 at Schenectady Works was 2647 weeks,
or 50 years and 47 weeks. This amounts to only % of I per cent of
the total time of the 20,000 employees at Schenectady. This lost time
can be classified according to causes as follows:
888 weeks or about 17 years due to cuts and bruises.
507 weeks or about 9% years on account of fractures.
338 weeks or about 6}/2 years on account of infections.
287 weeks or about 5^ years due to amputations or loss of eyes.
179 weeks or about 3^ years due to burns of various kinds such as acid, electric, emery
wheel, flame, friction, gas, metal, oil, pitch, potash, soda, solder, vitriol, and hot water.
136 weeks or about 2% years on account of sprains.
130 weeks or about 2% years on account of ruptures.
120 weeks or about ^}^ years due to miscellaneous eye injuries, other than loss of eyes
or sight.
62 weeks or a little over a year on account of miscellaneous causes.
"During 1916 there were 1490 accidents which resulted in loss of
time or required attention other than could be given by the Emergency
Hospital. Those were classified by causes as follows:
975 accidents, 1553 weeks or about 30 years, accidental.
255 accidents, 513 weeks or about 10 years, carelessness on part of injured.
57 accidents, 147 weeks or about 2^ years, carelessness on part of other than injured
person.
118 accidents, 172 weeks or about 3 years, failure to have slight injuries treated promptly,
resulting in blood poisoning.
34 accidents, 37 weeks or about three quarters of a year, failure to wear safety goggles.
13 accidents, 62 weeks or a little over a year, defective and wornout apparatus or might
have been prevented by guards.
38 accidents, 163 weeks or about 3 years, miscellaneous causes, for most of which it was
impossible definitely to decide.
"Based on experience it is reasonable to expect that this record
can be materially improved."
It is the study of such statistics as these that indicates to the safety
committee along what lines they should conduct their educational
campaign so as to bring the greatest return to corporation and employee
alike.
Now that the safety work of the General Electric Company has
become chiefly educational in nature, in order to outline the main
present activities a digest is given of some of the bulletins which tell
their story every day to 61,000 employees. These are classified
according to the specific types of accidents which are being combated.
FALLS FROM ELEVATIONS
The safety committee directed that all old-style ladders should be
replaced with those having iron shoes or shoes of special design to prevent
slipping on wooden, iron, brick, and other flooring. This precaution,
supplemented by regular inspection, has materially curtailed accidents.
58
The bulletins continually remind the men that they should examine the
ladders for structural defects, nails, or sharp projections; and further,
that the ground support of the ladder should be tested and all made
secure before ascending.
Other bulletins show how scaffolding should be made, and even the
details of the sizes of planks and the number of timbers have been
carefully worked out. The story is emphasized by statistics taken from
the building trade, showing the number of men killed and injured because
of defective scaffolding.
THINGS FALLING ON MEN
Photographs show how to pile material neatly and so as not to
obstruct passageways. The men are warned not to pile these materials
too high.
IMPROPER CLOTHING
Eight posters and eight illustrations are devoted to showing the
dangers from burns and nail punctures due to improper shoes; men are
warned not to wear four-in-hand or flowing neckties about machines.
It is pointed out that jumper sleeves should be tight fitting at the wrist
and that the jumper should be worn inside of the overall bib, because
loose clothing is dangerous. The men are reminded that the wearing of
gloves and finger rings is dangerous when working about machines, and
that such superfluous things should be removed.
In one poster a striking photograph shows how an accident was
luckily avoided by a young man who wore a dangling necktie which
caught in the rolls of his machine, drawing him closer and closer. For-
tunately the machine was stopped in time to prevent a serious injury;
as it was, his tie and shirt were caught and torn off his body.
Celluloid collars are made the subject of a separate poster, and a
case is mentioned where a man narrowly missed serious injury when this
composition of guncotton caught fire and could not be removed.
INFECTION OF SMALL INJURIES
The importance of this subject may be judged from the fact that
seven posters and two illustrations were devoted to explaining the
necessity for going to the Works' physician for immediate treatment.
One case in particular was described, in which a man tried to dig a speck
of dirt out of another's eye. Blood poisoning resulted and the eye had
to be removed. Newspaper clippings were reproduced on the bulletin,
recounting how citizens in different parts of the country had suffered
from blood poisoning and lockjaw as a result of neglecting slight injuries
such as scratches, pricks of the skin, nail punctures, and small cuts.
59
BURNS
In addition to foot burns in the foundry, which were previously
discussed, the educational campaign deals with burns by steam, gas,
gasolene torches, acid, and electricity. To prevent steam burns, large
red tags are tied to steam valves which, if opened, would scald a man at
work near the outlet of the pipe. On the tag are the words " Danger!
Do not open this valve without permission of the foreman."
One poster shows the photograph of a badly burned arm, and the
incident was told of a man who was told to get an extension light from
a work bench, but lighted a match instead. The gasolene tank he was
cleaning exploded.
GUARDS ERECTED IN FRONT OF ROTATING MACHINERY
Regarding gasolene torches: Other posters instruct the men to
examine torches for leaks before lighting, pointing out that they should
never loosen the filling plug while any flame can be seen. Others are
warned, "If you do not use torches, keep away from them."
Burns by acids are the subject of other posters. The handling of
acids, especially in large quantities, presents hazards if proper precautions
are not taken. The destructive action of the acid on the wooden con-
tainers housing the carboys is likely to cause a carboy of acid to be
dropped and broken, with disastrous results. Experience has taught
that the best preventive measure in such work is the provision of tongs
for handling the carboys, of such a construction that they will reach
under the boxes, so that if the wood is entirely rotted the carboy of acid
60
will not drop to the ground. Where only small quantities of acids are
being handled, the carboy is placed in an inclinator which permits it
to be tipped .without danger of spilling the acid. Rubber gloves and
rubber-mounted goggles are provided for employees handling acid
where there is a chance of the acid spattering on the hands or in the eyes.
In general, the precautions taken to guard against electrical hazards
are the placing of all live parts in such positions that no employee can
inadvertently come into contact with them, the provision of grounded
metal guards, and ample insulation wherever necessary.
The most practical way of guarding against electrical burns is to
keep all unauthorized people away from every danger zone. Warning
signs are therefore placed near any locality where dangerous voltages
exist, and all passages, etc., leading to such places are marked with
danger signs.
BLINDNESS
Blindness due to flying particles of metal, wood, emery, etc., can be
almost eliminated by the use of goggles. These are furnished by the
Company wherever needed; as are also gloves, helmets, leggings, etc.
Nevertheless it requires considerable advertising sometimes to persuade
a man to use them. Some posters show photographs and give the names
of men whose eyes have been saved by goggles, as well as other photo-
graphs and names of men who have become partially or totally blind
because of the neglect of this simple precaution. As soon as goggles
become broken from any cause whatsoever the Company replaces them
with a new pair without expense.
Goggles of scientifically colored glass, which make it impossible for
ultra-violet and actinic rays emanating from electric or oxy-acetylene
work to injure the optic nerve, are especially valuable. In some cases
complete helmets are provided for this purpose.
NAIL INJURIES
Four posters and two illustrations tell strikingly the danger of
stepping on protruding nails. The men are urged to turn down the
nails and prevent lockjaw.
RUPTURE
How to lift heavy weights is shown in two posters and two illus-
trations. Men are cautioned not to try muscular feats beyond their
strength, but to await the service of the electric cranes and hoists when
very heavy objects must be moved. They are also warned not to wear
tight belts, and considerable discussion is given to personal hygiene and
exercises that have a tendency to prevent hernia.
61
ACCIDENTS FROM MACHINERY AND TOOLS
Fourteen posters and nine illustrations point out the necessity for
extreme care in handling machine tools and choosing hand tools. Repair-
ing or oiling machines and adjusting work while machines are in motion,
are shown to be dangerous. Actual incidents are mentioned, and the loss
in wages of men who have been injured through neglect of these rules is
shown. Men are warned not to start a machine when it is tagged "Out
of order — do not start."
They are urged to keep the protecting guards in place and to
immediately report when damages are repaired. Statistics are given of
the number of men in one state who were injured while cleaning their
machines while in motion.
Other posters remind the men that they should never sling a hammer
or sledge which has a loose handle. Likewise, a photograph is shown on
many hundreds of bulletin boards illustrating how a man should stand
when using a sledge so as to avoid injuring his companion who holds
the bar or cold chisel.
It is pointed out that when striking case-hardened material, such
as drills, reamers, cutting tools, etc., only lead or copper hammers
should be used so as to prevent chipping of the hardened metal and
injury of fellow workmen.
TRIPPING OVER RUBBISH AND JUNK
Two posters and two illustrations emphasize the danger of obstruct-
ing floors and passageways with refuse, waste material, and junk. A
disorderly workshop contributes to accidents.
UNSANITARY HABITS
A fairly complete course in personal hygiene is contained in a series
of posters. These treat of headache, eyestrain, hunger, bad ventilation,
etc., and urge plenty of sleep, good care of the teeth, adequate bathing,
plenty of fresh air, and even cleanliness of the hands. Spitting on the
floor is forbidden, and even such details as how to drink out of the
fountain come in for their share in the educational campaign.
ALCOHOL
One poster shows the extravagance of the drinker and, by suggesting
a plan by which a married man shall appoint his wife as his exclusive
bar tender, illustrates how she could make money which would go far
toward paying the household expenses.
62
CARELESS MEN
Fifty-one posters and 18 illustrations are directed against
the chance-taker and the practical joker who deals in "horse play."
Examples are shown where men have lost their lives, or have caused
the death of another because of foolish scuffling.
The doctrine of carefulness is taught in every possible way, whether
it relates to going up and down a ladder carelessly, or throwing shovels,
brooms, and tools where others might be damaged by them.
Arguments against hurry and extravagance and in favor of delibera-
tion and thrift show the range of the educational campaign.
SAFETY EXTENSION
The Company has extended the idea of safety to the benefit of the
users of the electrical apparatus manufactured by the Company, as well
as that of the employees of the Company in its factories. Safety switch-
boards, safety switches, safety controllers, "foolproof" motors, trans-
formers, etc., have been devised, and while definite statistics are not
available it is quite reasonable to assume that accidents from electric
shock are being minimized in public service corporations, and among
the general public who operate electrical devices in the home.
CHAPTER V
MEDICAL WORK AND HOSPITALS
No one questions the wisdom of the medical examination when
enlisting for military duty; and just so when enrolling with the armies
of industry — the physical examination is becoming a matter of course.
You, as an army recruit, do not feel insulted when Uncle Sam examines
your teeth, and thumps your chest, and tests your vision; you do not feel
that the army physician's services are to be classed as charity or phi-
lanthropy— you know it is efficiency, the greatest good for the greatest
number, that dictates the policy of the physical examination. Therefore,
to maintain the same high standard in the industrial army, every new
employee must be examined — even consulting engineers. This has
been the procedure in the General Electric Company's organization
since 1914 — without exception or favoritism.
It is for this good reason that we, in the great industrials of today,
welcome the plan and take a keen interest in the details of the main-
tenance of "Health en masse" — which is the big idea back of both
armies and corporations.
It would be a great source of comfort to feel that there is no taint
of tuberculosis or infectious disease among one's business associates.
And from a more altruistic point of view many of our less fortunate
brothers have had the way pointed out to them for the complete recovery
of their health — due to an expert's diagnosis at the time of the medical
examination.
PHYSICAL EXAMINATION
In the year 1916, there were 13,716 examinations made at the offices
and Works in Schenectady. Many men and women have practically
had their eyesight saved because they have taken the advice of the
Company's physician and taken steps to correct the dangerous drift.
A similar situation has arisen in regard to men either ruptured or on the
verge.
LIFE EXTENSION
In this connection, Mr. A. L. Rohrer, the Supervisor of Medical
Examinations, recently remarked:
"The day of preventive measures and medicines has dawned, and everyone is now
thinking how disease can be prevented instead of waiting until the disease has developed.
Our medical examinations have revealed the beginnings of troubles unknown to the person
examined; attention was called to them and advice given. In many cases the progress of the
disease was checked. Everyone who has some reason to suspect that there is anything wrong,
should get medical advice and get it early. The medical men who have studied the records
agree that several years will be added to the average span of life by periodic medical exam-
inations."
64
We are all appreciating more every year that the better suited we
are to our work the more suited we will be with our work. Now that these
examinations have been started, we see that their object is not to keep
us out of employment but to direct us away from that kind of employ-
ment which may damage our health.
If a man had weak eyesight, the modern industrial company would
never give him work near rapidly moving machinery; or, if his lungs
were weak, he would not be permitted to do any work of a dusty nature
which would soon aggravate the condition of his lungs.
In speaking of this dusty work, the fact should not pass unnoticed
that there are periodical examinations of all those who are working in
dusty rooms. Likewise anyone who has the appearance of lung trouble,
or other disease, which may be aggravated by his occupation, is given a
special additional examination in order to detect and therefore prevent
any tendency toward disease. If such is discovered, necessary precautions
to safeguard his health are advised, or the nature of his work is changed.
Think of the sufferings of the past, when no such provisions were made!
The expression, "the scrap pile of humanity," formerly applied to the
workers in large industrial plants, is no longer applicable.
RUNNING THE GAUNTLET
In fact, by the time we have got fully into the swing of lije in a
large manufacturing plant, we realize that unwittingly we have "run
the gauntlet" — mentally, physically, morally, and industrially. This
being the case, and all having passed the various tests of fitness, we find
that our fellow workers are anything but candidates for the scrap pile.
The reverse is the case, and in the sense that each one of us has been
selected for fitness, it can easily be seen that the organization amounts
to a picked crew.
It is of interest to note that the rejections vary from 3}^ to 6 per
cent, the greater number being due to hernia and defective eyesight.
Many cases of arrested development of the eye are noticed, and it is
remarkable that so many applicants have not discovered prior to these
examinations that they were practically blind in one eye. Frequently
the sight can be immediately improved by proper glasses, this being
particularly true in cases of short-sightedness. Several applicants have
confessed that when standing on the curb they couldn't see a trolley
car pass, and the simple expedient of providing proper glasses has
surely saved many lives from street accidents.
All employees who are absent for two months or longer come back
as new employees and have to pass a medical examination before re-
employment.
65
VITAL STATISTICS
There is another very important provision in which preventive
measures are supplied for maintaining health en masse — i.e., the hospital
— the ally of hygiene and enemy of suffering. Splendid records have been
Fig. 30. THE SCHENECTADY HOSPITAL
Fig. 31. THE MEN'S WARD OF THE EMERGENCY HOSPITAL AT THE ERIE WORKS
kept ever since the establishment of the hospitals. The history of the
achievements of the medical men of this staff is written in the record,
and some very striking facts stand out from among what some people
might call plain statistics.
66
MOST ACCIDENTS IN SUMMER
Accidents unfortunately occur everywhere, on the street, in the
home, and in the factory. Their number, by the laws of chance, is likely
to be in proportion to the population of a town or to the number of
Figs. 32 and 33. THE PITTSFIELD WORKS HOSPITAL
Hospital facilities are provided at all of the numerous Works of the General Electric Company. Some of thest
hospitals are quite large, the number of employees in some of the plants equaling the population of a good sized city.
In the case of serious accidents, first treatment is given in the emergency hospital before the employee is sent
home or to the hospital, and daily treatment or dressing is given as necessary. Employees are encouraged to
report even the smallest injury, as this policy often prevents an insignificant scratch from developing into a
serious case.
employees in a factory. So as our organization grew and the number
of employees increased from hundreds to thousands, facilities for taking
care of them became necessary. It has been the spirit of the Company
to keep these facilities well abreast of the needs, and today our hospital
Fig. 34. MEN'S WAITING ROOM AND DRESSING BOOTHS AT SCHENECTADY
Fig. 35. AN APPLICANT TAKING THE FIRST TEST FOR EYESIGHT IN THE EXAMINATION
ROOM. WOMEN APPLICANTS ARE EXAMINED BY A WOMAN PHYSICIAN
facilities for emergency cases are larger than those of many towns, for
the simple reason that our industrial army is larger than the population
of many towns. The presence of emergency hospitals in a factory does
not denote that the work is hazardous; indeed, the majority of accidents
68
can be traced to carelessness, and no small part of the work in connection
with factory hospitals is educational work — trying to teach the vital
lesson of Safety First. Such educational work is made more difficult by
the fact that many foreigners are employed who cannot speak English.
Fig. 36. DOCTOR'S OFFICE WHERE THESE EXAMINATIONS ARE MADE
Fig. 37. WOMEN'S MEDICAL ROOM ADJOINING THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE, WHERE
MINOR AILMENTS AND INJURIES ARE TREATED
All applicants for employment must pass a medical examination, which frequently results in the discovery
and correction of unsuspected defective eyesight and other ailments.
All of us are human and there is one characteristic which is particu-
larly noticeable in us all, namely, our willingness to assume risks if we
69
can save a little time. This trait is in daily evidence at all our busy street
corners where pedestrians disregard the warnings and rules of traffic
officers, and persist in crossing the street or railway tracks at unsafe
Fig. 38. AMBULANCE AT THE PITTSFIELD WORKS
Fig. 39. CLOSED AUTOMOBILES ARE USED FOR TAKING HOME SICK OR INJURED
EMPLOYEES, WHO DO NOT REQUIRE THE SERVICE OF AN AMBULANCE.
THIS ILLUSTRATION SHOWS A CAR USED FOR THIS PURPOSE
AT THE SCHENECTADY WORKS
moments, being willing to risk injury for the saving of a fraction of a
minute. In the same way it has been found that workmen in the shops
will frequently assume risks in order to save a second or two; and there-
70
fore we shall always have accidents, and the larger the number of em-
ployees the larger the number of accidents.
One of the strange facts developed from a study of these records is:
Nearly 64 per cent of the major accidents of the year take place in
the six warm months, May to October inclusive.
Medical men and executives and statisticians are all baffled by this
mystery. Not one has been able to explain satisfactorily why 64 per cent
of the accidents occur in warm weather and only 36 per cent occur in
cold weather, year after year.
There is still another mystery:
Why do most of the major accidents take place either early in the
morning or late in the afternoon? No one knows.
Fig. 40. CLASS FOR FIRST AID INSTRUCTION AT THE PITTSFIELD WORKS
Everything possible is done for the comfort of the sick and injured at the "various Works.
