Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
their own trade. The potter, lacking advanced measuring instruments relied on
his own judgement to know when the pottery had reached the right temperature
in the kiln. This judgement consisted of his experience of the colour, smell and
consistency of the material. And as long as he manufactured products that satis-
fied his customers, he could decide how the product was manufactured. The
method of production was not split up into different parts - the craftsman fol-
lowed the product through the whole process.
The working situation of a quarry worker was such that all his senses took part
in his work. The quality of the stone was decided by how 'it stuck to the tongue',
the resonance of it when struck, the creaking when pressure was applied, the
smell when it was scraped or breathed on, or the colour of the stone and the lus-
tre given by scraping it with a knife or nail.
This form of manufacture, where manual labour was the main resource,
stretched a long way into the industrial revolution. In the American steel indus-
try of the nineteenth century the workers themselves controlled the production.
They led the work and were responsible for engaging new workers. This princi-
ple became a contractual agreement between workers and their employers in
1889, giving them control of all the different parts of production. The factory-
owner Cyrus McCormick II soon became tired of this system. He came up with
the idea that if he invested in machinery he would be able 'to weed out the bad
elements among the men' (Winner, 1986), i.e. the active union members. He took
on a large number of engineers and invested in machinery, which he manned
with non-union men. As a result, production went down and the machines
became obsolete after three years. But by this time McCormick had achieved
what he set out to achieve - the destruction of the unions. Together with the engi-
neers he took full control of production.
McCormick introduced the third form of manufacture, today the established
mode of production, controlled by the engineer. From the beginning the engineer
situated himself on the side of the capitalist. In this way the worker lost control
of the manufacturing process. His experience and sensitivity were replaced by
electronic instruments and automation.
The traditional use of timber as a joint material disappeared during this
period, partly because of the standardization regulations that came into
power. They were replaced by steel jointing materials, bolts and nails. Steel
components of a certain dimension always have the same properties. The
properties of timber joints are complex and often verified through experiment
and experience rather than calculation. After the restructuring of the steel
industry took place, many heavy industries in the newly-industrialized world
followed suit.
The car industry transferred to engineer-run production after just two years.
The paint and paper industries soon followed. In certain other areas, expert-con-
trolled production came later. The largest bakeries were already under expert
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