The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-11-12

ings of the mill, interference with meals, sleep, relaxation and exercise in the open air.
 "The effect of overtime is not con fined to the days on which it is worked.
 "In the great majority of cases in- vestigated, overtime was not desired by the workers.
 "The harmful effect of overtime may be accentuated by the presence of un- friendly supervisors"
 Such interesting figures showing the output at various periods of the day have a direct bearing on fatigue and are also connected with the question of nutrition which is considered by Professor Kent T6us in the surgical dressing factory it was found that group of workers on a particular day turned out an average of 1863 ar ticles between and a. m. Their production from 6:30 to 12:30 after breakfast was 228.S and from 1;30 to 5:30, 224S, while from to & it fell to 1667 These are actual figures for one day but the proportion is main- tained on every day on which the fig ures were taken. Then an experiment was made with a few workers who were persuaded to take breakfast be- fore beginning work and were al- lowed to start a little later It was found that their production immediate ly rose to the average of the best hours of the day. This proved that the early morning slackness was due not to fatigue but to the habit of begfn- ming work on an empty stomach, while the late evening slackness was due solely to fatigue. A notable feature of this experiment was that in all cases the output on the Saturday half holi- day was high. This is explained by the fact that the weekend fatigue which one would expect was more than over come by the psychical effect of the pleasant anticipation of the weekend holiday in addition to the special eff fort which is always made to clean up all work in hand at the end of the week.
 FOOD AND FEEDING
 An extremely interesting section is devoted to food and feeding. One girl in a group of workers in one of the factories was noticed to be specially slow and inefficient There was no apparent reason for this and Professor Kent discovered that she not only was in the habit of coming to work with out breakfast but that her ordinary diet was inadequate. She was persuaded to adopt an adequate diet and her out put at once increased. In a few weeks the foreman reported her to be one of his most efficient workers. In this connection Professor Kent strongly urged the establishment in all fac tories of a canteen where good nour- ishing food can be supplied at a req sopablc cost. In one of the factories under his observation he found that most of the workers were accustomed to rely for their midday meal on a neighboring fish bar which supplied them with that favorie food of the British working class, "fish and chips" This consists of a small piece of cheap fish-usually dog fish--frend in bat ter and a few friend potatoes. Pro- lessor Kent analysed this food and found it altogether inadequate. Not less than six such meals a day would be required to maintain ordinary nu- triton and the cost of the Fish and chip" diet would be four or five times that of good and sustaining food.
 Professor Rents idea of the ideal mill canteen is interesting. He realizes the difficulty of catering for a large number of persons of varying tastes and the tendency of the workers to grumble at any feeding arrangements made for them by their employers. F. suggests. therefore, that each work er should bring his own food ready for cooking in a separate dish which should be marked with his number and that 1t should be cooked for him at the works. An airy, pleasant messroom should be provided in which he could enjoy his meal in comfort and care should be taken to provide small tables where groups of friends could eat together and enjoy certain amount of privacy. This system has been introduced in, some works under his advice and has worked admirably.