These two curious facts are undeniably true — they are medical
history — and right here in these two unexplained facts lie some of the
problems on which high-type executives, engineers, and surgeons are
devoting serious thought. They will clear up these mysteries in time,
and their solution will probably result in some special instructions for us
to follow at the beginning and close of the day; and we shall be glad to
do so, for all of us are anxious to avoid even a scratch.
WHAT IS AN "ACCIDENT"?
An accident is an accident even if it is only a scratch. This may
seem a cranky idea, but it is based on long study, experience, and obser-
vation. It is the positive conclusion of the physicians and surgeons
that a wound, no matter how trifling — even if only a scratch — should be
given a proper dressing immediately after the accident occurs; for it
has been found that infection of a slight wound in many cases gives
more pain and is more dangerous than the fracture of a bone.
In 1916, there were 11,427 accidents at the Schenectady Works,
but only 36 were serious enough to be classed as bed cases, and only
ii were serious enough to require an ambulance call. Out of prac-
tically 21,000 men working with steam and electricity, operating
ponderous machinery weighing hundreds of tons, only two men died as
the result of accidents, including electric shock, scalding from steam,
fires, and railroad accidents; for it should be understood that the great
factory of today has indoor and outdoor railways and streets the same
Fig. 41. REST ROOM OF THE NEW YORK DISTRICT OFFICE
as cities— even with motor busses and trolleys. There are few cities in
which the accidental death statistics are so low. Automobiles alone
killed 140 people in Philadelphia in 1916.
DIMINISHING FATALITIES
Remarkably complete records are kept showing the history of every
accident for the full decade, 1906 to 1916 inclusive. In the first half
of the last decade, there were 12 fatal accidents at the Schenectady
Works, an average of 2.4 per year.
In the last half of the past decade, the fatalities decreased to an
average of only two per year — this for the years 1912 to 1916 inclusive.
Another bit of history which makes the above achievement all the more
remarkable is the fact that in the last five years there were 25 per cent
more employees in Schenectady than in the first half of the decade. In
72
other words, between 1907 and 1911, one man out of 6100 met with a
fatal accident, while in the past five years only one in every 9000 was
so unfortunate. In 1916 it was only one man in 10,100.
Fig. 42. THE WOMEN'S REST ROOM OF THE CHICAGO DISTRICT OFFICE
Fig. 43. THE REST ROOM AT THE PHILADELPHIA OFFICE. IN THIS CASE THE REST
ROOM IS ON THE TOP OF THE BUILDING IN WHICH THE OFFICE IS LOCATED,
AND THE ROOF HAS BEEN MADE INTO A PROMENADE WHERE THE
GIRLS CAN TAKE FRESH AIR AND EXERCISE
Rest rooms for women employees are provided at most of the district and local offices, as well as at the various
Works of the Company. In these rooms provision is frequently made for preparing simple lunches which avoids
the necessity of going out in bad weather.
Thus the fatal accidents at the Schenectady Works for the last ten
years have averaged 0.136 per thousand. To fully grasp the magnitude
73
of this notable record, we reproduce the following table from page 6 of
the U. S. Dept. of Labor's Bulletin No. 157 on "Industrial Accident
Statistics" dated March, 1915:
TABLE I
ESTIMATE OF FATAL INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS IN THE UNITED STATES
IN 1913, BY INDUSTRY GROUPS
Industry Group
No. of
Employees
Fatal
Industrial
Accidents
Rkte Per
IOOO
Males
Metal mining
I7O,OCXD
680
J..OO
Coal mining
75O,OOO
2,625
3.50
Fisheries
I5O,OOO
45O
3-OO
Navigation
Railroad employees
Electricians (light and power)
Navy and marine corps
150,000
1,750,000
68,000
62,000
450
4,200
153
115
3.00
2.40
2.25
.85
Quarrying
1 50,000
•7°
Lumber Industry
Soldiers, United States Army
531,000
73,000
797
109
•50
•49
Building and construction
1,500,000
1,875
Draymen, teamsters, etc
686,000
686
.00
Steet railway employees
320,000
^20
.00
\Vatchmen, policemen, firemen
200,000
IsO
•75
Telephone and telegraph (including linemen)
Agricultural pursuits, (including forestry and animal
husbandry)
Manufacturing (general)
All other occupied males
245,000
1 2,000,000
7,277,000
4,678,000
123
4,200
1,819
3ooS
•50
•35
•25
•75
All occupied males
3O,76o,OOO
22,515
•73
All occupied females
7-200,000
540
•075
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, SCHENECTADY
WORKS IN 1916
GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY, SCHENECTADY
WORKS AVERAGE FOR TEN YEARS
20,985
2
.099
.136
Other interesting facts will be seen by studying the following figures;
and the amount of effort and attention which they represent may be
gathered from the fact that in the year of 1916 alone the hospital made
55,362 dressings and treatments. The average worker who meets with
an accident receives three additional dressings.
Year
INO. or Employees
on Schenectady
Payroll
Total Accidents
(Including Scratches)
Per Cent
1907
15.544
1,832
1.18
1908
11,359
1,229
1. 08
1909
13,361
1,706
1.27
I9IO
16,462
2,729
1.66
I9II
16,107
3,075
1.91
1912
17,487
4,174
2-39
1913
19.977
5,670
2.84
1914
16,823
4,26l
2-54
1915
15,347
5,476
3-69
1916
20,985
11,427*
5-69*
* In 1916 all injuries, including even slight scratches, were reported, whereas the record
of previous years includes only the more serious accidents.
74
EYE CASES
Among the 1916 accidents, 5,575 pertained to the eye — cinders,
sawdust, chips, emery, dust, etc. It is to the credit of the hospital that
the first treatments of these were made so successfully that only 171 of
them were referred to an eye specialist in the city; one man lost the sight
of one eye, and not a single man became blind. The Company has made
it a practice in the past to pay the doctor's bill of all workers sent from
the hospital to the city specialist.
WORKS HOSPITALS
It would be tedious to describe in detail all the hospitals in our
many factories, but a brief review of hospital work at the Schenectady
Works will give an idea of this necessary adjunct to modern manu-
facturing.
This work began with the employment of a medical student whose
services were sought for first aid before sending the patient to the city
hospital. Later it became essential to have some one in each department
who understood first aid treatment, and a series of talks on "first aid,"
by a leading surgeon, with demonstrations on actual dressings, was
given to a class made up of the foremen, assistant foremen, and shop
clerks of each department.
In 1899 first aid chests containing the necessary materials were
prepared and placed in each department on the recommendation of the
Works physician collaborating with well-known surgeons. This outfit
has been quite extensively adopted in manufacturing plants.
It was soon found that the treatment of accidents in the shops
caused confusion and did not result in systematic treatment, so it was
decided to establish a real emergency hospital, where a trained hospital
steward could administer treatment and be responsible for the dressing
of wounds under the best conditions. The hospital staff includes a steward
and four assistants.
Careful records are kept of each case. The majority of treatments
are of a very minor nature, and any increase in the number of treatments
bears testimony to a more rigid enforcement of the regulations on the
part of the organizations and a better spirit of co-operation on the part
of the employees in conforming to the general wish that the merest
scratch shall receive proper treatment to avoid infection.
In the hospital work, emphasis has been placed upon the fact that
efficiency in surgery depends upon the individual who applies the first
dressing, and the stewards thoroughly understand that the aim of
"first aid" is to apply an antiseptic dressing that will prevent infection
of the wound.
75
No wounds are now dressed in the shops; all injured are immediately
sent to the hospital, the major cases being transported on stretchers
conveniently located in each department. All major eye cases are
treated by one of the eye specialists of the city, the injured being con-
veyed by automobile.
Fig. 44. MEDICAL ROOM AT THE SCHENECTADY WORKS. THIS IS UNDER THE CARE
OF A TRAINED NURSE AND COMMUNICATES WITH THE REST ROOM
Fig. 45. WHERE SHORT PERIODS OF REST MAY BE TAKEN. THESE ROOMS ARE
UNDER THE CHARGE OF A MATRON WHO LOOKS AFTER THE
WELFARE OF THOSE USING THE ROOMS
76
WOMEN AND GIRLS
A woman physician devotes her entire time to the care of the women
and girl employees. Her office is fitted with booths for medical examina-
tion, and connects with the women's rest room which is equipped with
cots, where the girls from the factory can be made comfortable. All
women or girls who are too ill to work are sent by the foreman to this
office by automobile. Many of them after an hour or two in the rest
room feel able to return to their work. Those who are too ill to work
are sent home by automobile, and those who remain in the rest room
are given such simple treatment as will give them relief.
Fig. 46. WOMEN'S EMERGENCY HOSPITAL AT THE PITTSFIELD WORKS
In addition to the medical services provided at all the Works, rest rooms for women are maintained throughout
the organization, where simple remedies may be obtained in case of slight indisposition.
In one month, 155 girls came to this office for treatment, and 127
of them returned to work the same day. In addition to the treatments
given, the doctor suggests preventive measures, such as diet, exercise,
etc. At intervals, during the noon hour, the woman physician gives
talks to the girls in the various departmental rest rooms in the shops.
GIRLS' REST ROOMS
All of the factories have provided adequate facilities in this regard.
There are 36 rest rooms for girls at the Schenectady Works,
classified as follows:
Twenty-two secondary rest rooms, seven in charge of matrons,
four in charge of doctors, one in charge of a nurse, and one in the main
office building.
77
Simple treatments are afforded which permit most of the girls to
return to work after one or two hours of rest. Books are provided, as
well as individual instruction, teaching how best to preserve their health.
Those few who are not able to go back to work are taken to their homes
in the Company's automobiles.
RED CROSS CLASSES
Seven enthusiastic classes have been formed to teach the girls
first aid; these are called "Schools for Red Cross Nurses." The girls
attend these classes on their own time.
NO STOOLS
Six or seven years ago all the girl workers sat on stools while they
were working, but now all have chairs with backs.
Cold statistics cannot show the amount of suffering and disease
which are prevented by medical examinations when applying for work,
educational work in personal hygiene, and other preventive measures.
It should be noted that most of the work described above was
undertaken and well under way before the New York State Workmen's
Compensation Act was passed by the Legislature.
CHAPTER VI
FIRE PROTECTION
The cost of a man's life insurance is a measure of his security from
early death; the cost of a manufacturing plant's fire insurance is a
measure of the plant's security from fire.
It is a very rare occurrence for the cost of a man's life insurance to
grow less; for even though he improves his health (his resistance to
disease) he nevertheless grows older; but the manufacturing plant can
grow older and at the same time reduce its fire insurance rate by improv-
ing its resistance to fire.
This has been proved to be true to a surprising degree by the
experience of the General Electric Company in its various plants.
At the Schenectady Works, for example, the cost of each $100 fire
insurance in 1893 was 75 cents as compared with an average of less than
10 cents for the last ten years. In this chapter we will describe the
provisions that were made which have brought about this remarkable
reduction in insurance cost, and the corresponding decrease in the fire
hazard.
These improved conditions have benefited the Company, the
employees, and the public in the following respects:
The Company:
Maximum safety from loss of property.
Maximum safety from loss of profits.
The Employees:
Maximum safety from loss of life.
Maximum safety from loss of wages.
The Public:
Maximum assurance of prompt deliveries, due to minimum
interruptions.
Maximum safety from fire as the result of using electrical
devices.
The actual fire losses year by year for the past ten years in the
Schenectady Works are given in the table.
In the first eight months of 1917 there were 50 fires in the Schenec-
tady Works with a total property loss of $588. Since this represents an
average loss of approximately $11 per fire, it can readily be seen that:
first, the fire department is operated efficiently; and second, the em-
ployee's loss in wages is trifling.
79
Year
No. of Fires
Fire Loss
Average Loss
per Fire
1907
1908
1909
43
36
19
$1,904
462
284
$24.00
I2.OO
14.00
1910
1911
17
53
76
1,836
4.00
34.00
1912
73
3,435
47.00
1913
1914
1915
1916
Total for 10 years
57
62
62
66
3,366
827 *
817
7,021
59.00
13.00
13.00
IO6.OO
$39.00
488
$19,173
MUTUAL INSURANCE CONTRACT
For over 20 years the General Electric Company has placed its
insurance with a mutual fire insurance company. The business is handled
by this company at cost, i.e., no profits and no agents. The cost includes
expenses of management, service, inspections, and losses.
This insurance contract requires that all the member manufacturing
companies have their properties built according to certain specified
standards of fireproof or slow-burning mill construction, and equipped
with standard sprinkler systems, individual water supply plants, etc.
In all the plants of the General Electric Company there are installed
about 250,000 automatic sprinkler heads which adequately cover approxi-
mately 15,500,000 square feet of floor space.
Mr. M. F. Westover, Secretary of the General Electric Company,
in charge of matters relating to fire insurance, stated recently that the
architectural and engineering advice received from the insurance com-
pany in connection with new building construction was alone worth
the money paid out in premiums.
BUILDING CONSTRUCTION
Wherever possible the factory buildings are subdivided into sections
by fireproof walls, designed to prevent the spreading of a fire. The
openings in these fire walls are provided with self-closing fire doors
which are held open by a fusible link of alloy of such a character that
when the temperature rises to a predetermined point the alloy melts and
the door automatically shuts. These doors are hung on wheels which run
on an inclined track, and when released by the melting of the alloy the
j force of gravity propels the door down the track until it is firmly shut.
| These doors are constructed of metal and other fireproof material, and
! at regular intervals the operating mechanism is inspected and tested.
80
In all modern buildings throughout the various factories special
stair towers pre erected.. These are also provided with fireproof doors
and windows, and serve a double purpose, viz., to prevent a possible fire
from sweeping up the stairway and spreading to additional floors, and
to serve as fireproof and smoke-proof exits for employees. The location
of these stairs has been carefully worked out by the various experts of
the insurance companies and the State Factory Inspection Department.
As a general rule they are provided at both ends of the building and in
the middle of the building. By this arrangement a large number of exits
GIVING FIRE ALARM FROM MASTER BOX
are provided; if a fire were to break out at one end of the building the
employees could use the stairways at the other end and in the middle,
or if a fire were to break out in the middle of the building the stairs at /
both ends would be available. — r-'
The same arrangement is used in the large office buildings; for
instance, in the main office building at Schenectady each wing is isolated
by fireproof walls and doors and is served by an enclosed stairs at the
end, which is shut off from the halls by fireproof doors. In addition
there is a main staircase at the middle of the building.
Exits are clearly marked by red signs and at night by red lights.
All fire alarm boxes are marked by blue lights, and all fire hose lines
inside the buildings are indicated by green lights.
81
mg,
FIRE-FIGHTING EQUIPMENT IN BUILDINGS
Each building is provided with an elaborate equipment for prevent-
detecting, and extinguishing fires, night and day. A standard fire
TYPICAL HOSE HOUSE
INTERIOR OF HOSE HOUSE, SHOWING FOUR-WAY HYDRANT,
HOSE, AND OTHER EQUIPMENT
alarm system is used, to which are connected 82 fire alarm boxes on four
separate circuits. The number of the box corresponds to the number of
the building in which it is installed. Fire gongs operated from the
82
central station announce the existence of a fire to all buildings in the
vicinity. For a first alarm only certain designated companies respond;
but on a second alarm all companies respond.
Each floor of the buildings is supplied with iJ/2-in. hose lines per-
manently connected to the water system. There are over ten miles of
these shop lines in the Schenectady Works alone; 3326 water pails are
distributed throughout the works, as well as numerous other pails
containing sand, sawdust, and wet bags for extinguishing oil and electrical
fires.
Automatic sprinklers, numbering almost 75,000 in the Schenectady
Works, are the standard means employed for automatically extinguishing
fires at their inception. These are placed eight feet apart at the ceiling.
Here again the skill of the metallurgist is employed, as in the case of the
fire doors, for when the temperature rises to a dangerous degree at any
point it melts the alloy of the sprinkler, and the surrounding walls,
partitions, floors, and contents of the building are drenched. The fact
that only those sprinklers close to the fire are put in operation results
in a great saving of property, as much unnecessary flooding is thus
avoided. The auto-sprinkler both discovers and extinguishes a fire, as
it is first on the scene.
Each building is further supplied with fire ladders, thus making it
unnecessary for the ladder companies to carry extra long ladders for the
high factory buildings.
It has been found that two of the main sources of fire are spontaneous
combustion and careless smokers, and special precautions are taken to
obviate these hazards. Oily waste must be thrown in metal cans specially
provided and emptied at regular intervals. Smoking is prohibited in the
factory buildings at all times, and in the yards and streets except during
the noon hour. Certain men are made responsible for preventing
accumulations of rubbish, dust, greasy overalls, etc.
HANDLING INFLAMMABLE MATERIALS
In manufacturing electrical apparatus there is more opportunity
for fires than in some other lines of work. Certain departments require
special care on the part of the employees against this danger. They
include the painting and japanning departments, where benzine or other
solvents are used that are very inflammable, and under certain conditions
explosive; the insulating departments, where linseed oil, varnish, benzine,
alcohol, and other highly inflammable materials are used; departments
in which cotton, numerous soldering irons, lead melting pots, etc., are
required; and testing departments and all other places where electric
wiring, much of it carrying current at high voltage, is to be found.
83
In departments that use japan, varnish, and oil tanks, and in baking
ovens where special risk is involved, special equipment for putting out fires
has been provided. Some of the ovens are connected with steam pipes
Fig. 47. FIRE STATION, SCHENECTADY WORKS
Fig. 48. INTERIOR OF FIRE STATION
to smother fires; some of the testing departments have a supply of carbon
dioxide for putting out oil fires in closed tanks. In some places sawdust
boxes for smothering japan, varnish, or benzine fires have been installed.
84
The idea of the fusible plug used in the sprinkler system can be
carried still further and used to advantage in automatically smothering
fires that start in dripping tanks. Iron doors, hinged and swung beyond
the center of gravity, are held in place by fusible links which melt in case
of fire and close the lids.
CENTRAL FIRE STATION EQUIPMENT AND WATER SYSTEM
The fire headquarters building is shown in one of the illustrations.
Hose companies 3 and 7 (the latter the night company) and the ladder
company are quartered in this building. The fire chief also has his office
here. The emergency hospital occupies the rear. Its work was described
and illustrated in a previous chapter.
