Document 8584NkRzyEarzGxzvXgXqeQOy

m Rubber Section ! ' stting t life, they leople d me Executive Committee 1944-1945 General Chairman--Paul Van Cleef, Van Cleef Bros., Chicago, 111. Vice-Chairman in Charge of Program--J. E. Lotas, U. S. Rubber Co., Passaic, N. J. Secretary--Roland Kastell, U. S. Rubber Co* New York, N. Y. Newt Letter Editor--Stanley Wright, Inland Mfg. Div* General Motors Corp* Dayton, Ohio. . Engineering Committee--Thomas H. Boyd (Chairman), The Manhattan Rubber Mfg. Div., Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc* Passaic, N. J. Glen D. Gross, The Firestone Tire St Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. Health Committee--Da. J. Newton Sammy (Chairman), Arrow Mutual Liability In* surance Co* Chestnut Hill, Mass. Frederick W. Sands, U. S. Rubber Co* New York, N. Y. Walter Warner, The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. Membership Committee--R. M. Weiuer (Chairman), The Dayton Rubber Manufacturing ) Co* Dayton, Ohio. Publicity Committee--G. A. Balzersen (Chairman), Rubber Reserve Co* Port Neches, Texas. Statistics Committee--H. L. Andrews (Chairman), The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. Members-at-Large-- E.W. Beck, U. S. Rubber Co* New York, N. Y. R. A. Bullock, Corduroy Rubber Co* Grand Rapids, Midi. Ralph S. Fabnuu, U. S. Rubber Co* Detroit, Midi, Oliver Hopkins, U. S. Rubber Co* Providence; R. I. C. F. Horan, Arrow Mutual Liability Insurance Co* Chestnut HOI, Mass. J. M. Kerrigan, U. S. Rubber Reclaiming Go* Buffalo, N. Y. W. H. MacKay, Dunlop Tire & Rubber Corp* Buffalo, N. Y. R. W. Morse, The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co* Akron, Ohio. Walter Schneider, The B. F. Goodrich Co* Akron, Ohio. Staff Consultant--F. A. Van Atta, National Safety Council, Inc* Chicago, Til. fist General Qainmn 503 :; ; mIf, I plaintiffs EXHIBIT PLAINTIFFS iS EXHIBIT 1 504 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 TUESDAY AFTERNOON SESSION October 3, 1944 . Presiding: General Chairman Paul Van Cleef, Van Owf Bros, Chicago. A Symposiuin--Safety in Pkocesdag Synthetics Discussion Leader: Thomas H. Boyd, Safety Eng, The Manhattan Robber Mfg. Dhr, Raybestos-Manhattan, Inc, Passaic, N. J. A- Skin Hazards in the Manufacture and Processing of Synthetic Rubber LOUIS SCHWARTZ, MJ>. Medical Director, Dermatoses Section, Industrial Hygiene Division, Bureau of State Services When the war cat off oar principal contact with some of the chemicals formed supply of natural rubber from the East during the conversion and cases of der Indies, it was necessary to find a substi matitis have occurred chiefly from acet tute in order to successfully carry on the aldehyde. Among the other chemicals war. For more than* twelve years .before and byproducts which may be encount the war the Da Pont de Nemours Com ered in debiting retorts and kettles the pany bad made Neoprene, the first of irritants, are botylaldehyde, methylethyl our synthetic robbers. Shortly before we . ketone and acetic add.. entered the war the Standard Oil Com pany of Lonisiana obtained the .German patents for malting Bona- S, the type of robber now mostly used. The principal types of synthetic rub bers now manufactured in this country are Bona S, Buna N, Butyl rubber, and Neoprene. Buna S, Butyl 'rubber, and Neoprene are the types now bring made for our Armed Forces. Tertiary butyl .catechol is added to the butadiene in order to keep It from poly merising white In storage. Tertiary bntyl catechol is a skin irritant and workers opening the cans containing this prodnct may develop dermatitis from splashes if they do not wear rubber gloves and im pervious sleeves and aprons. Butadiene Is a volatile gas under ordi nary conditions of temperature and any Buna S dermatitis resulting from it is probably Buna S is made from butadiene and due to the freezing effect of its evapora styrene. tion. Butadiene can be made from alcohol In plants malting butadiene from ethyl and from butylene, a product fractionated alcohol maintenance workers going into from high-line gas and light pressure dis kettles, retorts, or pipes, for cleaning or tillate taken from petroleum <uL repairing; shotild wear rubber gloves, goggles, airline respirators or gas masks, Butadiene from Alcohol impervious coveralls and boots.. They Ethyl alcohol is heated in closed kettles should step under the shower with all over a catalyst and converted to acetalde these dothes on immediately after' com hyde. The acetaldehyde is heated over a,, pleting, tite job in the retorts* and then catalyst to form butadiene. 