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Procrustes
PROCRUSTES As a prophet (albeit a minor one) of ergonomic dogma, I have frequently been asked by that face in the mirror to comment on beards. Beards were given to most men (and to some women) to conceal their thoughts and feelings, thus offsetting the superior interpretive skills of the opposed sex. Persons must be kept in their place to preserve the equality of the sexes. Beards save time and money. One requires rather more than a just noticeable sexual difference (j n s d) - or should it be barely (b n s d) - to predict, in a flash, as it were, the form, function and behaviour of the other party. Conserve heat .... be bearded. Beards and long hair are bad in battle - one might be caught and thumped. None the less, vive les differences!
previous dimension, in incremental mode. All very clever, of course, but the operator is hardly relaxed.
r~[]r~ Conferences must be one of the worst places for ergonomists to concentrate on the subject matter under discussion, because of the way one's professional interests intrude. Sitting listening to a pensions discussion the other day I wondered if anyone had studied the proper use of the microphone. Almost to a man the delegates tapped the top or blew into it, to make sure it was live, then grabbed it firmly usually moving the on/off switch in the process. The pa system operator tried to thwart them by taping the switches of all the wandering microphones 'on' and turning them 'on' and 'off' at the amplifier. So we had long delays while speakers feverishly undid the sticky tape. And when they did get around to speaking, they always mumbled or gabbled their names and company which made the subsequent transcription difficult.
r~zr~ My picture shows a Portage marking-out machine, supplied by Crown Windley Ltd of Chelmsford, fitted with Minipak 001 machine tool readout. It is claimed that up to 80% of marking-out or measuring time can be saved by using this, and that accuracy is improved. The Minipak units, manufactured and supplied by Thorn Automation at Nottingham, are mounted in one case and give a three axis digital readout, ie in the longitudinal, horizontal and vertical planes. The readout has a seven digit display, plus the + or signs, which is switchable between imperial and metric and incorporates a single integrated circuit chip performing all the counting and comparison functions. The display can be set to datum zero at any position enabling a fixed datum to be used to work in absolute mode, or measuring from each
Far too many conference organisers introduce a photographer into the session to 'shoot' the speaker and the delegates. Why must they? The flash is always disturbing, though there is a trend away from flash with high speed film, and at last some flash units seem capable of restoring themselves without that penetrating recharging whine. Even so we are left in a quiet environment with the crash of the SLR mirror and the rewind lever or its motor. Cameras can be amazingly noisy. Why not pose speakers in the ante room before the session, and ignore the audience which always seems to have deserted the first three rows and gone to sleep (or worse) further back?
r~mr~ Added to the list of conference 'visuals' problems of poor slides and a projector control button wired up to produce wrong-way only, I now include the overhead projector at a slight angle, so that due to some sort of thermal hovercraft effect, every transparency slides off slowly but irresitibly. Eventually, every image projected was 'improved' by the silhouette of an ashtray.
Students joining Birmingham University were (a year ago, at least) offered a list of clubs/activities to join. It included: Hockey - men Hockey - medics Hockey - ladies Is it the game that's different, or do we produce a whole new set of anthropometric data?
r~r~r~ Digital readout for machine tool marking-out
How do you define clockwise to someone wearing a digital watch?
Applied Ergonomics
September1980
173
previous dimension, in incremental mode. All very clever, of course, but the operator is hardly relaxed.
r~[]r~ Conferences must be one of the worst places for ergonomists to concentrate on the subject matter under discussion, because of the way one's professional interests intrude. Sitting listening to a pensions discussion the other day I wondered if anyone had studied the proper use of the microphone. Almost to a man the delegates tapped the top or blew into it, to make sure it was live, then grabbed it firmly usually moving the on/off switch in the process. The pa system operator tried to thwart them by taping the switches of all the wandering microphones 'on' and turning them 'on' and 'off' at the amplifier. So we had long delays while speakers feverishly undid the sticky tape. And when they did get around to speaking, they always mumbled or gabbled their names and company which made the subsequent transcription difficult.
r~zr~ My picture shows a Portage marking-out machine, supplied by Crown Windley Ltd of Chelmsford, fitted with Minipak 001 machine tool readout. It is claimed that up to 80% of marking-out or measuring time can be saved by using this, and that accuracy is improved. The Minipak units, manufactured and supplied by Thorn Automation at Nottingham, are mounted in one case and give a three axis digital readout, ie in the longitudinal, horizontal and vertical planes. The readout has a seven digit display, plus the + or signs, which is switchable between imperial and metric and incorporates a single integrated circuit chip performing all the counting and comparison functions. The display can be set to datum zero at any position enabling a fixed datum to be used to work in absolute mode, or measuring from each
Far too many conference organisers introduce a photographer into the session to 'shoot' the speaker and the delegates. Why must they? The flash is always disturbing, though there is a trend away from flash with high speed film, and at last some flash units seem capable of restoring themselves without that penetrating recharging whine. Even so we are left in a quiet environment with the crash of the SLR mirror and the rewind lever or its motor. Cameras can be amazingly noisy. Why not pose speakers in the ante room before the session, and ignore the audience which always seems to have deserted the first three rows and gone to sleep (or worse) further back?
r~mr~ Added to the list of conference 'visuals' problems of poor slides and a projector control button wired up to produce wrong-way only, I now include the overhead projector at a slight angle, so that due to some sort of thermal hovercraft effect, every transparency slides off slowly but irresitibly. Eventually, every image projected was 'improved' by the silhouette of an ashtray.
Students joining Birmingham University were (a year ago, at least) offered a list of clubs/activities to join. It included: Hockey - men Hockey - medics Hockey - ladies Is it the game that's different, or do we produce a whole new set of anthropometric data?
r~r~r~ Digital readout for machine tool marking-out
How do you define clockwise to someone wearing a digital watch?
Applied Ergonomics
September1980
173