This station contains the following apparatus: one automobile hose
wagon carrying 1500 ft. of 2^/s-in. hose, play pipes, extinguishers, two
deluge sets, one rubber cover, axes, rakes, forks, shovels, door opener, hose
lines, and life line; seven two-wheeled hose reels, each carrying 500 ft. of
2^-in. hose, play pipes, axe, and pipe holder; two ladder trucks, carrying
ladders, axes, forks, shovels, extinguishers, and rubber covers; and three
spare hose reels to replace regular equipment when repairs are to be made,
one of the spare reels being fully equipped so that it can be pressed into
service at any time.
There are 125 hydrants in service in the Works, 41 of these having
hose houses over them, in each of which is installed 200 feet of
hose (100 ft. connected to the hydrant and 100 ft. in reserve), two play
pipes, one pipe holder, one axe, two spanners, and hydrant wrenches.
There are almost 14 miles of fire hose in service, disposed of as follows:
5000 ft. of 2%-in. hose carried on fire apparatus; 8200 ft. of 2%-in. hose
in hydrant hose houses; and 57,950 ft. on fire plugs in the buildings.
The pressure on the water system is maintained by both gravity
and pumps. In the main pumping station (Buildings 13 and I3A) are
installed one Snow pump of 6,000,000 gallons capacity daily, one Drane
pump of 3,000,000 gallons, and two Worthington fire pumps of 2,160,000
gallons. In Building 61 there are two Worthington fire pumps of 4,320,000
gallons capacity, and in Building 118 one Alberger pump of 7,000,000
gallons capacity, making a total daily pumping capacity of 22,480,000
gallons. The tank on the hill in Bellevue at the back of the Works
contains 1,036,000 gallons of water. The water for the system is taken
from the Mohawk River and the old Erie Canal and is distributed through
I4J/2 rniles of yard mains. The mains are interconnected and arranged
in such a way that a rupture at any point in the system can be quickly
isolated by valves and will affect only a very small part of the system.
Additional protection is afforded by connection to the city water system,^
which will enable city water to be utilized in the event of a breakdown
85
of the whole of the Company's pumping plant. The average daily
consumption for factory purposes is 8,650,857 gallons. This does not
include water for drinking purposes which is obtained from the city mains.
Fig. 49. FIRE DRILL WITH HOSE EQUIPMENT
Fig. 50. FIRE DRILL FOR EMPLOYEES
An entire department consisting of 400 employees is regularly emptied in one and one half minutes.
Another complete floor with 500 workers requires an average of two minutes to vacate.
THE ORGANIZATION
The fire organization was formed during the summer of 1889, and
consisted of 40 men. Its present strength (in 1917) is 176 men, formed
86
into eight hose companies and one ladder company, each with its own
quarters and apparatus.
It is significant of the efficiency of the present fire-fighting system,
and organization that during this period of 29 years, in which the Schenec-
tady Works has increased in size from 144,000 square feet of floor space
to 5>333>oo° square feet, the fire department has been enlarged only
4.4 times and is protecting a space 38^2 times as large.
The permanent professional fire fighters of the Schenectady Depart-
ment consist of a fire chief, who is a member of the International Associa-
tion of Fire Engineers and the New York State Fire Chiefs' Association,
assistant chief, two inspectors, and the captain of the night fire company.
The night fire company consists of two officers and ten men located at
the central fire station. These men sleep in the station and the Company
furnishes them with lodging, supper, and breakfast. Each member is on
duty from 5:30 p.m. until 6:30 a.m., and with the exception of the
captain, all are regularly employed in the shops during the day. They
are allowed one night off in three and are the busiest fire company in
the department. They responded to 59 fire alarms in 1916.
FIRE CREW FOR EACH BUILDING
The other members of the department are termed "call men," who
are selected from the shops on the recommendation of the foremen.
Men are preferred who have had experience as professional fire fighters.
These men receive one week of vacation in the summer and other per-
quisites.
Each building is served by a definite number of firemen, who are
assigned to certain departments or floors. They are formed into com-
panies and are put in charge of a hose house, where they report upon the
first fire alarm. These companies average 15 men each, and are
organized with a captain, lieutenant, and senior hoseman. Each member
of the company is responsible for the fire equipment in his department
or section of the building under his care, and he makes daily inspections
of the sprinkler system, fire hose, pails, fire alarm gongs, etc. The cleanli-
ness and general good order within the buildings are also looked after
by these men.
Each man is furnished with a helmet, coat, rubber boots, and other
items that make up a fireman's equipment. This paraphernalia is kept
in a metal locker close by his station in the shop. He is supplied with a
fire department badge which admits him to the works at all times.
FIRE DEPARTMENT DRILLS
Under the direction of the chief, the fire department is drilled
20 times a year, each drill being entirely unannounced. When
responding to this alarm no one but the chief is aware of the fact that
87
it is a drill; and thus the surprise element keeps every member on the
qui vive. At all fire drills a second alarm is sounded, which calls the
entire department into action.
Hose races are held once a year to determine which company has the
greatest speed. The night patrol men are drilled once a month on hose
duty, sprinkler valve duty, and shop fire protection. In the winter
instructions are given to the whole department by the fire chief. These
lectures and discussions are held in the gymnasium of the central fire
station.
FIREMEN'S QUARTERS IN FIRE STATION
Regular inspections are being made constantly. The buildings and
grounds are inspected by the chief and assistant chief, and the sprinkler
valves by the assistant chief and inspectors. The inspectors also inspect
all of the indicator post valves on the sprinkler system, the hydrants,
yard valves, hydrant hose houses, hose companies, and apparatus.
These inspections are conducted weekly, and are in addition to the
inspection of the buildings and departments by the other members of the
fire department.
EXIT DRILLS
Exit drills for employees are given once a month. A complete
organization is formed in the shops at each drill, consisting of leaders,
stairway guards, firemen, searchers, and power men. These exit drills
are conducted by the foreman of each department, who has a regular
corps of assistants. It is the duty of the leaders to form the line for the
march to the various exits and to lead the way out. The stair guards
are stationed on the landing at the top of the stairs and on intermediate
landings to direct and assist the employees in leaving the building.
The duty of the searchers is to search the building for anyone who may
have been left behind, due to injury or faintness. The searchers are the
last people to leave the building. In the meantime the power men shut
off all power and stop all machinery in the building, and the firemen
turn in the alarm and use the inside hose lines, extinguishers, buckets,
etc., every possible means being employed to extinguish the fire while
the fire department is responding. An alarm is provided en every floor,
consisting of an air whistle of distinctive tone which can be heard dis-
tinctly over the entire floor.
FIREMEN'S CLUB FACILITIES
On the second floor of the fire central station is a pool room, reading
room, gymnasium, and shower bath room for the convenience and
recreation of all members of the fire department. The dormitory for the
night company is in the same building.
A relief association is formed among the members of the fire depart-
ment, and an assessment of ten cents a week is paid by each member.
A benefit of $9 per week for 1.3 weeks is paid members of the associa-
tion on account of illness or disability. This organization is a flourishing
one, has a good substantial surplus in the treasury, and since the associa-
tion was organized in 1904 has paid a substantial dividend to the mem-
bers.
A TYPICAL YEAR'S WORK
During the year 1915 the fire department responded to 62 alarms of
fire, 22 bell alarms, and 40 still alarms. The fire loss was $817.29, the
largest individual loss being $300. Twenty-five fires were extinguished
with iJ/2-in. shop lines, 15 with fire pails, II with extinguishers, six with
2^-in. house lines, six with sprinklers, four with sand, one with wet
bags, and one with pyrene.
The longest fire with which the Schenectady Works fire department
has fought lasted three months. A pile of soft coal 500 feet long, 40 feet
wide, and 25 feet high caught fire from spontaneous combustion. From
one to five streams of water were played night and day upon this coal
fire for ninety days. But this was not sufficient, as it was found necessary
to turn over the coal so that the water could penetrate all portions of
this huge pile. The expense of doing this with skilled firemen and high-
class mechanics soon became such an item that foreign laborers with
shovels were employed to perform the work. Forty pairs of rubber boots
were worn out in extinguishing this one fire.
89
It is a peculiar fact in the life of members of the fire department
that the more efficiently they do their work the less exciting the work
becomes. The members do not feel, however, that their work is less
interesting, as there is nothing that gives an ambitious man greater
satisfaction than the feeling that he has done his work well; that by
doing so he has benefited others. The record of the Schenectady Works
Fire Department is one of which they can feel justly proud; there are
few fire departments which can boast that the average loss per fire is
only $11.
The activities of the General Electric Company in fire prevention
are not limited to the protection of its manufacturing plants and its
employees; its work in this direction has been extended to the benefit
of the public by careful study of all its products with the view of minimiz-
ing the chance of fire through their use. Some of the devices that are
more commonly used by the public that receive special attention in this
respect include electric lamp sockets, flatirons, snap and push switches,
small motors, and domestic heating devices. Frequent conferences are
held between the company's engineers and representatives of the National
Board of Underwriters with the purpose of adopting designs that insure
the greatest security from electrical fires.
The foregoing description relates particularly to the fire department
of the Schenectady Works, as this is the largest organization of the kind
in the Company. The Company's other plants have each a well-organized
fire department that resembles in most respects, though on a smaller
scale, the department at Schenectady.
90
AFIRE
In this plant may put
every man out of work.
Guard the property
against Fire, and protect
YOUR JOB
NO SMOKING
FIRE PROTECTION
Have you planned what you would do in case of fire? Do you
know where the nearest fire alarm box is? Do you know how to
send in an alarm?
Do you know all the means of escape from your building?
Are they clear and usable?
Do you know if the fire doors will work automatically? Have
you provided for prompt closing of all doors and windows in case
of fire?
Do you know where the fire apparatus in your building is
kept? Do you know how to use it?
Do you know where the nearest hydrants are and do you know
how to get out the hose?
If you haven't thought of these things, now is the time to begin.
CHAPTER VII
RESTAURANTS
Roast Beef
Stewed Tomatoes
MENU
Milk (or Coffee)
Cocoanut Pudding
Mashed Potatoes
Bread and Butter
Price 25 cents
This bill of fare is typical of the noonday meal that is being served
today to employees of the Schenectady Works of the General Electric
Company. It is a full equivalent of the meals that were served in this
restaurant five years ago, despite the steep increase in the cost of all
food stuffs during this period. The ability to serve this meal today at
the price in force five years ago is the result of skillful application of
engineering principles in the kitchen and in the method of serving
customers.
The following table, which was prepared by a food expert, shows
that this midday meal provides one third of the nourishment required
for a day's hard work:
CALORIES IN TYPICAL 25-CENT MIDDAY MEAL
Dish
Amount
O/.
Calories
Protein
Calories
Fat
Calories
Carbo-
hydrates
Total
Calories
Roast beef
Gravy (brown sauce)
Mashed potatoes
I'4
C
69
7
13
81
24
80
o
19
75
150
50
1 68
Stewed tomatoes
2
2
25
Coconut pudding.
T.
17
46
45
1 08
Bread
2.2C
2O
8
112
140
Butter
6.C
O
IOO
O
IOO
Mug of milk
8
3°
88
47
165
Sugar
o 1^6
o
o
ICO
150
Total
25.286
161
429
466
1056
Average calories needed daily by a man employing muscular strength 325°
Number of calories in the noonday meal at the General Electric Schenectady
restaurant 1056 or 32^2%
92
OVER A MILLION MEALS A YEAR
The figures below show that the popularity of this restaurant is
increasing, owing as much to the improved facilities as to war conditions.
Number of
Number of
Year
Employees in
Customers
Schenectady Works
Served Annually
1908
",359
324»377
1909
11,361
467,779
1910
16,462
626,178
I9II
16,107
592,765
1912
17487
611,525
1913
*9>977
710,570
I9H
16,823
580,081
I9IS
15,347
499,706
1916
20,985
707,415
1917 (9 months)
21,000
6l9,20I
The meals for 1917 will probably amount to 800,000, as almost
20,000 meals were being served every week during September 1917.
If this rate is kept up without any further increase the year 1918 will
show over 1,000,000 customers.
CENTRALIZED PURCHASING
It will be inferred that such a restaurant has probably established
favorable relations with markets, packing establishments, fisheries, and
grocers, and that rock-bottom prices should result because of the loyalty
of the supply houses to one of their largest spot cash customers. The
dealers in Schenectady alone sell $50,000 worth of provisions every year
to this restaurant.
The meat is bought direct from a Chicago packing house, and the
fish from Boston. In purchasing the groceries, vegetables, etc., the
policy is followed of first obtaining the best products possible, and then
giving the business to the firms who, service considered, quote the best
prices.
QUANTITY PRODUCTION
All the meats, vegetables, etc., are prepared in the kitchen; the
puddings are made here, and also 700 pies and 600 loaves of bread are
baked daily. By providing facilities for these cooking operations the
cost has been reduced to the minimum.
KITCHEN EQUIPMENT
The kitchen is equipped with aluminum pots, kettles, and other
utensils, for although it has been found that these utensils cost more,
their durability and the ease with which they can be kept clean justifies
this initial extra expense. From the standpoint of the chef the aluminum
kettle will stay hot longer than a copper kettle, and will also produce
93
p -t-^UPTO SECOND FLOOR ^\^Y~ X"\A/~~ \A
f— *DOWU TO FIRST FLOOR
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^ TRAYS HOT TOP TABLES
I (DDDD8888) DDDD8888J P£>™Y
D O
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STEAM TABLES •
•
L
DO
COFFEE URN 5
KITCHEN SPACE
PLAN OF PORTION OF FIRST FLOOR OF SCHENECTADY WORK'S RESTAURANT,
SHOWING ARRANGEMENT OF TABLES, BELT CONVEYORS, KITCHEN,
AND ROUTE OF PATRONS
more satisfactory food. For the same reason aluminum trays are used
in the restaurant; they are light in weight, rugged, and easy to keep clean,
Wherever possible the mechanical processes, such as cutting bread
Fig. 51. SCHENECTADY WORKS RESTAURANT
-"•— TIH14.. .
Fig. 52. PITTSFIELD WORKS RESTAURANT
chopping meat and vegetables, artificial refrigeration, etc., are performed
by electric motors.
Another example of thrift is found in the simple fact that the flour
is not purchased in barrels but in bags; for each flour bag, after being
emptied, furnishes two cleaning cloths for use by the restaurant
employees.
95
RESTAURANT SERVICE
Of the 3500 meals served daily, 500 are breakfasts, 200 are
midnight lunches, 300 are suppers, and 800 meals are delivered to the
Fig. 53. KITCHEN IN SCHENECTADY WORKS RESTAURANT
Fig. 54. ELECTRIC KITCHEN IN PITTSFIELD WORKS RESTAURANT
shops. Thus 1700 meals are served during the noon hour in the main
restaurant building. This situation involves mechanical difficulties
which can be economically met only by mechanical means.
In 1916 the seating capacity of this restaurant was 802 and the
maximum meals possible to serve during the luncheon hour was 950.
In 1917 the seating capacity was increased to mo, and 1400 meals have
96
been served in half an hour. The maximum number which can be served
during the entire noon hour has not yet been ascertained in practice, as
the new system has never been worked to its full capacity. In fact, the
second floor is serving practically as many meals as were served in the
entire building before the improvements were made.
This increase in seating and serving capacity has already been
accompanied by an increase of 1000 meals served per week without any
addition to the restaurant payroll. This largely accounts for the fact
that the restaurant is self-supporting at the extreme prices prevailing
for food products.
ENGINEERING IN RESTAURANT SERVICE
The increase in seating capacity was a simple architectural detail;
but the increased serving capacity required the skill of the engineer for
its solution — a problem of quantity distribution in limited time. The.
essential feature of the new service was the installation of a " serve-self"
system, expedited by four conveyor belts. Before the adoption of the
serve-self plan in 1917, it had been opposed on the grounds that one
slow man can delay a hundred who are waiting the opportunity to serve
themselves. But the conveyors are so arranged that they not only
eliminate all physical efforts in connection with serving oneself, but
they likewise speed up the process and avoid the objection of the slow
man delaying those behind him.
When operating under the old plan, 50 waitresses served approxi-
mately 1000 meals, each waitress delivering food for 20 customers.
With the new arrangement 1700 men serve 1700 meals, thus making
each person serve only one meal. Obviously", one person can serve
one meal quicker and better than one person can serve twenty meals.
The progress of the restaurant patrons is routed so that there is no
retracing of steps or doubling back. The traffic does not interfere
with the serving, as was the case when waitresses were moving back and
forth with heavily loaded trays. Looking at the matter in a different
way, the serve-self system brings the man to the food, whereas the
waitress was compelled under the old system to bring food to 20 men.
MEALS SERVED IN ONE MINUTE
The average time required by a customer, from the pay-as-you-enter
cash desk until he is served and seated, is less than one minute. The
progress is as follows:
Promptly upon the blowing of the whistle at noon, four lines of men
form in front of four cash registers to purchase their luncheon tickets.
Few of us have ever had the opportunity of watching a cashier make
change and sell 29 tickets per minute, yet this is the rate of speed at
97
which each of the four cashiers operates. Anyone who hears the clang
of a cash register bell every half second can appreciate how rapid must
be the food distribution necessary to keep pace. After the men file past
Fig. 55. SCHENECTADY WORK'S RESTAURANT, SHOWING TABLES AND SEATING
ARRANGEMENT
Fig. 56. CONVEYOR BELT AND STEAM TABLES, SCHENECTADY WORKS RESTAURANT
the cash register, they approach at right angles to the end of one of the
four belt conveyors. Adjacent to the nearer end of the belt conveyor the
ticket is exchanged for an aluminum tray which is laid on the conveyor
belt. These belts travel at the rate of 65 feet per minute and allow 15
98
seconds for the customer to select his food. Following his tray he helps
himself to either meat or fish; then potatoes, tomatoes, pudding or pie,
and milk or coffee, all awaiting him on a hot steam table, parallel to the
Fig. 57. DINING ROOM, ADMINISTRATION BUILDING, WEST LYNN WORKS
Fig. 58. FOREMEN'S DINING ROOM, WEST LYNN WORKS
belt. By this time his tray is within five or six feet of the end of the belt,
where the checker o.k's the contents of his tray.
After removing his tray from the conveyor belt the diner takes it to
his seat. It is perfectly proper to say that he takes it to his reserved seat,
because tickets are only sold up to seating capacity; but the capacity
of the restaurant is much greater than would be indicated by the number
99
of seats, because many men have finished their luncheon by 12:10 p.m.,
and the process of removing the dishes begins immediately. At 12:10
service again begins in the restaurant until all comers have been fed.