'remove the protective dotiting and don These processes take place in closed ~ their street dothes. kettles and there are no exposures of the While handling tertiary butyl catechol, workers to the chemicals because the op workers should wear, goggles, rubber eration is controlled from a control room. gauntlets, and rubber aprons, which However, in cleaning the kettles and re should be kept dose by the tank in which actors, the maintenance crews come in the cans are opened and melted. B tore rest The aut< are dea sod shoi max alco E ordt chk erat into ise aim wot shot gog S ess. wea gog T of l irrit haw beC Tin dot soil to i end 1 tern sun the apn of OXU poi: Hy acb frtM add late Rubber Section. 505 Butadiene from Butylene . ber is screened out of the liquor, washed, Butylene Is heated to 'a high tempera dried, baled, powdered, and packed. ture in reactors in contact with a catalyst resulting in the formation of butadiene. The entire process is totally enclosed and automatically controlled. Skin hazards are only; present to maintenance men cleaning br repairing the reactors. When such work is being performed the men should be protected as prescribed for maintenance men making butadiene from alcohol. The-butadiene and styrene are usually brought tp the plant in tank ears. Work ers engaged in emptying the styrene tank cars should wear impervious. protective clothing to protect them from accidental splashes. The process of removing tertiary butyl catechol from butadiene by bubbling it through a solution of caustic soda entails no hazard because it is totally enclosed. Styrene Manufacture Ethylene is combined with benzene in order to form' ethylbenzene. Afaminum chloride is. Used as a catalyst in this op eration. The aluminum chloride is damped into the hopper,byhand and the worker is exposed to it twice dixringa shift. Since aluminum chloride is a sltin irritant, the The red liquid, sodium salt of tertiary bntyl catechol, is disposed of by horning. Most of the occupational dermatitis oc curring in the manufacture of Buna S is caused by chemicals added to the . buta diene and styrene in order to make the reaction possible. These chemicals are as follows: 4' maker while engaged in handling it 1. The per salt 'which is used as an should wear rubber gauntlets, aprons, and oxidizer br catalyst rarely causes derma goggles. titis. Sodium hydroxide is .nsed in the proc ess. Workers handling the caustic should wear robber gauntlets, aprons, and safety goggles. 2. The chain modifier which is added to the mixture in the polymerization ket tle is a primary irritant and sensitizer. 3. Hydroquinone which is added to the latex in the..polymerization- kettle is a The waste discharged from thereaetion sensitizer. of ethylene with benzene is a blade tarty 4. The antioxidant usually consisting irritant substance. Therefore, workers, of phenylbetanaphthylamine is-a sensi handling this waste should also wear rub tizer. ' . - ber gloves, impervious sleeves and aprons. 5. Bardoi, a' coal tar derivative, is They should be instructed to change their sometimes added to the phenylbetanaph- clothes immediately after they become thylamine. Bardoi is a primary irritant soiled with this tarry material. and photosensitizer. Ethylbenzene is heated over a. catalyst 6. Soapstone or talc is used to cover to form , styrene. This .process is totally the bales of robber. Dermatitis can result enclosed. . Tertiary butyl catechol is added to sty rene to prevent polymerization while in storage. While 'handling this chemical, the workers should wear goggles, rubber . aprons, and gauntlets. from coarsely powdered soapstone, espe cially in hot weather. . 