The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-11-13
RELIEVING WORKERS
England Taking Up American Idea of
 Seats and Stretching Period"

London. October 31.--(Reciprocal News Service.)--The British home office has just issued welfare pamphlet for circu- lation among large, employers, prepared by factory inspectors, urging all indus tries to give workers rest or stretching per iods throughout the day.
 The idea came from America in indus trial reports before the war and during plants, but was not generally appre- ciated as 'hard oea dod nea eaca-ti-r,e rood business' until the lecture of Maj. Frank B. Glbreth of the engineers reserve corps, United States army, delivered in March, 1919, at the Manchester College of Technology.
 According to the welfare phamphlet:
 Tn the course of the lecture Major Glbreth surprised his large audience by asking them all to stand up. They did so while he went on with his lecture At the end of five minutes he asked them to sit down; they laughed, and did so, wondering why he had done it, He explained that he wanted to rest them and said he would guarantee they all felt better for it. He went on to say that all worSers-in every 20 minutes should sit for 20 minutes and stand for 10 in varvinp ner'ods Ire oisn anrs -+,ed on the necessity for enforced rest periods and said that where tried they gave astonishing results.
 "The whole incident so much interested one manufacturer present that he pro- ceeded to try the experiment. in his own works. Instructions were given that a number of girls were to stop work and | sit down at five minutes to every hour. except the last hour of the aav fo- a five minutes rest. few months later the figures of their output were careful ly examined, 1. e., the girls chosen were employed during both periods on the same article, the same machine and had ! been working constantly without days off
 "In no case did their output show less than GA per cent increase. and in four ont of six 1t showed nvar 1n ,,or rent This means an increased production Of roughly lSO050 pieces per annum. Under the terms of an act of 191S the 1 home office is empowered to deal with the provision of seats at particular works or classes of works. Orders re- duiring seats for women and girls have already been made for several indus tries The factory inspectors have found 'the provision of seats is recognized as an integral part of good welfare ar rangements.''
 The object of the present pamphlet is ito direct the attention of employers generally to the importance of this ques- tion and to assist them in taking the matter up by placing before them a short summary of the information and ex- per'ence on the subject gained by the inspectors of factories and indicating how the difficulties sometimes met with can be overcome"
 Most of the illustrations of suitable seats in the pamphlets are American,
 nelIsi7g diagraIn os the factory chair approved hY the American Posture league. Que type of rolling seat shown is recommended both to eliminate fatigue
 in the able~'>rd ed worker and to facili- tsts Q toot'ess n- le4iess worker in "cov- eT;ng' 9 work tabln
 lr addition to ibe attention paid to seats for york or reg. beside the factory
 nechincs the parlph,et also takes up tne seating a-@i ctcer arrangements in reet rNrrts