Fig. 59. DINING ROOM, MAIN OFFICE BUILDING, SCHENECTADY WORKS
Fig. 60. DINING ROOM, HARRISON WORKS
The intermittent plan of service assures a seat for all who have
entered and thus prevents congestion. One of the benefits of this system
is the fact that the trays, dishes, silver, and glasses used by the early
arrivals are promptly washed and used by the late comers. Thus it is
possible for 1700 people to be served within an hour with only 1300 trays,
100
glasses, and sets of silver and uishes. Incredible' as it* may seem, so many
men complete their meal and leave the restaurant in 10 minutes that
their dishes can be washed and dried and used by the second set of
diners who begin serving themselves at 12:10 — ten minutes after the
blowing of the factory whistle.
Fig. 61. ERIE WORKS RESTAURANT
Fig. 62. LUNCH COUNTER, OFFICE BUILDING RESTAURANT, SCHENECTADY WORKS
Each of these conveyors serve from 30 to 40 people per minute, and
since there are four of them 120 to 160 meals can be served each minute
during the noon period. Thus the opportunity has not yet appeared
for testing the new arrangement at its maximum number of meals.
To form "a conception of this service imagine a file of soldiers,
standing at the regulation distance of 40 inches from each other, reaching
up Fifth Avenue, New York, from 26th Street to 5Oth Street; these
1700 men — more than a regiment — could be served in less than 10
minutes.
REDUCTION IN PAYROLL
In 1916, under the old system, 150 employees were required to serve
approximately 950 regular meals. In 1917 the number of employees has
been reduced to 66, and despite this economy 1400 regular meals are
served quicker and better. It is this increased speed of the mechanical
serve-self system which has lessened the unit cost of the noonday
meal to an extent exceeding the fondest expectations of the advocates
of the conveyor installation.
OFFICE BUILDING RESTAURANT
In the basement of the main office building of the Schenectady
Works is another restaurant which served over 500,000 customers
last year. All of the cooking is done electrically, and the following
equipment is installed:
1 6 electric toasters,
2 large electric toasters — hotel size,
13 electric ovens for baking and roasting,
12 electric stoves for boiling, stewing, and grilling,
6 electric coffee urns,
3 electric exhaust fans with ventilating ducts to the roof,
2 electric dishwashers,
I electric hot table,
i electric dough mixer,
I electric potato peeler,
i electric potato masher,
I electric food chopper,
i electric aluminum soup kettle — the largest electric kettle
ever manufactured,
i electric machine for ice and refrigeration.
With such modern equipment as this the cuisine is of the best.
This restaurant is not only of great convenience to the office employees,
but it provides a ready and agreeable means of entertaining visitors and
customers.
LYNN WORKS
At the Lynn Works there are four restaurants. One of these is
located in the Administration Building, where the department heads,
engineers, and other office employees have their noonday meal. In
102
another building is the foremen's dining room, which is patronized also
by the foremen's assistants, clerks, etc. There is also a lunch room
serving meals on the serve-self plan, which can accommodate from
1500 to 2000 employees during the noon hour. In the West Lynn Works
there is a girls' cafeteria serving soup, light sandwiches, ice cream, and
hot cocoa. In all of these restaurants the same quality of food is served
to all.
PITTSFIELD RESTAURANT
At the Pittsfield Works the restaurant conditions are somewhat
different. Owing to the proximity of the homes of many of the employees
Fig. 63. FACTORY RESTAURANT, WEST LYNN WORKS
the demand for meals is not so great as in the case of some of the other
factories. However, as electric cooking devices form an important part
of the product manufactured at the Pittsfield Works, it was found
desirable to equip a small restaurant where electric cooking devices
could be shown in actual operation and where a first-class meal could be
served at practically cost.
The Pittsfield restaurant is furnished with a large electric kitchen,
the ranges, bake ovens, broilers, and toasters being operated electrically.
The meat cutters, dishwasher, potato peeler, and refrigerating equipment
are all driven by electric motors.
HARRISON LAMP WORKS
Due to space restrictions at the Harrison Works three types of
service are rendered. There is an office and staff dining room accommo-
dating 125 employees, where a substantial course dinner is served at
103
noon. A factory cafeteria is maintained, serving from 200 to 400
people, and a considerable number of meals are delivered on trays to
manufacturing departments.
The food service is identical in all cases and it is sold at the lowest
possible prices, the average cost per person being under sixteen cents.
Meat and potatoes, with bread and butter, for instance, cost the employee
ten cents; ice cream cones, three cents; milk and soup, two cents, etc.
AT THE OTHER PLANTS OF THE COMPANY
All of the other Works of the Company have ample restaurant
facilities, but those described are typical and further descripcion would
only lead to repetition.
104
CHAPTER VIII
THE APPRENTICESHIP COURSES
One of the problems facing most boys of 16 who are trying to choose
a profession is:
ist. If I start work now I cannot get a good education.
2nd. If I get a good education I cannot start work now.
As a matter of fact, they can do both.
Many boys feel discouraged because they cannot go to college for
four years. It is a mistake for them to think that such an education is
absolutely necessary in order to get along well in the world.
Thomas A. Edison, the greatest inventor of all time, and a man
whose inventions and engineering work represent nearly $8,000,000,000
invested capital in this country, never went to college.
Herbert Spencer, one of the greatest scientists and philosophers
that ever lived, was a practical mechanical engineer and inventor, but
he was not a college man.
Also, the following world-famous inventors, engineers, and scientists
were not college men:
Sir Henry Bessemer, inventor of Bessemer steel process.
Benjamin Franklin.
Robert Fulton, inventor of the steamboat.
Sir Hiram S. Maxim, explosives and firearms.
Hudson Maxim, explosives and firearms.
Henry L. Doherty, power plant financier and manager.
Michael Faraday, scientist and early electrical experimenter.
Alessandro Volta, scientist and early electrical experimenter.
Elihu Thomson, electrical inventor.
James Watt, steam engine inventor.
James Buchanan Eads, builder of the great bridge at St. Louis.
Isaac M. Singer, sewing machine inventor.
Elias Howe, sewing machine inventor.
William Herschel, famous scientist and astronomer.
Thomas H. Huxley, scientist.
Samuel Colt, inventor of the Colt system of firearms.
Henry Ford, intensive manufacturer.
Cyrus Hall McCormick, inventor of agricultural machinery.
Edward Weston, electrical instruments.
Alfred Bernard Nobel, inventor of dynamite.
John Tyndall, scientist.
Richard J. Catling, inventor of the Catling gun.
John Ericsson, inventor of torpedoes, submarines, and monitors.
In this chapter we will describe how boys may obtain a four-year
job now, and at the end of the term, in addition to having received a
good practical education, will have earned approximately $3,000. What
is perhaps more important still, they will have learned three important
things which are not taught in college, viz.: First, the value of a dollar;
second, the independence which comes from earning one's own living;
and third, the strength of character developed by working with men.
The usual college student does not receive pay while he is being
educated, but the members of the General Electric apprentice courses
are regularly paid while they are being educated. In these courses the
young boys of America have had created for them a superb opportunity
to learn to do by doing, and at the same time learn to do by being taught.
It is not generally known that the General Electric Company has spent
on its apprentice departments in six factories, east and west, close to
$750,000 in buildings, machinery, tools, instruments, class rooms, and
laboratory equipment, where boys 16 years and up are initiated into
the wonderful electrical manufacturing industry.
140
130
120
I/O
100
50
20
10
5000
6000
0 1000 2000 3000 4000
Annual Earnings in Dollars.
CURVE SHOWING PRESENT EARNINGS OF G-E APPRENTICE GRADUATES
FROM LYNN WORKS
Boys should appreciate that what they learn in practical work
they can use right away, and at the end of the four-year course, in addition
to having earned between $1200 and $3200, they will be full-fledged
journeymen, possessed of a trade. The present graduates not only are
capable of earning, but are actually employed in positions now paying
not less than 40 cents an hour — a minimum of $3.20 per day.
We will describe point by point the value to a youth of establishing
relations with a great company, his pay and his play, the classroom
instructions, the homework which is expected of him, the practice
afforded him by which he learns to make drawings and read blue prints,
and the shop work which he does — the great variety of processes he
learns to carry on, upon a great variety of machines, and with a great
variety of tools.
106
SCHENECTADY WORKS
Of the 66 boys graduated in 1916 from the apprentice course at the
Schenectady Works, eight entered the service of the U. S. Government
Fig. 64. CLASS IN MECHANICS, SCHENECTADY WORKS
Fig. 65. INSTRUCTION IN MACHINE WORK AT LYNN WORKS
and 50 are still working for the General Electric Company at not less
than 40 cents — and most of them are earning from 50 to 55 cents —
107
per hour, and working nine hours a day. Think what it means to
these boys, who in 1912 had no trade or profession and only a grammar
school education, and yet who today are making $4.50 a day
as
Fig. 66. CLASS IN MACHINE DESIGN, ERIE WORKS
Fig. 67. CLASS IN MECHANICS, SCHENECTADY WORKS
established journeymen, all-around machinists, special tool makers,
expert molders, full-fledged pattern makers, and technical draftsmen!
Even as important as this is, a further very significant fact is that
108
they are in line for promotion to positions of foremen, bosses, or other
executive positions.
The record of all the young men who were graduated at Schenectady
shows that 65 per cent of them are now employed by the General Electric
Company.
GRADUATES FROM APPRENTICE COURSES
UP TO THE FALL OF 1917
Schenectady 980
Lynn 502
Pittsfield 80
Erie 28
Fort Wayne .' 8
Total 1598
COMPARISON OF EARNINGS
The following table, copied from a trade journal published just
before the war, shows the average wages in cents per hour in various
countries in Europe. A careful study of this will prove the phenomenal
opportunity which now exists in the General ^Electric Company for
boys of 1 6 years to earn from 50 to 55 cents per hour and to become
well-educated technical men in a period of only four years.
AVERAGE WAGES IN CENTS PER HOUR
Machinists
Italy .' 8 to 13
Switzerland • 12 to 17
Germany:
Bavaria 13 to 15
Saxony 13 to 16
Berlin 17.5 to 20
Magdeburg 14.5 to 19
Great Britain 16 to 19
Belgium 11.5 to 18
On piecework these rates may be increased 30 to 50 per cent.
WHAT FOUR YEARS WILL DO
As someone aptly remarked: "Four years is a long while for a boy
to look forward to, but it is a mere trifle for a man to look back upon."
How true this is will be emphasized by considering the results of
four years of combined work and instruction.
LYNN WORKS
Of the 502 graduates from the Lynn Works apprentice course, the
majority of them are still known to their instructors, and accurate
records are kept of their present earnings.
109
Of these graduates:
1 is earning $6,000 per year.
2 are earning $5,000 per year.
5 are earning between $3,000 and $4,000 per year.
15 are earning between $2,000 and $3,000 per year.
38 are earning between $1,500 and $2,000 per year.
137 are earning between $1,200 and $1,500 per year.
63 are earning between $1,000 and $1,200 per year.
2 are earning less than $1,000 per year.
239 — salary unknown.
502
PITTSFIELD WORKS
An investigation of the 82 graduates from the apprentice course
from that factory since 1911 discloses the fact that the earnings of 36
who are working there vary from $1150 up to $1650 per year.
FORT WAYNE WORKS
The Fort Wayne apprentice system began in 1913, and of the first
eight students who were graduated this year, one is with the United
States Navy and seven are employed as tool makers with an income of
between $1300 and $1400 per year.
ERIE WORKS
The apprentice system at the Erie Works was established and
standardized about 1910, and has graduated 28 young men. Of these
seven have left, six others are employed in the United States Army or
Navy, and 15 are with the Company earning from $4 to $6 per day.
We have considered only the wages or salaries of the graduates,
but to obtain a better comprehension of the standing of these young
men the positions held with the General Electric Company should be
pointed out.
POSITIONS HELD BY APPRENTICE GRADUATES
4 are managers or superintendents. 2 are designing draftsmen.
35 are foremen. 2 are gang bosses.
18 are instructors. I is a supervisor.
15 are division leaders or assistants. I is in charge of a section.
13 are tool designers. I is a designing engineer.
5 are inspectors. 102 are in the U. S. Government service,
4 are commercial engineers. mostly in arsenals and navy yards,
3 are assistant engineers. serving as skilled mechanics.
From this it might be reasonably concluded that these young men,
who but a few years previous were in the grammar school, are now well
established in the great electrical manufacturing business as the result
of their industry and their ability to grasp the opportunity afforded
them.
no
STATISTICS
Professor Robert G. Wall, in a recent address, said: "Imagine
100 men, all 25 years old, and all fully equipped mentally and phy-
Fig. 68. CLASS IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, ERIE WORKS
Fig. 69. PATTERN MAKER APPRENTICES, LYNN WORKS
sically. Tell them to seek their fortunes in the world and report back to
you at the age of 65. In 40 years' time 34 of these men will be dead, 56
will be dependent upon relatives or charitable organizations, five will
in
still be earning their daily \. >ur will be wealthy, and one will be
rich. These are facts, statistics ^mpiled by the insurance companies!"
It is quite probable that among one hundred average men, many
of them never thoroughly learn any one trade; some of them probably
Fig. 70. PATTERN MAKER APPRENTICES, SCHENECTADY WORKS
Fig. 71. MOLDER APPRENTICES IN FOUNDRY, SCHENECTADY WORKS
learn a trade which will become obsolete, such as truck driving, a "trade"
which is being displaced by the automobile; or the operation of steam
pumps, a trade being rendered obsolete by the general use of electricity.
112
Among other obsolescent trades are horseshoeing, the trade of the
cobbler, and those connected with kerosene, gasolene, and gas lighting.
It is dangerous for the future of a young man to learn a trade which will
practically cease to exist during his lifetime. For instance, no one would
think of learning the trade of grinding wheat by hand or setting type by
hand, as automatic machines do this kind of work far cheaper and better.
If the horse, the steam engine, and the steam locomotive were to
vanish from the face of the earth we could rest assured that some kind
of machinery would do the work of transportation for the world — and
it is not dangerous to prophesy that machinery in one form or another
will not only carry on our transportation, but will become more and
more used in industry, commerce, and in the home. For this reason the
boy who becomes a mechanic or engineer, whether electrical or me-
chanical, can rest assured that that trade will not become obsolete during
his lifetime — nor for that matter during the lifetime of his great-great
grandchildren.
For example, should all transportation of the future be conducted
by airplane, mechanics would be needed to build air craft by the million,
and probably electrical engineers would build their motors, even though
the power would be supplied to them by wireless. So no matter how
great the progress the world may make along these lines, a young man is
making no mistake in learning the mechanical or electrical trade, both
of which will be needed to turn the wheels of industry and commerce
in the future.
Hence, the young man who enters the electrical profession has a
better opportunity to be self-supporting at the age of 65 than in
almost any other profession imaginable, because America, and, in fact,
the entire world, is entering upon an electrical epoch comparable in
significance with the stone age, the bronze age, the iron age, and the
steam age, through which it has passed successively up to the present.
Therefore, our apprentice graduates need have little fear of being
classed as "dependent" if they studiously pursue the fascinating work
of electrical engineering and production.
CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION
From the illustrations it will be seen that these apprentice courses
include classroom instruction and practical work with intricate machine
tools in modern machine shops, foundries, pattern shops, drafting
rooms, etc. There is nothing more fascinating to the growing youth than
to see this practical work link up with the theoretical classroom instruc-
tion and vice versa. There is no joy in a student's life greater than an
appreciation of the fact that what he learns in the classroom — algebra,
plane and solid geometry, logarithms, trigonometry, descriptive geom-
"3
etry> etc., is of direct assistance to him in shop practice. Here is that
union between the work of the head and the work of the hand which
makes for great industrial nations a place in the commerce and industry
of the world, and which, moreover, has been found so necessary in carry-
ing on the great war.
HOME WORK
The home work of the apprentice pattern maker and machinist
consists in making 28 complete mechanical drawings, including lettering,
dimensions, and details; and they must solve mathematical problems
in order to be able to recite in the classrooms. The draftsman appren-
tices have more home work than either of the two mentioned, as they
are not only required to prepare the 28 drawings, but have to go into
higher mathematics, which is necessary for the calculations of design-
ing engineers.
The apprentice boys in the molder's course may be considered as
the highest paid of all, because in their fourth year they receive the
regular journeyman's wage, which at the present time is 50 cents per hour
for an eight-hour day. There is no home work in this course, but the
classroom work is after working hours, which, in a measure, equalizes
their advantages in the higher rate of wages.
PERSONAL INSTRUCTION
The element of personal instruction in these apprentice courses is
carefully provided for in three ways:
1. Classroom Instruction — The classes are kept small, generally
not exceeding 20 in number, and some classes have less than 12
students. Considerable latitude is allowed in the asking of questions
and the explaining of possible obscure points. In some courses the
classroom instruction is ten hours in every 5O-hour week.
2. Personal Attention in Training Shops — For all beginners in the
trades — molder, pattern maker, draftsman, and machinist — there are
provided special training shops where they are given individual instruc-
tion under competent men engaged for that purpose.
3. Personal Attention in the Shops — As the students become more
advanced they are transferred to the regular shops where their education
is continued under the direction of the foreman of that department and
his assistants.
MASTERING THE USE OF TOOLS AND MACHINERY
At the end of the course in the machinists trade the boy, who slightly
over four years ago was in the grammar school, has become a full-fledged
journeyman and is fully competent to operate the machinery found in
114
the ordinary machine shop, such as drill presses, lathes, planers, shapers,
boring machines, universal grinders, gear cutters, and threading and
Fig. 72. TRAINING ROOM FOR MACHINIST APPRENTICES, FORT WAYNE WORKS
Fig. 73. TRAINING ROOM FOR MACHINIST APPRENTICES, LYNN WORKS
milling machines. In addition to these machines, the boy is able to work
successfully on the bench with file, hammer, and chisel.