7. The compound which is sometimes used as a modifier instead of or in con junction with the'original, chain modifier, is also a primary skm irritant. 8. Sodium lignin -sulfonate is some Manufacture of Buna S times used, and is a sensitizer. - Buna S is made by stirring a mixture Workers in the pigment room handling of butadiene, styrene; soap solution, an these chemicals should wear protective oxidizing salt, and a chain modifier in a clothing in the form of robber gauntlets, polymerization kettle for about 18 hours. impervious sleeves and aprons.. Workers . Hydroquinone is also used. The ante-' dumping chemicals into' reaction kettles acted styrene and butadiene are recovered should wear similar protective clothing from, the latex. The antioxidant is then Workers engaged in handling the baled added to the latex. The latter is coagu robber are exposed to soapstone and talc lated by adding acidification, and the rub-. and often develop dermatitis. The tale )  V. 506 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 and soapstone are usually coarse and con Workers dipping their hands into the tain sharp spicules which wound the skin, slurry of rubber, brine, latex, and arid especially when it is perspired and mace in the coagulation building should wear rated. Unless some method is devised rubber gauntlets.. . . whereby the dust exposure to the work ers is eliminated,' such workers should wear closely woven overalls and leather gloves, cleaned daily in the .plant They should also be compelled to take shower baths after work In some plants a very fine grade of talc is used, fine enough to pass through a 300 mesh screen. In such plants there is no dermatitis from talc. Dermatitis also occurs among workers making the coagulating solution. In warm weather this solution deposited on. the perspiring skin of the arms can,, cause dermatitis. Protective sleeves will pre vent this condition. Workets engaged in making the soap solution may also develop dermatitis from the soap flakes. Protective sleeves and aprons will prevent this. In some plants soda ash is added to softeh the water used .in malting the soap solution and the brine. Workers, coming in contact with soda, ash should be fur nished with impervious coveralls and rubber gloves, daily cleaned at the plant, and*should. be compelled to take showers after work. ..Neopcene . There , is comparatively little dermatitis in the manufacture ofneoprene.The prin cipal type of . neoprene manufactured is called typeOJOL, and is made from acety lene. 'Dus is converted into vinyl acetylene by the use of a.catalyst The reaction tabes place in retorts piaml behind explosionproof walls mid is remotely controlled. Vinyl acetylene, is a gas B.P. 5 G - Vinyl acetylene is reacted until hydro ' A considerable portion of the derma chloric apd to form chlorobutadiene. titis occursamong the workers engaged in cleaning the driers. They are com pelled to enter the driers and lie on their backs in closely confined spaces, remov ing from the traveling chain or belt the adherent; incompletely polymerized rub ber. Dermatitis occurs on the body of these workers and is caused by the incom pletely polymerized rubber and the tincombined chemicals which it contains. Chlorobutadiene is a; liquid; B.P. 60 C It is a primray Irritant and accidental splashes cause erythema, even if it is. soon washed off, until water. . Chlorobutadiene is mixed with sulfur and roan, placed in a kettle of soap solution to which a per' salt is added as a catalyst; and. Is agitated for about two hours to .form neoprene latex. . In. emptying the! kettles some of the latex spills on the floor, and About 0.5 per cent of. the stymie re dermatitis occurs on the feet and legs of mains unchanged in the rubberas it comes operators from contact with the latex. The from the drier. The phenylbetanaphthyl- latex contains unreacted chlorobutadiene, amine in the incompletely polymerized the pungent odor of whidt is present in rubber combined with the Bardot, sodium the building. The latex has a pH 10 which lignin sulfonate, etc, are probably the also adds to its