The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1907-10-29

Ion1orroW's Work Will Suffer II You
overdrive Today-Ths Price q Man
ls compeIled to Pay II He Keeps on
the Pressure Too Long.
When we have set out on a piece Of
muscular work or head work we might
expect to find steady, regular In
crease In the fatigue that resulted
from ft-so much work, 30 much fa-
tigue. But that rs not the case. The
fatigue curve" is not q straight line
sloping up from one corner of the
chart diagonally to the other. Instead
It goes sharply upward at the start
Then for long distance It runs along
on an approximate level, and then II
takes a sharp upward turn again.
The level stage the plateau of hard,
normal working power, where the cost
in energy doesn't vary perceptibly-is
the second wind"
You know how it Is in long distance
running. At first the fatigue increases
very rapidly. A man has to push him
self with all the will power he can
muster Then all Of a sudden it gets
easier. 1t seems as If he had tapped
q big, new supply of energy, and he
can keep running for long time with
out any great increase In his feeling
of fatigue. At last he reaches a point
where the exertion tells hard again.
Fatigue piles up terribly fast now, so
fast that unless the runner knows just
how much he is good for and has made
careful calculations he is likely to be
"all In" before he gets to the end.
Every step makes an inroad on his re-
serve energy. The last squirt costs
more than al the rest together.
& If man has covered his distance
without touching this final turn Of the
fatigue curve he will get rested In
reasonably short time and be able to
60 over the course again. But IL In
stead he has to keep on. teeth set, eyes
bullying. "hugging his corncobs'' until
he rolls over on the ground, 1t may
take weeks for him to get into good
form again. In big race naturally
he's got to be ready to do that.
There are emergencies in everybody's
life when the merely prudent thing
isn't the right thing. If house is on
fire and family on the top floor is in
danger and you're the only person on
the premises you can't stand calmly
aside and calculate your fatigue curve.
There's necessity for action-at any
cost whatever, even life.
A man may have big proposition to
put through, some important combina-
ton to eject, new movement to get
under way. Perhaps he Is the only
person who knows the whole situation.
Success may depend upon him. In
such case he must let mere prudence
go by the board, and he must stand
ready to pay the price, too, when that's
called for
But such emergencies are not every,
day matters. Tomorrow we are GO
Ing to have another days business to
attend to, and the probability is that
1t will be just as important as today's.
Consequently we have no right to over
drive ourselves today, for the price Of
it will be taken out of the quality of
tomorrow's work. We have done
enough when we have come In sight
of that last costly lap It's the time
to quit.
A great deal of interesting lnforma-
fion about the nature Of fatigue has
been made available through the ergo
graph. an ingenious recording appara-
tus devised by Professor Angelo Mos
so. a great Italian scientist 1t works
after this fashion: You lay
your hand. back down, on little ia
BILE. and to the end of one finger is at
tached cord which connects hori-
zontally over pulley with a small
hanging weight The motion Of clos
ing the finger lifts the weight, and as
the effort is repeated over and over
again the fatigue symptoms IN the fin
ger become clear and can be observed
and recorded In detail
Now, one Of the important discover
les that Professor Mosso has made Is
that If You keep raising the weight IN
til your finger is exhausted it will take
lust about two hours to rest it-that
IS, in two hours you can do the same
amount of finger work over again-and
he least bit more.
You would imagine from this that II
he experiment were repeated at the
md Of one hour instead of two you
,ould do just half the amount Of work.
But it's only one-quarter as much!
That's the price of work on top Of
atigue. One unfatigued man is to his
work as four semifatigued men to the
anne work. Using all the strength
vou have, you can't begin to get nor
nal results. and the strain on win and
nervous energy Is terrific. Carrying a
hing through on NERVE" is the cost
lest business man can indulge In.
Some people. especially those Of
nervous makeup. find 1t hard to tell
when the stopping point has been
Is. just where the divid-
ng line comes between energy funds
for investment and q capital
which cannot legitimately be tamper-
d with. If they get interested in
heir work they lose sight of every
hing else and are going on sheer
lerve before they realize It
Though fatigue symptoms vary |
realty in different people, 1t may be
worth while to mention a few of them
lere Sometimes there is a flushing
t the temples. That is the case with
Myself when ! have been reading hard
or two or three hours, and then |
now that l ought to call halt.
ould keep on reading with undimin.
shed interest for a good deal longer,
tut it would be at the price Of a Sleep |
ess night.
With some people sure sign is the
increased circulation of blood In the
airs or cheeks. Some people have
ueer feelings in the pit of the stom-
ch-not nausea, but something sug-
estive of it.
One OF the most reliable tests Is the
ontrol test, holding the arms out hori-
ontally at the sides and noticing
whether or not the fingers tremble.
he fatigue condition raises the nerve
ressure gate and allows howovers
rom one nerve into another. Normal
a nervous impulse goes along Its
erye directly to the point Of strain.