Equally skilled in the use of the tools of their trade are the graduates
from the molder's course, pattern maker's course, draftsman's course,
and blacksmith's course. Thus men are trained to design machinery
Fig. 74. TRAINING ROOM FOR MACHINIST AND TOOL MAKER APPRENTICES
ERIE WORKS
Fig. 75. TRAINING ROOM FOR MACHINIST AND TOOL MAKER APPRENTICES
SCHENECTADY WORKS
and perform the necessary calculations; others to make the patterns and
the molds in the foundry and pour in the molten metal, to machine
the castings to dimensions accurate within one thousandth of an inch;
116
while still others are working the steam hammers for making forgings
or delicately tempering certain parts, or making tools for turning out
other parts. Such is the complete scope of the training of apprentices in
electrical manufacturing.
We will omit a detailed description of the practical shop work and
the classroom instruction, as this can be supplied to all inquirers in the
form of a separate illustrated booklet treating the different courses in
detail and showing photographs of the work which the apprentice boys
turn out before their graduation.
SPECIAL COURSES
In addition to the apprentice courses mentioned there are, at the
Lynn Works, other training courses for electrical test men, technical
clerks, cost accountants, and engineering courses of a special nature.
These are maintained to train young men for efficient service in the
various branches of the Company's complex activities, or in power and
lighting stations, transportation companies, and other industrial es-
tablishments using electrical machinery and steam apparatus.
There is also a course for those desiring to learn the business of
installing and erecting electrical and steam machinery. These latter
apprentice courses last but three years and a complete high school
education is necessary in order to be eligible. The graduates of the
electrical testing course are eligible to a special student engineering
course of two years — amounting practically to a postgraduate training.
A novelty in apprentice training has been introduced at Lynn,
known as the co-operative course with the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, in which the students alternate three months with the
"Boston Tech." and three months in the apprentice shops. This course
has been arranged to cover a period of two years.
At the Erie Works, which specializes in the manufacture and design
of electrical railway equipment, considerable stress is laid in the appren-
tice courses on railway equipment; and in the mechanical and electrical
classrooms, in addition to the regular equipment, are air compressors,
cylinders, safety valves, motorman's valves, air tanks, strainers, muf-
flers, etc. — all to familiarize the apprentice with the operation and
fundamental principles of electric passenger and freight locomotives and
trolley cars.
At the Pittsfield Works a new course of a postgraduate nature has
recently been instituted in which young men graduating from the
regular apprentice courses may take up advanced work and enter the
transformer engineering department and the testing department. The
advantage of this graduate course is that it covers a gap which formerly
existed between the apprentice course and the course given the test men.
117
With the former system it was impossible for an ambitious young man,
unless a college graduate, to enter the engineering department. With
the new system he is enabled, if ambitious, to reach any position in the
engineering department. This work brings the student in contact with
the problems associated with the transmission of power for long distances
at high voltage.
NUMBER OF APPRENTICES
DECEMBER, 1917
Lynn 335
Schenectady 302
Pittsfield 113
Erie 85
Fort Wayne 82
Harrison . . .20
Total
EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES
There has been invested in buildings, machinery, tools and class-
room equipment, over $650,000 to provide for the training of apprentices.
This investment has been divided among the six different factories
named in the table. The most elaborate facilities are found at the
Lynn Works, where the machinists' training room alone occupies 3600
sq. ft. in one building, a space 80 ft. wide by 450 ft. long. An avenue
block on New York City is only 200 ft. long, and from this fact and the
view shown in Fig. 10, a conception may be gained of the importance
which this work occupies in the General Electric organization. This
section is filled with intricate machines of all kinds, many of them
automatic, and all with individual electric motor drive. To the average
citizen the operation of any one of these machines would be considerably
more baffling than a Chinese puzzle, and yet the graduates master their
every detail, and soon learn to turn out finished machinery with only
0.7 of I per cent spoilage. They learn to shape cast iron and wrought iron,
steel, brass, copper, and even cotton compressed into gear blanks — all of
these materials are milled, turned, cut, ground, threaded, polished, and
scraped by boys in their teens.
At Fort Wayne, where the apprentice course is a comparatively
new institution, there are already installed 14 lathes, three milling
machines, two shapers, two grinders, one planer, one gear cutter, three
bench lathes, five drill presses, and one arbor press.
At Erie the drawing classroom is provided with machine parts
of every description, which are cut in many different ways showing
cross-sectional views. There is also a complete i-kw. gasolene gener-
ating set.
118
The mechanical and electrical classrooms are equipped with a
machine board arranged with levers, pulleys, scales and beams, an
electrical table with switchboard on which is a lamp bank, resistance
coils, voltmeters and ammeters, rheostat, and a mercury arc rectifier;
Fig. 76. MOLDER APPRENTICES, ERIE WORKS
Fig. 77. APPRENTICE LAYING OUT WORK IN SHOP
and a mechanic's table with apparatus illustrating an inclined plane, a
platform scale, etc. All electrical, air, water, and steam apparatus is
connected up, with all pipes painted standard colors.
119
The Schenectady Works has a slightly different scheme for handling
the apprentice students, as they are more rapidly sent into the shops.
All classrooms have equipment similar to that which is found in the
laboratories of many technical schools. Hoists, inclined planes for
Fig. 78. NOON HOUR, MACHINIST APPRENTICE DEPARTMENT
Fig. 79. MACHINIST APPRENTICES OPERATING LARGE BORING MILLS
SCHENECTADY WORKS
demonstrating the principles of friction, weighted cords for studying
the principle of the resolution of forces, sections of steam engines for
studying valve systems — all these are part of the classroom equipment.
120
ENVIRONMENT
There is much to be said regarding the personal life of the boys in the
apprentice courses, and the character of the cities in which the facfories
are located.
Schenectady, a city of 97,000 population, has no "red light district."
On the contrary, it has plenty of good entertainment which is more
available here than in larger cities. For instance, the American Institute
of Electrical Engineers has meetings twice a month which are addressed by
prominent men such as Simon Lake the submarine inventor, Samuel Insull,
Alex Dow, W. L. R. Emmet, Chas. P. Steinmetz, and other national
authorities on electrical and mechanical subjects. There is a Y. M. C. A.,
Apprentice Alumni Association, Athletic Association, Mutual Benefit
Association, a band and other musical organizations, and social opportun-
ities exclusively for General Electric Company employees. The appren-
tices are eligible and welcome to most of the entertainments arranged.
Lynn, Mass., has a population of 102,000 and is a "dry" city. A
rifle club, bowling club, coin and stamp club, as well as the General
Electric Apprentice Fraternity, the Y. M. C. A., the Apprentice Alumni
Association and band — all afford ample opportunities for social life
among the young men.
Pittsfield, Mass., has a population of 38,000 and is located in the
Berkshire Mountains. The climate is ideal. Various entertainments are
provided by the Mutual Benefit Association, such as amateur theatricals,
field days, picnics, electrical fairs, etc.
Fort Wayne, Ind., has a population of 90,000 and is approximately
100 miles from Chicago, 111., and Detroit, Mich.
Erie, Pa., is located on Lake Erie and has a population of 75,000.
Both Erie and Fort Wayne apprentices have a Club, an Alumni Associa-
tion, and an annual picnic. All of the Clubs mentioned above are com-
posed exclusively of General Electric Company men.
Thus, in these five cities, distributed along a distance of 880 miles
in almost a straight line, there are opportunities for boys in the Middle
West, along the Atlantic Seaboard, and in New England to. work their
way through these educational courses and yet not go too far from home.
Lynn is practically on salt water; Pittsfield is in the Berkshire Mountains;
Schenectady, amid the hills of the Mohawk Valley, lies close to the
beautiful Hudson River and between the Catskill and Adriondack
Mountains; while the city of Erie is situated on Lake Erie, and Fort
Wayne is not far from Lake Michigan.
In all of the Works one or more complete libraries are available to
the apprentices. Opportunity for baseball and boating in summer,
football in the fall, skating and skiing in the winter, and track meets in
the spring — all are open to all apprentices with athletic leanings.
CHAPTER IX
GENERAL EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
In the preceding chapter was described the Apprentice Course of the
General Electric Company for boys of sixteen years and older having
only a grammar school education. In the chapter following this, a
complete description will be given of the Student Engineers' Course for
technical college graduates. But between the elementary apprentice
course and the advanced student engineers' course there exists an
intermediate field in which are many educational facilities, some of them
novel and all of them important. This chapter outlines the various
departmental, vocational, and. night schools, and the college courses,
lectures, publications and libraries constituting these intermediate or
miscellaneous educational facilities that are open to employees of the
General Electric Company.
That the school facilities are being utilized is evidenced by the
record of the number of students registered in Schenectady during the
school year 1917-18.
Testing Department Schools 65
Switchboard Department Schools 49
Evening Vocational Schools 318
Municipal Night Schools 877
Union College Evening Classes 142
Comptometer School 30
Total 1481
DEPARTMENTAL SCHOOLS
To boys from 1 8 to 20 years of age who have a high school education
or equivalent training, but who are unable to go to college, the General
Electric Company offers two specialized educational courses in depart-
mental schools.
TESTING DEPARTMENT SCHOOL
The largest departmental school is the Testing Department where,
at the Schenectady Works, 55 boys are now in attendance. In this
two-year course boys can earn $1350 while being taught, if they attend
regularly and are always on time.
Six months after the students enter the course they are assisting in
measuring electricity a thousand times more accurately than a coal
122
dealer weighs coal, a hundred times more accurately than a grocer
weighs sugar, and ten times more accurately than a jeweler weighs
diamonds. This skill and precision, this familiarity with the tools of the
electrical engineer, is the beginning of the boys' electrical education.
•ig. 80. LEARNING TO USE DELICATE ELECTRICAL INSTRUMENTS
Fig. 81. CALIBRATING AMMETERS AND VOLTMETERS
It is acquired in the Standardizing Laboratory amid agreeable
surroundings.
123
In this laboratory there are 8500 electrical instruments of 500
different types and capacities, and every one is kept accurate within a
fraction of I per cent. The students learn how to select the proper
instruments for various uses; how to calibrate, adjust, and repair them;
Fig. 82. DETERMINING RATIO AND PHASE ANGLE OF INSTRUMENT TRANSFORMERS
Fig. 83. COMMERCIAL TEST OF DIRECT-CURRENT MACHINES
how to use them to measure electrical quantities; and during the six
months that they are being instructed in this work they are being
paid.
124
CLASSROOM STUDIES
The course consists partly of work in the shop where the boys are
under individual instructors, and partly of classroom instruction of
one hour or more each week. These classes include lectures on direct-
and alternating-current theory, and instruction in the use of machines
and instruments for testing and the slide rule for rapid engineering
calculations.
Besides the classes which are attended on the Company's time, the
students are urged to attend night school, the vocational schools, or the
Union College courses, all of which are described later in this chapter.
Fifty out of 65 of these students attend one or more of the night
courses.
The boys spend 50 hours a week in the shops, attend classroom
one hour a week, and are paid for 51 hours per week. For every
week in which their time record is perfect they are paid for 52 hours,
that is, a bonus of one hour's extra pay.
In addition to these classes held during business hours, the boys
are taken on inspection trips through the shops, examinations are held
to test their powers of memory, observation, and reasoning, and special
care is taken to guide their reading in proper channels and to keep them
interested in good literature and engineering books.
For the classroom work there are two instructors, and two instructors
each for the work in the shops and in the Standardizing Laboratory.
SHOP TRAINING
In the armature department the students are not required to wind
armatures or field coils, nor to perform any of the processes of manu-
facture; they are put here solely to become thoroughly acquainted with
the various methods of design, construction, and manufacture in this
department.
Attention is invited here to the difference between the apprentice
course and this departmental school. While an apprentice is working
upon a machine tool as a machinist, these students are studying and
testing the winding of armatures, learning the theory of electric motors
and dynamos, and are grasping far more knowledge regarding electricity
per se than the apprentice does in the same length of time. These students
test the insulation and measure the resistance of field spools, stator coils,
motor rotors, and stators of both alternating- and direct-current machines
of various types. This portion of their training is conducted in many
different buildings, and there is always some new illustration in the
shop of what has previously been discussed in the classroom. This adds
interest to the work and assists the students to a clearer comprehension
of what electricity will do.
SHOP INSTRUCTIONS AND OBSERVATIONS
An important feature of this shop training is the method used to
train the students' powers of observation and develop their memory.
A few of the examination questions, selected at random from the com-
plete list, are given below. It would be an interesting experiment to
find out how many of these questions a college man could answer on the
day of his graduation. Each graduate of the Testing Department's
school must know how to answer over 100 of these questions correctly,
and his knowledge of the subjects is obtained not only in the classroom
from textbooks and blackboard demonstrations, but from the actual
operation of the machine itself, supplemented by information imparted
to him personally by instructors in the shops.
SOME EXAMINATION QUESTIONS REGARDING DIRECT-CURRENT
MOTOR FIELDS
1. What is meant by shunt fields? Series fields? Interpole fields?
Compensated fields? Accumulative fields? Differential fields?
2. What is a ventilated field spool?
3. Why is cast iron, cast steel, or laminated structure used in
different frames?
4. Why are shims used between pole pieces and frames?
5. Why is a pole piece usually of laminated iron?
SOME EXAMINATION QUESTIONS REGARDING ARMATURES
AND COMMUTATORS
1. What kind of material is used in armature cores?
2. Why is it not solid casting or forging?
3. How is the core assembled? What operations are necessary
before ready to receive coils?
4. Why do some armatures have spider construction?
5. Why are holes or ducts provided: At what peripheral speed
do armatures run?
These questions only suggest how the boys can make the most of
their opportunities for obtaining knowledge of electrical designing and
construction details. It is expected that they will become familiar with
the kinds of material used, and how these are made up ready for assembly.
They are encouraged to learn how the materials are treated and why,
how they are assembled in motors, generators, and synchronous con-
verters. The students must be familiar with the forming of armature
and field coils; they must know how these are taped, insulated and
assembled in the machines, and how the machines are connected up with
the electrical circuits from the power stations.
126
All these questions are practical, and the boys are provided ample
time and opportunity — one might say as privileged characters — to ask
any questions they desire on how machines are constructed and why.
"SHOOTING TROUBLE"
The technical term for discovering defects is "shooting trouble."
A trouble shooter is a valuable man in an engineering organization, be
it a telephone, lighting, or traction company, or a large industrial plant.
A prominent commercial engineer once gained an important customer
Fig. 84. MEASURING RESISTANCE OF INDUCTION MOTORS
for his Company because he was able to discover why some of the
factory machinery would not work, and pointed out to the operating
man the slight readjustment that would restore the machinery to full
operation. There is no telling when an intimate knowledge of the interior
construction and working of electrical machinery will solve some problem
in an emergency and help to establish a man's reputation as a thorough-
going electrical expert.
During all this period the classroom shows the "why" of the shop-
work, and the shopwork shows the utility of the classroom theory.
For this shopwork on armatures, motors, commutators, fields, etc., a
year is considered sufficient.
127
SAFEGUARDING ELECTRICAL MACHINERY
The remaining six months of the course are spent partly in testing
safeguarding devices which automatically cut off the electric power from
machinery that is overloaded or badly handled, and partly in the switch-
board department learning how electricity is distributed and controlled.
Engineers harness the waterfalls and make them generate electricity;
but it is then necessary for other engineers to harness the electricity
so that it can be transformed, transmitted, distributed, and controlled to
work in the service of mankind.
Fig. 85. LEARNING HOW TO TEST A MOTOR ARMATURE
Another feature of the classroom work is the explanation of the
workings of electric circuits. The boys are taught how direct and alter-
nating current passes through the wires; how electricity may be sent in
one direction to one machine where it will do one duty; and how, by the
mere turning of a switch, it can be sent hundreds of miles in another
direction to do duty on another kind of machine. Thus the boys obtain
what may be called a practical working knowledge of electricity and
electrical machines, and the general principles of safeguarding and
controlling that wonderful power with which we can accomplish so much
for mankind.
128
HIGH VOLTAGE WORK
In testing insulation pressures as high as 100,000 volts are finally
employed by these boys, and the safety precautions connected with this
work are thoroughly learned through personal instruction and experience.
ROUTINE TEST
After this two years' course has been completed, the boys are
started as routine test men for six months. Regular and prompt attend-
Fig. 86. INSTRUCTION IN TESTING ROTOR OF ALTERNATOR
ance during this additional period increases the high school graduate's
total earnings to #1765 — all within two and one half years after his
start in the electrical industry!
In the routine test the boys are taught how to wire up machinery
to the controllers and the line, and to test such apparatus as compen-
sators and controllers for steel mill motors and mine hoists; how to set
up and, operate the controlling devices of electric trains, as well as of
machines for transforming one kind of electricity into another entirely
different kind of electricity. During this advanced six months' course
129
the weekly classroom work is continued as before. The operation of
machines is demonstrated in test, and then inspection trips are taken
to show the actual performance in service of the motors, controllers,
and the various devices which have been studied and tested in the
preceding months.
After this schooling, these young men are given a final examination
and those who pass become regular test men at increased pay. After an
additional year of testing, of a more advanced and expert order, they are
then ready for work in the engineering or commercial departments, or
for construction on the road, or for engineering or commercial work in
the various district offices of the Company in the United States and
abroad.
SWITCHBOARD DEPARTMENT SCHOOL
Another school is conducted for the young men of the testing and
inspection sections of the Switchboard Department, and is called the
Instruction Course for Switchboard Department Test Men. Those
who have been accepted for this course, but who have not actually been
graduated from high school, are expected to attend some of the night
schools mentioned later in order to get instruction in the indispensable
preparatory mathematics.
On January i, 1918, 40 young men were registered in this instruc-
tion course. The curriculum is quite rigid and provides for two hours
each week of classroom instruction on the Company's time. Every
student must prepare the work required and master the subjects given.
If a man misses two or more lectures in succession without a satisfactory
excuse, he will be automatically dropped from the rolls. If he is absent
from four or more classroom sessions during the entire course, he must
pass a special examination on the work missed. The engineers in charge
of these classes, however, are available an extra hour every week for
giving advice, answering questions, and consulting with the students.
In the first six months of classroom work the students are given
simple problems teaching the elements and applications of electricity,
and the elements of trigonometry. After passing an examination on
this work, they enter a second six months' class dealing with problems of
electrical measurements, switchboard design and mechanisms, and
applications of alternating current.
After passing examination on these subjects the students enter a
third class, likewise of six months, and take up the study of switchboard
materials, methods of machining, specifications, stocks, business organi-
zation, the essentials of economics and the fundamentals of salesmanship.
Following graduation from this third class, they are prepared to enter
the work of the Switchboard Department. Any student who after two
130
years has not shown particular aptitude or liking for switchboard work
will, on request, be shifted to the routine test in the Testing Department.
