Frederick Taylor's stopwatch built US scientific management
Frederick Taylor timed factory tasks to fractions of a minute and turned the results into scientific management, a system that made him famous and hated.
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#labour-history.
Every story tagged #labour-history.
New York rewrote factory fire safety after the Triangle fire
A locked stairwell door trapped ninth-floor workers in New York's 1911 Triangle fire, and the state answered with 38 new safety laws.
Rochdale's mill workers wrote the rulebook co-ops copied
The Rochdale Pioneers were not the first co-op, but their 1844 rules on dividends, votes and cash-only trade became the model co-operatives copied worldwide.
Ford's moving line cut Model T assembly to about 90 minutes
Ford cut assembly from twelve and a half hours to about 90 minutes in 1913. One car design, identical parts and 84 single-step jobs made it possible.
Ford's moving line cut a Model T from 14 hours to 93 minutes
In 1913 Ford's Highland Park plant started a moving assembly line. Build time fell from 14 hours to 93 minutes, and the car's price fell with it.