The salaries earned by the students in this course, and the number
of hours which they work and attend classes, are identical with the
schedule of the Testing Department's preparatory school.
Of course, it is evident that neither of these courses begins to give
the equivalent of a college education with its training in advanced
mathematics, mechanics, languages, hydraulics, chemistry, and
cultural studies; but after having satisfactorily completed the work
laid out, these students will have obtained a practical working knowledge
of electricity and electrical apparatus, comparable probably to that of a
man entering his senior year in the average technical college.
Everything else being equal, the high school graduate with aptitude
for mathematics will ultimately be given greater responsibilities and
will earn more in the electrical industry than will those who lack the
high school training. Although some apprentices, exceptional men, have
made extraordinary headway, the average high school man will fare
better than the average apprentice. The young men who creditably
complete these two courses and continue their studies should rise to
positions as designing, construction, and commercial engineers, fre-
quently with apprentice graduates working under their direction. The
mathematics which the students obtain in the high school becomes a
real asset in future years.
To sum up: The young men learn to handle expertly a great variety
of electrical instruments and apparatus, and understand their appli-
cations in industry; they learn in classes the theory of electricity; and
at all times they are in touch with a great organization where they gain
first-hand knowledge of mechanical and electrical engineering and
manufacturing processes.
Other classes for high school graduates are conducted in the Lynn,
Erie, Fort Wayne, and Pittsfield Works. Young men with a complete
high school education who have an aptitude for technical work, may
obtain training which will fit them to become competent electrical and
steam turbine testers, manufacturing and electrical engineers, or cost
accountants. The classroom education is of an advanced character, and
deals with advanced algebra, plane trigonometry, analytic geometry,
mechanics and mechanisms, mechanics of material, magnetism and
electricity, machine and dynamo design, heat and heat engines,
chemistry and metallurgy, mechanical drawing, and business English.
After a two months' trial period, during which they receive regular
compensation, those students are selected who have the requisite charac-
teristics.
Training courses for electrical test men, technical clerks, and cost
accountants require three years, and afford extended experience in
assembling various classes of apparatus. Where practicable, a short
assignment in the cost and production departments is included.
These courses are maintained to train young men for efficient service
in the various branches of the Company's complex activities, or in power
and lighting stations, transportation companies, and other industrial
establishments using electrical machinery and steam apparatus; or for
those desiring to learn the business of installing and erecting electrical
and steam machinery.
The advantage of these courses is that they cover a gap which
formerly existed between the apprentice course and the test course
given to technical college graduates.
GENERAL EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES
The vocational schools offer schooling in General Electric methods.
They are open to all with a good education. The vocational schools at
Schenectady are conducted inside the Works, are exclusively for em-
ployees, and convene immediately after the close of the working day.
They are under the joint jurisdiction of the Company and the City
Board of Education. The tuition and use of the books cost nothing if
the students attend 80 per cent of the sessions.
The courses of study offered in the Schenectady vocational schools
are as follows:
Business Arithmetic Accountancy and Business Administration
English Touch Typewriting
Commercial Law Stenography
Elementary Bookkeeping Phonograph Dictation
Short Course in Accountancy
Last year 217 students enrolled, of whom 27 were girls. That the
students meant business is shown by the fact that two thirds of last
year's students attended 80 per cent or more of the sessions, and 90
students satisfactorily passed in the subjects studied. The average age
of the students registered was 25 years, although the minimum age limit
is 16 years. Nine courses were offered in 1917-1918, and a total of 318
employees enrolled.
Further information relative to these courses — the subjects treated,
books furnished, time and grade required — is given in a booklet published
annually.
The Fort Wayne Works have almost parallel courses in their
evening classes, and in addition have courses in factory routine and in
English exclusively for girls. The Indiana University has an extension
at Fort Wayne, so that any employee who desires can take a course in
mathematics, economics, foreign languages, and advanced English.
132
MUNICIPAL NIGHT SCHOOLS
Still other classes, to all of which General Electric employees are
eligible, are held in the evening at three Schenectady Schools and at the
High School. Tuition and use of books in all of these courses are free of
charge to all students. Partly because of encouragement from the
Company, 877 employees enrolled — two thirds of some of the classes
being composed of General Electric employees.
Fig. 87. SWITCHBOARD DEPARTMENT LECTURE
The elementary courses are for boys between the ages of 14 and 16
years who, under the Compulsory Education School Law, must attend
50 nights a year. English, spelling, civics, history, and arithmetic are
studied here.
The High School classes are held two to four nights a week and
provide the following courses:
Spanish
French
German
Algebra
Plane and Solid Geometry
Trigonometry
Mechanics
Mechanical Drawing
Architectural Drawing
Shop Mathematics
United States History
Applied Electricity
Electrical Engineering
Chemistry
(For girls only):
Cooking
Dressmaking
Millinery
Physical Training
Also at the High School there is a three-year commercial course,
meeting four evenings a week, which is the equal of the average night
business college, and covers bookkeeping, business arithmetic, English,
business writing, shorthand, and typewriting.
COLLEGE COURSES
UNION COLLEGE
In the 1917-1918 college year, 85 per cent of the total number of
evening students were General Electric employees — 142 having enrolled.
Students are here afforded the opportunity of studying under
instructors and professors in a real college atmosphere and learn higher
mathematics, physics, chemistry, elementary electricity, electrical
engineering, Spanish, French, and advanced English.
Fig. 88. TESTING SWITCHBOARD CIRCUIT BREAKERS AND RELAYS
The Company refunds half of the tuition fees of those employees
whose attendance record is 80 per cent.
Union College, established in 1795, *s ric^ m traditions, and its
standing among universities is of the highest order.
Attractive booklets describing these Union College courses are
published annually by the General Electric Company and circulated
among the employees.
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION COURSE AT LYNN
At the Lynn Works a university extension course is conducted
under the direction of the Massachusetts State Board of Education.
The Company encourages the employees to enroll in these courses, which
are advertised within the Works. The subjects offered are practical
electricity, practical applied mathematics, commercial correspondence,
and gas and oil engines.
Evening classes are conducted at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Boston University and Wentworth Institute and other
schools in Boston, which are attended by employees of the General
Electric Works at Lynn, seventeen miles distant.
EVENING WORK AT PITTSFIELD
The Pittsfield Works conducts a series of evening classes attended
by over ico employees. They embrace instruction in algebra, geometry,
elementary drawing, advanced electricity, advanced mathematics,
Fig. 89. STUDYING ILLUMINATION AT PITTSFIELD WORKS
advanced drawing, jig and tool design, elementary electricity, me-
chanics, English, and a course in Spanish.
ADVANCED ELECTRICITY AT PITTSFIELD
From the class in advanced electricity the past year, two men were
promoted to testing work — work formerly done by college men — and a
third man from the evening classes was selected as an assistant to the
head of the educational department.
It will be noted from the accompanying photographs that the
equipment provided for the students' laboratory work is similar to that
used in the regular laboratory and in testing work. Some trigonometry,
analytical geometry, and the first principles of calculus are taught in the
advanced electricity course; and altogether a very good idea of alternating
current theory is obtained.
As an illustration: In the Engineering Department is a young man
who in three years' time has passed from office boy to junior engineer.
During this time he moved about from position to position in the shop,
where he engaged in regular factory operations and at the same time
took advantage of all the evening classes in electricity and mathematics.
At present over 100 students are enrolled in the evening technical
classes — in fact, about the same number of students as are enrolled in
the apprentice courses. A fee of $5 is charged for these classes, but the
fee is refunded with a passing mark of 75 per cent.
Fig. 90. MECHANICAL DRAWING CLASS
LECTURES
DEPARTMENTAL LECTURES
Primarily for their technical and commercial educational value, the
departmental lecture system was introduced in the various factories
and district offices; and a happy by-product of these lectures has been
their effect on the esprit de corps. Many of these lectures are of such
importance and value that they are reprinted for the confidential in-
formation of the General Electric engineers and the commercial men
throughout the world. Department managers, section heads, and
prominent men from other departments deliver these lectures.
The attendance at the Switchboard Departments' lectures is drawn
from the design'ng, requisition, commercial, and production divisions
of the office force, and from the foremen and assistant foremen of the
factory force. The lectures describe the details of the Company's organi-
zation, the relation of the Switchboard Department to the organization,
136
and the manufacture, application, and operation of the equipment
manufactured by the department or controlled by switchboards.
Lectures on strictly engineering subjects are delivered once a week
for six months to the newly employed engineers, most of whom are
college graduates and have been through the test course.
All members of the Power and Mining Engineering Department
are expected to attend the weekly lectures of the department, which
cover such subjects as production, patents, advertising, sugar mills,
voltage regulators, transformers, rotary converters, lightning arresters,
high tension bushings, and electric furnaces.
The Research Laboratory lecture is held weekly through the winter.
It is intended primarily for employees of the department, but other
employees are welcome. The purpose of the lectures is to acquaint all
members of the laboratory with what is being done in the field of research,
both within and without the laboratory. They embrace such subjects as:
The Second Law of Thermodynamics; The Theory of Heterogeneous
Reactions; Spectrum Series; Over-voltage; Radium Work of the Bureau
of Mines; Magnetic Amplifier for Radiotelephony; Mechanism of Cell
Permeability; X-ray and Cancer; X-ray Spectra; Permeability and Cell
Life; (Constitution of Rubber Molecule; Absolute Zero; Liquefaction of
Air and Separation of Constituents; Chemical Reactions at Low Pressures;
X-ray and Crystals; Ionization;Ferro-magnetic Alloys; Physical Chemistry
of the Blood; Spectroscopy of Extreme Ultra-violet; Dielectric Phenom-
ena; Luminescence; The Beaver as an Engineer.
The Publication Bureau also has weekly lecture courses for all
members of the department, the object of which is to acquaint the mem-
bers of the Bureau with the activities of the different sections, and to
consider ways of co-operating with other departments of the Company
in the preparation of publications, bulletins, handbooks, technical letters,
and all the multiplicity of publications required by a large manufacturing
organization such as the General Electric Company.
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS
Another prominent educational feature in the various cities where
large factories of the General Electric Company are situated is the
bi-weekly section meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engi-
neers. The Lynn Section, with over 1600 members, is the largest of the
31 sections of this Institute, and the Schenectady Section is second
largest, its membership numbering approximately 1200.
Anyone interested in the study, manufacture, or application of
electrical apparatus and resident in the vicinity, is eligible to membership.
The local section is, therefore, open to all factory and office employees
of the General Electric Company.
Last year's addresses at the Schenectady Section included the
following papers:
The Electrically-driven Gyroscope and Its Uses.
Regulation of Public Utilities.
The Illumination of the Panama-Pacific International Exposition.
Railway Electrification.
Paper Industry.
Electrically Driven Ship Propellers.
The Engineer at the Battle of Verdun.
The Art and Science of Illumination.
Production of Steam from Coal.
The "Amphibious" Submarine.
High-speed Electric Locomotives.
Niagara Power or a Real Coal Shortage.
Other associations which have sections or branches in Schenectady
and hold frequent meetings are: The American Society of Mechanical
Engineers, The Society of Engineers of Eastern New York, The National
Electric Light Association, The Illuminating Engineering Society, The
American Chemical Society, and The Edison Club.
PUBLICATIONS
A great variety of publications are available, many of which are
for the exclusive use of the employees.
The technical letters are confidential and are not for public distri-
bution.
Instruction books are issued showing how electrical machinery
should be shipped; how the foundations should be prepared; how the
machines should be assembled and set up in the field; and how all the
electrical connections should be made.
Illustrated bullet ns are available in which are described and
pictured the thousands of applications of electricity to hundreds of
different industries. For example, in the paper and pulp industry, the
various uses of electricity are described and illustrated, from the cutting
of the logs in the forest to the completion of the roll of paper ready
to ship to the newspaper office. The function of the electric motor in
cutting, grinding, chipping, and beating the wood to a pulp, and
changing this watery pulp into finished paper, are interestingly and
clearly described.
Throughout all the Works of the General Electric Company are a
thousand bulletin boards. Every week a new safety bulletin is posted
showing means of preventing accidents and the sad results of carelessness.
The safety work of the General Electric Company was described in the
chapter: "Prevention of Accidents."
138
LIBRARIES
Some nations know how to amass wealth, but their economic system
is unable to distribute it properly.
Some libraries are storehouses where knowledge is amassed — neatly
segregated, indexed, classified, and then merely stored. Other libraries
not only store knowledge but condense it, fabricate it into convenient
forms, do it up in attractive packages, and distribute it to a selected list
of "ultimate consumers."
MAIN LIBRARY
The General Electric main library at Schenectady is among the
latter class. In fact, this library is a tool of the industry, actually serving
the factory, the department heads, research investigators, scientists,
Fig. 91. A CORNER IN THE MAIN SCHENECTADY LIBRARY
commercial, production, and accounting departments with the latest
news from current periodicals, transactions of scientific and engineering
societies, and reviews and translations of books printed in all languages.
It might be said that this library combines the functions of the
editorial and circulation departments of a newspaper, for it reads and
selects the news, featuring the important points, and then circulates the
information to its subscribers. A semi-monthly Library Notice informs
all recipients regarding the contents of new articles and books. In
this sense the Library is education plus — it becomes a regular service
department as opposed to a place for semi-occasional "little journeys"
of an educational nature. In these days of modern* business only rare
i39
individuals go to the library — pressure of twentieth century life demands
that the library be brought to the individual.
Our modern technical librarian can now give us just what we want,
when we want it, in a convenient form, and in hundreds of cases without
our asking for it. Hence the modern industrial library has ceased to be a
thing apart from the business of the plant; it is no longer a disregarded
adjunct. From a storage vault it has become a manufactory, changing
the raw material into the accessible finished product.
RESEARCH LABORATORY LIBRARY
Here also the service work is not limited to the mere business of
bulletin board notices of new books received, new periodicals on file, and
current societv business and conventions: the accessions are read and
Fig. 92. RESEARCH LABORATORY LIBRARY AT SCHENECTADY
digested. In some cases the complete article is sent to, or called to the
attention of, interested individuals. Where requested, digests or trans-
lations are made and are sent to those engaged in lines of work kindred
to the subjects treated in the new books and periodicals. This library
has a file of lantern slides showing tabulated data, formulae, photographs
or drawings, novel installations and apparatus. These lantern slides
can be chosen as needed for lectures.
The up-to-date corporation librarian has the intelligence to select
important matter, and the initiative to authorize reprints for distribution
within the organization; the authority to approve the appropriation and
a knowledge of wrho would be interested in the subjects treated.
140
It requires intelligence of a high order to prepare bibliographies of
such subjects as the latest developments throughout the world in the
nitrogen industries, in X-rays, high explosives, or submarines, and
separate the wheat from the chaff!
The Library has its commercial aspects as well. The time of high-
salaried experts need not be taken up in answering questions when com-
plete and detailed information can be obtained from the specialized
librarian. Inquirers do not consume hours of the time of "the man who
knows," at $25 a day, when more exhaustive and detailed information
can be obtained from books standing idle on the library shelves. Modern
corporation life has taught us not to ask the librarian for a book on
chemistry when we desire information on boronized copper, for we save
time by inquiring definitely about boronized copper. If we wish to read a
paper on pure electron discharge in radio-telephony, delivered before a
society, we ask for that paper and not for the mailing address of the
society in New York or Chicago; for the pamphlet is on file and possibly
a score of extra copies, for—mirabile diciu! — our demand has been
anticipated!
These facilities could be elaborated to include the Boston Public
Library, only 16 miles from the West Lynn Works; and the New
State Library at Albany, with a capacity of 2,coo,ooo volumes, is only
17 miles from Schenectady. Many other small libraries are omitted
from this account as they are too specialized to be of general interest.
In many respects a similar account could be written of the edu-
cational facilities and libraries in the other plants of the General Electric
Company.
Books a-nd
Bound Pamphlets
Periodicals
Current
Periodicals
Main General Electric Library (Schenectady) .... 4,000 800
General Electric Law Library . 4,000
100
^Research Laboratory Library 2,775 I>3°°
Testing Laboratory Library 475
Power and Mining Department Library 190
^Illuminating Laboratory Library 450 4,000
*Consulting Engineering Laboratory Library j 100
*Patent Department. •? ooo 250000
90
IO
20
2
22
^Publication Bureau Data Section 7o°°
Union College Library 51,000
59
Schenectady Public Library 40,000
New York State Library (Albany) 4.28,000 150,000
New York Office 350
158
30
Boston Office 225 75
3i
* Partly confidential.
CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOLS
The leading correspondence schools of the country report enrollments
of Genefal Electric employees totalling 2000.
141
CHAPTER X
THE ELECTRICAL TESTING COURSE
There still exists the type of college man who fancies that the world
is waiting with outstretched arms to receive him, and that his career in
business will be merely coasting pleasantly down from the heights which
he attained at college. Fortunately, in the engineering colleges especially,
this type of man is being succeeded by men having a better outlook —
men who have had practical experience during their summer vacations.
They have few misconceptions regarding the magic power of the sheep-
skin to obtain for them a place in the world without hard work. On the
contrary, more and more they are appreciating that what they learn
with their sleeves rolled up is invaluable to their future success, whether
they are destined to be engineers, executives, or sales managers. And
there is no period of their life upon which they will look back with so
much sentiment and gratitude as upon the days of practical work, when
they learned among other things the democracy of overalls and a flannel
shirt.
This chapter will describe the life of the college graduate who enters
the General Electric Company's Test Course, and will trace the careers
of almost 2200 of those who have completed the training.
The diagram on the opposite page shows that the General Electric
Company's Test Course is an open door to the electrical industry; it
suggests some of the activities for which the men will be especially
trained; and it shows the various fields in which the college graduates
will work out their own destinies.
It might be stated that, just as the temper of steel makes the tool
hold its edge and just as the chemical of the photographer fixes the
picture on the negative, just so does this practical training whet to a
keen edge, fix, indelibly stamp on their memories, and crystalize in
their minds the knowledge of electricity which they gained in their
university training. Or to cite another parallel, it is similar to the
medical student who, as an interne in a great metropolitan hospital,
gets the practice which is necessary in order that he acquire the
technique of his profession.
But before discussing this diagram and describing the careers of
these young men, it would be well to suggest the magnitude of the future
electrical industry and the increasing call for trained men to fill its
responsible executive and engineering positions.
142
w
Wi
r
144
ELECTRIFICATION HAS ONLY BEGUN
Not over a tenth of the possible water power of this country has
been developed; less than I per cent of the steam railroads have been
electrified to date; 500 miles of new track and 1000 new street cars are
put in service annually; 15,000,000 houses are not lighted electrically;
less than I per cent are wired for complete electric service. The electrical
industry was practically born in 1879 when Thomas A. Edison invented
the incandescent lamp, and was put on a commercial basis by Edison's
three-wire system about 1882 — barely a generation ago! Twelve billion
dollars is already invested in the electrical industry in this country. Last
year $23 was spent per capita for electrical service and material. The
annual gross income is over $2,500,000,000. The employees number
approximately 1,000,000. But the money to be spent in the next 38
years and the size of the industry in 1956 stagger the imagination. The
executives and the engineers who will direct the great electrification
corporations of the next generation are in college today — many perhaps
are reading this article.
Referring again to the diagram, attention is invited to the fact
that the test course is indicated as a path between college and business.
The average time required for the college man to traverse this pathway
is 15 months. His average earnings for this time at the Schenectady
Works are #1277.15.
FOREIGN FIELDS
Before fully describing the Test Course let us review the electrical
industry both inside and outside of the Company's organization, and
find what positions are held today by the graduates of the Test Course
in the past — at the same time bearing in mind that when we speak
of the past in the electrical industry, we speak of an absurdly short
space of time. The reader should appreciate that these young men are
scattered over the four quarters of the globe, doing their share in the
fascinating work of electrifying China, harnessing waterfalls in India,
installing electrical drive in sugar mills in the West Indies, substituting
electricity for steam or hand labor in the mines of Alaska and South
Africa, building railways in Australia and refrigerating plants in the
Philippine Islands.
CAREERS OF EX-TEST MEN
It is a difficult matter to make a survey of the careers of these
young men. It was thought that perhaps the best method would be to
ascertain Igpw many of the old test men were members of the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers. By checking one list against the other,
it was found that the names of nearly 1000 graduates appeared on the
membership list of the Institute, with present address, position, and title.
Of this number about 350 hold positions with the General Electric
Company and 122 are in foreign countries. One man remarked upon
glancing over this list: "This thoroughly proves that for the test man
the world is his field and the sky is his limit."
It should be stated in connection with this list (Table V) that many
engineers and executives of the Company are not members of the Na-
tional body of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, but of
local sections existing at Fort Wayne, Pittsfield, Lynn, Schenectady,
Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, and other cities throughout the country.
The field of activity includes: railways, central stations, govern-
mental work, hydro-electrical development, signaling, army and navy,
power transmission, electro-chemistry, manufacturing, and finance.
MINING, STEEL, AND RAILWAY ENGINEERS
Many test men engaged in mining, railway work, and the iron and
steel industry, etc., are members of related societies. For instance, the
list of members of the Association of Iron and Steel Electrical Engineers
shows that 14 former test men are members of this Association, eight
of whom are still with the Company. McGraw's 1917 list of railway
officials (Table I) shows that the following positions are held by General
Electric test men in the electric railway field:
TABLE I
ELECTRIC RAILWAY OFFICIALS FORMERLY GENERAL
ELECTRIC TEST MEN
Presidents 12
Vice Presidents 27
Secretaries 15
Treasurers 18
Auditors 24
General Managers 18
Managers 12
Engineers and Superintendents 42
Inspectors 3
Master Mechanics 6
Purchasing Agents 3
Claim Agents 3
Land Commissioners 3
1 86
TEST MEN IN ENGINEERING DEPARTMENTS
The extent to which test men are employed in the various factories
and district offices of the Company is shown in Table VI, representing
63 General Electric engineering departments. This accounts for
577 ex-test men.
146
Since test men constitute 52 per cent of the engineering personnel,
and probably 90 per cent of the technical force, more than one conclusion
can be drawn:
1st. A large number of ex-test men are employed in the engineering
departments of the General Electric Company.
MINE HOIST EQUIPMENT UNDER TEST
MOTOR GENERATOR TEST IN BUILDING NO. 11 AT SCHENECTADY
2nd. For a college graduate the Test Course is the best if not the
only route by which he can arrive at responsible positions in these engi-
neering departments.
H7
This census, dealing with 63 of the engineering departments, could
be supplemented by another census dealing with 105 or more com-
mercial departments and sections of the Company in the above factories
STEAM TURBINE TEST
TESTING LARGE SYNCHRONOUS CONVERTERS AT SCHENECTADY
and in nearly 100 cities throughout the world. This additional census
has not been made, but a cursory survey apparently justifies the belief
that the percentage of test men in the commercial work of the Company
148
is even greater than in the engineering. And scores of student
engineers enter the Construction, Administrative, and Manufacturing
Departments, Laboratories, etc.
HIGH POSITIONS ATTAINED
Table VII shows the percentage of the Company's officers, managers,
specialists, etc., who passed through the preliminary practical training
in the shops "with their sleeves rolled up."
In addition, there are hundreds of engineers and business men,
ex-test men, all over the country, not with the General Electric Company,
who have branched off into the automobile business, who are proprietors
and managers of power plants and various industries, officers in electrical
jobbing concerns, etc. It would appear, therefore, that the young men
develop versatility as a result of their theoretical and practical education.
COSMOPOLITANISM
The students who enter this course are practically a picked crew
from the graduates of over 100 engineering colleges in the United
States — north, south, east, and west.
A total of 257 students have been accepted from colleges in over
22 foreign countries. These foreign graduates can be grouped as
follows:
Students
China 38
South American Countries 34
England 30
Japan 29
India 18
Australia 17
South Africa 17
Canada 10
West Indies 10
France 6
Other Countries 48
Total 257
Therefore, it may be said without exaggeration that the test men
are a cosmopolitan, highly educated group of young men.
COLLEGE PROFESSORS AND INSTRUCTORS
The instructive value of the Test Course is indicated by the fact
that instructors and professors from many technical colleges have
found it of advantage to spend their summer vacations in the Testing
Department of the Company, in order to keep in touch with practical
manufacturing methods and to learn more of the design and operating
characteristics of the latest electrical machinery and appliances. A
number served in test regularly after graduation.
149
THE TESTING DEPARTMENT
The Testing Department is as distinctly a department of the
Company as is the Production, Purchasing, or any other; and its work
must be conducted on a strictly manufacturing basis — time and cost
records being kept and compared with existing standards.
The great outstanding difference between the Testing Department
and other departments is that it occupies space in a great many different
buildings and deals with an enormous variety of apparatus. Hence, it is
ideal for developing a knowledge of the Company's products. In Schenec-
tady, for instance, the Testing Department has permanent headquarters
in 14 different locations distributed throughout the Works. The reason
for this scattering is that the apparatus is tested where it is manu-
factured. In a typical building the rough castings are received at
one end, where they are machined; they are assembled at about the
middle of the building and, after being tested, are painted near the far
end of the building and are boxed and loaded on railroad cars inside the
extreme end of the same building. It is thus seen that the men in the
Testing Department are under the same roof where complete manu-
facturing processes are conducted.
TABLE III
KV-A. CAPACITY OF APPARATUS USED IN TESTING
Motors
Generators
Transformers
Total
Kv-a.
Power
Supply
Schenectady
32,000
78,000
3O,OOO
I4O,OOO
37,000
Fort Wayne
3-I63
1,535
2,552
7.250
4,325
Erie
5.II7
3,595
4,943
13,655
9,oco
Lynn
3,684
4,724
4,955
13,363
12,000
Sprague
1,500
300
200
2,000
Pittsfield
12,000
30,000
29.000
7I,OOO
7,200
Total
157,4.64.
Il8,IC4
7i,6co
247,268
6Q £2s
MAGNITUDE OF THE TESTING DEPARTMENT
The Testing Department of the General Electric Company occupies
732,486 sq. ft. of space. This area in down-town New York would cover
nearly 15 city blocks, each the size of that occupied by the Equitable
Building, which is bounded by Broadway, Nassau, Cedar, and Pine
Streets. It is 29 per cent greater than the entire rentable area of the
Woolworth Building. Or in Chicago, this space is 238 per cent as large
as the entire rentable area of the Railway Exchange Building on Michigan
Avenue and Jackson Boulevard.
150
This space is distributed among the different factories as follows:
TABLE IV
Sq. Ft.
Schenectady 428,458
Pittsfield 64,000
Fort Wayne 47>°7°
Lynn 131,958
Erie 50,000
Sprague . 1 1,000
Total 73M85
ENORMOUS CAPACITY OF TESTING APPARATUS
Would you believe it possible that the General Electric Company
should set aside and reserve merely for testing purposes electrical
TESTING LARGE CONVERTERS
apparatus totaling almost 250,000 kv-a.? This statement is, however, a
conservative figure, since it does not include the power stations — a
certain portion of which is used for testing purposes. The capacity of this
apparatus is half as great as all of the power generating apparatus at
Niagara Falls.
Table III shows the capacity of apparatus used for testing.
MACHINES HELP TO TEST EACH OTHER
Inspection of Table III brings out some very interesting facts-
For instance, at Pittsfield the power station has only one tenth the
capacity of the Testing Department! The total capacity of apparatus
reserved for testing in each factory is greater than the capacity of its
power supply. This situation is largely due to the "feeding back"
method, by which two motors, both under test, are used for testing
each other — one running as a generator and the other as a motor, tflus
saving floor space, power, and generating capacity. By this last "feeding
back" method, testing can be done on an enormous scale with the use
of a comparatively trifling amount of coal, as the machines being tested
supply most of the electricity required for testing them, only the losses
being supplied from the power station.
OPERATING KNOWLEDGE
What may be considered as a by-product of the knowledge gained
in the Testing Course at the Schenectady, Lynn, and Fort Wayne Works
is the fact that there are no operators to take charge of this huge aggrega-
STUDENT ENGINEERS TESTING MARINE ENGINE SETS
tion of electrical testing apparatus, because the student engineers
themselves operate the machines which are used for testing the Com-
pany's product. With this operating experience, a graduate of the Test
Course can enter almost any main station, substation, or switchhouse
and take charge of its electrical operation.
The efficiency of modern electrical protective devices is well demon-
strated here, for all this apparatus runs year after year under varying
conditions, in charge of a shifting crew of student engineers (excepting
the Pittsfield room shown in the photograph).
WIDE VARIETY OF WORK
The fact is not as generally understood as it should be, that the
student engineers are continually shifted from one kind of work to
another, and are consulted regarding the sort of work they desire to
specialize in and also what class of testing they desire to take up month
after month.
For example, if a student engineer has expressed a preference for
turbine work, he can spend 50 per cent or more of his time testing large
and small turbo-generator sets. Turbines are tested non-condensing
and with vacua up to 29 inches, and the student becomes familiar with
the properties of steam ranging from 200 degrees superheat down to
20 per cent moisture.
STEAM ENGINEERING
Turbines for the latest power plants operate with steam at 250
degrees superheat and 29 inches vacuum on the exhaust. The students
gain a working familiarity with, boiler steam that is hot enough to melt
tin and get a knowledge of the types of piping, fittings, gaskets, valves,
etc., required to resist such temperatures.
Among the variations in turbine testing are the ship propulsion units
being manufactured. Some of these are being fitted with the Alquist
flexible reduction gears, while others employ direct electric drive — both
developments of the Company.
In connection with the testing of generating apparatus, attention is
directed to the photographs of turbine and marine steam engine testing,
which show a great amount of high pressure and low pressure piping to
turbines, engines, condensers, pumps, etc. One of the surprises in store
for the student engineer who enters this course is the vast amount of
information which he secures in regard to steam. With the central
stations calling for higher and still higher efficiencies, the General
Electric Company has co-operated with the boiler industry on the one
hand and the condenser industry on the other — to produce higher
pressures and higher superheat from the one, higher vacua from the
other, and greater capacity from both.
The student engineer lives in an atmosphere of practical thermo-
dynamics while he is in contact with turbine and marine engine tests.
An indication of the scale on which this mechanical-electrical phase of
the Company's testing has been developed is shown by the fact that
recently a condenser equipment was placed in Building 60 at an expense
of $300,000, and a steam equipment is being installed in Building 49 at a
further expense of $200,000 — both solely for testing purposes. Such is
practical turbine testing today. In comparison with this work the little
jet and barometric condensers in the old college "lab" are but cunning
toys.
An idea of the variety of apparatus operated and tested by these
young men is given by the following schedule:
APPARATUS TESTED BY STUDENT ENGINEERS
(SCHENECTADY COURSE)
Building n — Motor-generator sets up to 500 kw., synchronous converters, planer panel
equipment, lighting generators, government motors, developmental work.
Building 12 — Railway motors, mill, mine, and crane motors.
Building 18 — Induction motors up to 150 h.p., direct-current motors and generators, motor ~
generators up to 300 kw.
Building 60 — Steam turbine alternating-current and direct-current generating sets, ship
propulsion turbines for gear and electric drive.
Building 40 — Induction motor starting compensators.
Building 52 — Industrial control devices, field and starting rheostats, control panels, industria
appliances.
Building 16 — Motor generators above 500 kw., synchronous converters 500 kw., frequency
changers 503 kw., large waterwheel generators, synchronous motors, steel mill equip-
ment, flywheel sets, double-speed tests.
Building 52 — Induction motors above 150 h.p., speed-regulating sets variable speed
alternating-current motors.
Building 60 — Train control panels, mill and mine hoist panels, controllers — all kinds, con-
tactors and insulators.
Building 61 — Efficiency tests on turbines, steam flow meters, special tests on large apparatus
from other buildings.
Building 32 — Voltage regulators, contact making voltmeters.
Building 28 — High voltage tests up to 750,000 volts.
Test Track and Building 203 — Railway developmental work.
At Piltsfield — Power transformers, feeder regulators, alternating-current motors.
FIRST TO OPERATE BIG INSTALLATIONS
This wide variety of apparatus illustrates the breadth and scope of
the test man's work; for it embraces the latest, and hence the most
interesting, electrical and mechanical devices manufactured. When the
engineer of a Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul electric locomotive throws
his controller handle one notch ahead, he but duplicates what an electrical
test man had previously done. When an operator of the great locks of the
Panama Canal throws the switches which permit a 32,ooo-ton battleship
to pass through, he also merely operates what the student engineer had
previously tested and adjusted. And in the great steel mills, central
stations, mines, and battleships, and in the thousand and one other
places where electricity is used, every piece of electrical apparatus has
been tested previously by student engineers. This follows from the fact
that no machine can be shipped unless o.k'd by the Testing Depart-
ment.
WHAT ARE THE FACTS?
The student engineers are not told what specifications and effi-
ciencies the machines are guaranteed to fulfill; they are instructed as to
what standard and special tests should be made. Thus they make all the
electrical preparations, observations, and measurements, calculate
efficiencies and plot curves of performance, all of which are checked and
compared with the guarantees by those who are responsible for the
decision as to when a machine is ready to be shipped.
RESPONSIBILITY
In all of this shop work the student engineers are temporarily a part
of the well-organized Testing Department, and they become personally
responsible for the conduct of the tests of which they have charge. No
POWER EQUIPMENT FOR TESTING TRANSFORMERS AT PITTSFIELD
matter in which of the above buildings they are working, they are under
the direction of the 75 men of the permanent Testing Department.
These men show the student engineers how to make rapid diag-
noses of unexpected performance by any kind of apparatus or device.
This suggests to the inquiring mind that the test man becomes an expert
"trouble shooter," and that wherever he may encounter electrical
machinery of any kind, he will probably be fully capable of adjusting the
connections, controllers, brushes, poles, armatures, bearings, or founda-
tions, or to otherwise diagnose trouble, restore the machinery to full
operation, and instruct the operator how to obtain continuous satis-
factory performance.
As not over 10 per cent of the electrical and steam installations sold
by the General Electric Company are erected by the Company's con-
struction department, it is apparent that the remaining 90 per cent, when
shipped, must be ready to operate. Thus the customer's engineers or
electricians set the apparatus on the foundation according to drawings
and instructions of the Company, make the wiring connections according
to the diagram furnished with the machinery, and expect the new
installation to start up and operate without a hitch when the switch is
thrown. If the test men have done their duty properly, there will be no
trouble when the customer follows directions. Since the cost of satisfying
customers' complaints has been reduced to a negligible per cent of the
cost of the apparatus, it would appear that the test men had thoroughly
mastered the details and intricacies of the electrical machinery and
controlling devices, and properly adjusted everything — even to the
smallest relay.
GOVERNMENT WORK
As to the broad knowledge of the test men, let us consider only one
phase of the testing work of today— government work. Seventy-five
hundred horse power motors are being built to propel some of our latest
battleships; as are also the turbo-generators which supply electricity to
these motors; the Curtis turbines which will propel so many of our new
emergency fleet; the gears which will transmit the power from these
turbines to the propeller shaft; the motors which rotate the turrets of
battleships and hoist the ammunition; the generators for the wireless;
and the small marine steam engine-driven lighting units. All of this
apparatus, whether of 30,000 kv-a. or 2^-kw. capacity, is tested, adjusted,
and studied by the student engineers before it is shipped.
To maintain perfect operation of these machines so vitally necessary
to modern warfare, who would be so well fitted as the man who originally
tested them or identical machines? The Army and Navy Departments
in selecting officers to take charge of the electrical equipment of our
great war vessels were quick to grasp the opportunity of engaging test
men as chief electricians, chief engineers, wireless operators, etc. Can you
imagine the delight in the heart of a young naval officer when he goes to
his post of duty on a battleship, cruiser, destroyer, or submarine and
finds there some machines which he himself had tested and adjusted in
the old days at Schenectady or Lynn! He understands their language.
They respond to his touch and will faithfully perform their heroic tasks
in partnership with him.
156
GOVERNMENT RECOGNITION
That the United States Government recognizes the value of practical
testing work has been demonstrated in at least two ways:
USE OF HIGH POTENTIAL PORTABLE TEST TABLE. HIGH-VOLTAGE DISTRIBUTING
BOARD IN TOP BACKGROUND, SCHENECTADY WORKS
TESTING MOTOR-GENERATOR SETS AND INDUCTION MOTORS
In 1917, in the midst of their test course, 252 student engineers left
to enter military service. Of the 150 who left Schenectady, 90 per cent
have already received commissions; as have 10 out of 13 who left Fort
Wayne — some holding offices in the army, as high as major or captain,
and in the navy, such rank as ensign, lieutenant, chief electrician, etc., all
in less than one year!
Among the hundreds who went to war, only those who left during
the Test Course have been included in this survey.
CIVIL SERVICE REQUIREMENTS
But government recognition is not limited to military matters.
The United States Civil Service Commission's printed form No. 2204,
issued in 1917, in speaking of educational training and experience which
applicants must have for Civil Service positions, mentions:
"and at least one year's additional experience in testing electrical
machinery."
Civil Service Form No. 1785, issued in 1917, especially mentions
among the necessary qualifications of experience and training:
"one year's experience in the testing of electrical machinery and
apparatus."
"five years' experience in inspection and testing of electrical machin-
ery and apparatus, two years of which must have been work
on the test floor of an electrical manufacturing company."
"three years' engineering experience in installation or manufacture
of electrical machinery, one year of which must have been
inspection or testing."
CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION
LECTURES
The theoretical phase of the training is taken care of by an extensive
series of lectures which are given to the student engineers by prominent
designing, research, and production engineers, and commercial managers
of the Company. Not only are these lectures free, but the students are
paid full time while attending them. Attendance is not compulsory and
the student may attend one or two each week as desired. These lectures
are given between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m., after the close of the working day.
In order to render them as valuable as possible and to afford opportunity
for the asking and answering of questions, the engineers give each lecture
several times so that the attendance at each class can be kept small and
the lectures entirely informal. This has an added advantage in that
those students who have missed a lecture may be able to make it up later.
PREVENTING "OVER SPECIALIZATION"
The purpose of these lectures is to round out the student's knowledge
of the Company's product as well as develop his versatility. The young
men are encouraged in their desire to become specialists, but are pre-
vented from becoming narrow-minded by the broad fields of knowledge
that are opened up to them by these various lectures. For example, if a
TESTING SMALL SYNCHRONOUS CONVERTERS
FIVE MOTOR-GENERATOR SETS FOR ELECTRIFYING STEAM RAILROADS OVER THE
ROCKY MOUNTAINS
student engineer desires to become a commercial man, these lectures
give him information of a technical character which will make him a
better commercial man; if he desires to become a designing engineer, they
give him a knowledge of many of the Company's commercial methods;
should he believe that his future career will lie entirely along operating
and managing lines, he will derive a knowledge of cost accounting,
production, welfare work, research developments, safety campaigns,
factory methods, toolmaking, industrial education, etc. Altogether there
are 50 lectures at Schenectady, 25 at Pittsfield, 20 at Lynn, and 17
at Fort Wayne.
Bearing in mind the varied careers of the ex-test men, it will be seen
from the number of presidents, general managers, executives, consulting
engineers, directors, superintendents, commercial engineers, etc., that
there is great demand for versatile men with a wide field of knowledge,
as well as an intensive knowledge of one kind of work or apparatus.
It is the old question of which is better:
To know something about everything, or
To know everything about something.
Attentive attendance at these lectures will help the young men to
know something about everything electrical, and will also indicate the
way and the individuals through whom they can learn everything about
something.
Students may attend each of these lectures more than once if they
desire.
POSTGRADUATE COURSE AT UNION COLLEGE
Student engineers who have completed a four-year college course or
equivalent, with B.S. degree, and who wish to continue their electrical
education from the theoretical standpoint, can obtain their advanced
Master's degree at Union College. The Company refunds over 50 per
cent of the matriculation and tuition fees to those who have secured their
degree. The classes are held every Friday morning on the Company's
time, thus making the student engineers' working week practically five
days only.
This postgraduate work is a two-year course and is a comparatively
new development, inasmuch as it was organized in 1916. There are now
35 students enrolled, ten of whom, it is expected, will be graduated in
1918 with the degree of Master of Science.
The post graduate course consists largely of lectures and demonstra-
tions, although numerous problems are given for home work.
CURRICULUM
I. Advanced Electricity, by Prof. E. J. Berg.
II. Mathematics of Electrical Theory, by Prof. Fedder.
III. Lectures on Electron Theory; Electrical Properties of Gases and
Liquids, by Prof. K lee man.
160
LYNN— M. I. T.
A co-operative course between the General Electrical Company
and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is described in the
Institute's catalogue.
ADVANCEMENT
The college men enrolled in the test course, it might be correctly
stated, are a floating population — they are in a continuous state of flux.
A few weeks after their arrival, they begin their migrations, emigrating
from one department and immigrating into another.
TRANSFERS
Every week from 20 to 40 men are transferred to a new kind of
work. There is no stagnation, no routine, no winding of armatures
and field coils, very little if any repetition of any kind of work beyond the
point where it ceases to be interesting to the average man. As long as a
young man with an active mind is doing something different from what
he did last week, or better than he did it yesterday, his knowledge is
broadened. Six months passes more rapidly in this fascinating work
than six weeks does in the dull details of routine. Every student who
stays in the course is transferred. If he can keep up with the procession,
he moves along; if he cannot keep up with it, it is suggested that he is
probably better fitted for other lines of work.
At regular intervals the student is given a blank entitled "Appli-
cation for Transfer" in which he indicates a preference for the line of
work which he is to undertake next.
Thus the student engineer is directing and designing his career by
selecting the several different tests which he desires to undertake. This
brings up the fact that there is no set curriculum, all of which he must
follow, but that among the fourteen classes of apparatus to be tested he
can have his choice, as far as production conditions permit.
The student engineer makes out several of these applications for
transfer during the time spent in the test course and, at the bottom
of each, the head of the section where he has been working grades him
according to the following qualifications:
Technical ability Accuracy
Industry Ability to push things
Neatness Personality
These gradings are then posted upon a card, so it can be seen at a
glance whether he is excellent, good, fair, or poor in any or all of the
six qualifications. These cards are available for each man's inspection,
but otherwise are confidential. Good marks in regard to personality are
especially necessary for those desiring commercial work in the future.
161
At the end of six months other events take place which will affect
his future career. Every student receives a letter from the Superintendent
of the Testing Department as follows:
"Positions in the various departments of the Company are continually opening up,
and in order to fill these most satisfactorily it is necessary to know the nature of employment
each man desires and feels he is best fitted for.
"With this idea in view, and to cause each man to consider well the line of work he
wants, this note is being sent to men who have been on test six months.
"No man will be recommended for employment until he has filled out the attached slip
and turned it in to the test office in person."
Thus again the individual's personal choice and ambitions, together
with such business relations as he may have established before entering
the test course, are taken into consideration before he expresses a prefer-
ence as to his future work.
OFFICE TRAINING
After six months or more have elapsed since the college man entered
the test course, another variation presents itself to those who have made
a good record. The Superintendent of the Testing Department selects
men for a three months' assignment to the various offices in the engineer-
ing and commercial departments, at the end of which training they
return to the Testing Department. This sample of what designing and
commercial engineering work really is, is afforded so that they may more
fully appreciate the value of the testing work, and also that they will be
better able to decide on the kind of work for which they are adapted—
and possibly revise their choice as shown on their preference blank.
PROMOTION
Promotion from the Testing Department is not haphazard; it is
not for the star members only; it is universal. For, as stated above, those
who remain in the test course will be promoted, and those who will not
be promoted do not complete the test course. Every week approximately
seven men complete the test — four being promoted and three leaving for
positions for which they have been recommended, outside the Company.
TRIAL PERIOD
The first step in the promotion of a man is the "trial period" of three
months in the department where permanent employment is anticipated.
By this means the department heads will have the privilege of trying
out a man in order to be certain that his personal qualifications and
temperament are suited for the position. This is just as important to the
test man as it is to the department head and to the whole organization;
and right here in this policy will be found one of the secrets of the success
of the General Electric Company: Every man is peculiarly fitted by
practical experience for the work which he does.
162
VALUE OF PRACTICAL EXPERIENCE
Hundreds of examples could be cited to prove that the unromantic
work of repairing engines and generators and even inspecting boilers is
a valuable asset to an engineering career in the electrical industry. For
instance Mr. W. B. Potter, Engineer of the Railway and Traction
Engineering Department, took a position in the Testing Department at
THE TESTING GANG AT LYNN IN THE OLD DAYS
the Lynn Works in 1887 and has preserved the original letters leading
up to his engagement. These form an interesting parallel to later corre-
spondence in which he stated:
"My shop experience and the knowledge of electric and steam practice has continually
proved of inestimable value."
And Mr. E. E. Boyer, who holds a high executive position in the
Lynn Works, entered the Testing Department there in 1885. The
following paragraph is abstracted from a letter written to him by the
superintendent, April 17, 1885:
"Our requirements are that each applicant must serve a certain period in the workshop
building the different parts of our apparatus, then serve awhile in the assembling room, and
finally in the testing room the time occupied being from four to six months. The pay during
this period is but sufficient to provide for your board, and would be $i per day."
(Signed) E. W. RICE, JR.,
Superintendent.
163
This discloses the fact that the idea of building an organization on
the foundation of practical training was put into effect 33 years ago by
the superintendent, now President, of the Company.
BUILDING AN ORGANIZATION
Mr. Thomas A. Edison says:
"Problems in human engineering will receive during the coming years the same genius
and attention which the nineteenth century gave to the more material forms of engineering."
The great idea of human engineering, with which is associated
vocational training and wisely managed employment departments, is a
product of the twentieth century; and yet the letter signed by the
superintendent in 1885 would indicate that there were some individuals
living in the nineteenth century who fully appreciated this point in
forming the nucleus of a business staff now second to none.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
In a booklet entitled " Practical Training for Engineering Grad-
uates," the social opportunities of the student engineers are outlined,
and photographs included showing exterior and interior views of the
Edison Club, Edison Hall, and the Boat Club in Schenectady; also the
Thomson Club at Lynn, and aquatic sports at Pittsfield and Schenectady.
Other information is given regarding athletics, home life, cost of room
and board within walking distance of the Works, climate, topography
of the country, and size of the various Works of the Company.
TABLE V
POSITIONS NOW HELD BY EX-TEST MEN AS ASCER-
TAINED FROM NATIONAL MEMBERSHIP
LIST OF A.I.E.E.
In G-E In other In G-E In other
Com- Com- Com- Com-
pany panics pany panics
Abroad in Business 15 107 Business I
Employment i I
General Officers Assistants 2 2
Presidents I 10 No designation ., 16
Vice Presidents and Assist- Superintendents
c ants •- -YY-:-- ' 'I General 7
Secretaries and Assistants . . Qf Motiye pQwer
Treasurers .... Division Qr Distfict
Managers Assistant General 2
General Sales 2 . . Assistant Electrical 2
Advertising I .. Assis tant . . . 4
General 25 Welfare and Assistant.... 2
Assistant ' General '. '. '. Technical i
Works Construction I
District!! "2 "6 ^etfr'V, •' '
Assistant District Dept. . . 2 . . Mechanical
Local.. 10 2 Commercial
Department Sales 7 .. Electrical.... 2
Directing I I Not designated 18
Department 14 2 Electrical Engineers 251 338
Contract I I Miscellaneous 33 218
164
TABLE VI
PERCENTAGE OF TEST MEN IN ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENTS
SCHENECTADY
FORT WAYNE
Departments
Per
Cent
Alternating-current Engineering 70
Construction 37
Construction Engineering 20
Direct-current Engineering 95
Direct-current Motor Engineering .... 80
Flow Meter 57
Induction Motor 70
Industrial Control 70
Industrial Heating Device 75
Insulation Engineering 29
Lighting 95
Power and Mining 89
Publication Bureau 24
Purchasing o
Railway and Traction 83
Railway Equipment 71
Railway Locomotive 50
Railway Motor 69
Regulator 66
Research Laboratory 40
Searchlight 20
Standardizing Laboratory 40
Switchboard 41
Testing Laboratory 25
Turbine 63
Wiring Supplies 50
Test men in above 26 departments
average 51 per cent
LYNN
Automobile Motors 75
Fabroil Gear and Pinion 33
Gear and Pinion 100
Meter and Instrument 18
Motor 75
Rectifier Tube 75
Street Lighting 55
Transformer 80
Turbine 57
Wire and Insulation 67
Test men in above ten departments
average 63.5 per cent
PITTSFIELD
Lightning Arrester 91
Motor 33
Transformer 83
Test men in above three departments
average 69 per cent
Per
Cent
Departments
Alternating-current and direct-current
Apparatus 57
Automobile Accessories 50
Fractional H.P. Motor 58
Meter 20
Rock Drill o
Transformer 78
Test men in above six departments
average 44 per cent
o
33
33
100
SPRAGUE
Conduit Products
Hoist
Motor and Generator
Ozonator
Switchboard and Panelboard o
Test men in above five departments
average 33 per cent
ERIE
Air Brake 17
Gas Engine 20
Power and Mining Loco 43
Test men in above three departments
average 27 per cent
DISTRICT OFFICES
Atlanta 60
Boston 64
75
50
o
67
•• 77
Chicago
Cincinnati..
Dallas
Denver. . . .
New York..
Pacific Coast 50
Philadelphia 50
St. Louis 47
Test men in above District Engineer-
ing Offices average 54 per cent
AVERAGE in above 63 departments,
52 per cent
165
TABLE VII
PERCENTAGE OF GENERAL ELECTRIC OFFICIALS,
MANAGERS, SPECIALISTS, ETC., WHO ARE
EX-TEST MEN
Per-
centage
Power and Mining Eng. Dept. Section
Heads 100
Local Supply Dept. Mgrs. 100
District Power and Mining Dept.
Mgrs 100
District Lighting Dept. Mgrs 100
Transformer Specialists 92
Switchboard Specialists . 89
General Office Commercial Dept. Ass't
Mgrs 83
Local Small Motors Dept. Mgrs 83
District Engineers 80
Schenectady Designing Engineers 78
Local Engineers 75
Resident Agents 74
General Office Dept. Mgrs 73
Local Managers 72
General Office Commercial Dept -71
Local Apparatus Dept. Mgrs 67
Meter Specialists . 64
General Office Supply Dept. Section
Heads 63
Schenectady Designing Engineers (Sup-
plementary) 62
District Railway Dept. Mgrs 60
Foreign Sales Offices 56
Per-
centage
District Small Motors Dept. Mgrs.. . . 50
District Apparatus Dept. Mgrs 43
District Supply Dept. Mgrs 43
Heads of Laboratories 43
Works Managers 40
District Managers 40
General Office Commercial Dept. Mgrs. 39
General Office Administrative Dept.
Mgr. (Supplementary) 33
Heating Device Specialists 31
Railway Supply Section Heads 30
Local Chief Clerks 27
District Fort Wayne Dept. Mgrs 25
General Office Administrative Dept.
Mgr 20
District Order Dept. Mgrs and Clerks 20
General Officers 20
Production Managers 17
Domestic Device Specialists 6
General Office Accounting Dept Section
Heads o
Works Accounting Dept o
Local Auditors o
District Auditors o
Among 42 lists of officers, etc., average
per cent of ex-test men. . .51 per cent
1.66
Curve
P.XM. discover* that Us idu^i^ fiom lx>atd B.i$ OK.
CARTOONS FROM SOUVENIR MENU AT TEST MEN'S CHRISTMAS BANQUET
I67
INDEX
Accidents 46
Prevention 46, 48, 50, 56
Statistics. 46, 57, 58, 71
American Institute or Electrical Engineers 137
Apprenticeship Courses 105
Athletic Clubs 27
Associations 16
Statistics 109
Bands 30
Bonus, Five-year 1 1
Bowling Club, Lynn 23
Cafeteri a 97
"Call Men" 87
Camp Claverack 27
Camp Nela 27
Clubs. . 16
Continuity of Service 9
Departmental Associations 31
Edison Club 16
Education, Apprentice Courses 107
Electrical Test Course 142
Evening Courses, Lynn Works 134
Pittsfield Works 135
Evening Schools 132
Lectures 136
Libraries 139
Municipal Night Schools 133
Switchboard Department School 130
Testing Department 122
Union College, Evening Courses 134
Post-graduate Course 160
Educational Work, Accident Prevention 58
Electrical Testing Course 142
Elex Club, Fort Wayne 25
Erie Works, Restaurant 101
Apprentice Courses no
Examinations, Medical 64
Fire Alarms 82
Department 87
Department Drills 87
Doors 80
Hose 83
Escapes 81
Ladders 83
Protection • . 79
Stations 84
Fires, Statistics 79
Firemen's Club 89
Fires, Exit Drills 86
Food, Analysis 92
Foremen's Association, Photo 20
Fort Wayne Works, Elex Club 25
Apprentice Courses 109, 1 10
Gamma Epsilon Society, Harrison 25
General Electric Athletic Association. 27
Mutual Benefit Association 32
Woman's Club 24
Woman's Club, New York 25
Girl Minstrels, Pittsfield 25
Gymnasium, Girls', Lynn : 22
Harrison Lamp Works, Restaurant 100, 103
Hospitals 66, 75
Hydrants , 85
Insurance, Fire 80
Lecture Courses 136
Libraries 139
Lynn Works, Education Courses 134
Restaurant . 99, 102
Mazda Club, Harrison 23
Medical Work 64
Municipal Night Schools 133
Musical Clubs 30
Mutual Benefit Associations 32
Pensions 12
Pittsfield Works, Evening Courses 135
Restaurant 103
Exterior View '. 95, 103
Interior View 96
Posters, Use of for Accident Prevention 59
Quarter Century Club 24
Photo 20
Recreation Building, Lynn • 29
Red Cross Classes 78
Rest Rooms •. 73, 76
Restaurant, Equipment 96, 102
Exterior View of Building 95
Interior Views 96, 98, 100, 101
Kitchen 93
Plan. 94
Service 96
Statistics 93, 96
Safety Bulletins 58
Devices 48
" Serve-Self" System 97
Service Records 9
Rules Governing 14
Soldering Process 54
Sprinklers, Automatic 83
Supplies, Restaurant 93
Switchboard Department School 130
Test Men, Career 145
Statistics 149, 164
Testing Department 150
Apparatus Tested 154
Courses 122
Thomson Club, Lynn Works 21
Union College, Evening Courses 134
Post-graduate Work 160
Vacation 26
Clubs 26
For Shop Workers 12
Ventilating Systems 51
Vocational Schools, Evening 132
Woman's Clubs 25
Membership 24
War Garden Clubs 31
Water Systems 85
TTTTR
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