irritant properties. principal causes of . dermatitis . among workers cleaning the driers. The. faces of these workers should be protected by a protective ointment of the lanolin-castor oil type. They should be furnished with - clean coveralls and gloves and fake com pulsory showers after each session in the driers. The future driers should be roomy and so constructed that the workers can cleanthem in a standing position. About five per cent 'of the workers ex posed to chlorobutadiene "have some tem porary loss of hair. It is not known whether this is caused by a local or sys temic effect. The hair becomes normal after exposure ceases. The neoprene latex is deposited into cooled revolving drums which coagulate the neoprene and roll it .off in a thin sheet. The sheet is washed and then passed -festoon fashion through a drier. After Samplers of latexin the reactor build coming from the drier it is compressed into' ing should wear .rubber gauntlets, im roll form,, passed through finely ground pervious sleeves and. aprons while draw talc,* cut into lengths of about 12 indies, ing fluid from the reactors. and packed into bags. There. ground t Other Typef Type I TypeJ Type! These Neopn and is si latex liq has pH amount < Butyl and. iso] solved it acataly! isrirenh metal ti rises to meets.a robber ; added* her. Th wear rt and apn The r and Act it is ext . . me&apt passes t stances . the exp and apr the face Tfaer der is worker! ers of ( dermati atytylm with h ointiMn . Buna withta< that ,di Buna S Burnt trifuge fore be r Rubber Section SO7 There .have bei no eases of dermatitis urionfl' the' workers exposed to the finely jrourid talc. Othertypes of neoprene are as follows: Type G.N. Type I. * Type KJT, Type FJL: These differ somewhat in composition. temperature of the drier is higher than that for Buna S, and the time of drying is less. Practically all the unreacted monomers re maining in Btma N are vaporized in the drier and drawn off by suction. The driers are roomier and do not require as frequent cleaning as do the driers for Buna S, and the workers entering the drier are not re^ qttired to He on their backs and work in narrow spaces. Neoprene latex is made from type G.N. and is simply the uncpagulated latex. The latex liqoor Is,, made from rosin soap and has pH :9>10l It also contains a small amotmt of unreaicted chlorofratadiene. .. The raw chemicals used in the mannfac. tore of Buna N are: 1. Butadiene 2. Acrylonitrile `: Butyl Robber Butyl rubber is made from isobutylene and. isopreue. These, /chemicals are dis solved in methyl chloride and routed over a catalyst (alumintun chloride.). The liquid is circulated and cooled in a reactor through metal tubes. As. the rubber is formed it rises to the top of die reactor where it meets a stream.of]steam tirinch carries die robber away. Phenylbetanaphthylamine is added to the slurry of hot water and rub ber. The worker adding theP.B.N. shonld wear rubber, gauntlets, impervious sleeves and.aprCn& ' 3. Soap suds containing a wetting agent 4. A modifier 5. A catalyst which consists, of oxidizing salts . . 6. An antioxidant wbidi may be PJkN. or PAN. 7. Sulfuric add in a concentration of $ to 1 per cent is used to roagtdate the jytwr f 8. A two percent barium chloride solu tion may alio be used for this purpose 9. Boae glue? and casdn are used as emultifjgis , The robber is screened oitt of the slurry and then.passed through a drierfrom which jt is .extruded in a continuous sheet' Xylyi . meriaptan is'added to the .rubber before it. passes through the extruder. Tlus sub stance .is d skin irritant and the worker at the extruder sbould wear impervious sleeves Dermatitis may occur from acrylontrile which paay leak out of enclosed pipes and retorts. ` The soap solution containing a synthetic wetting agent may cause irritation of the nose and throat. - and aprons, and a protective ointment on * the face. The rubber after coating from the extru der is passed 'through a hot mill. The workers on the mill develop bums and blist The modifiers are primary drin irritants. The antioxidants are; sensitizers. Barium chloride may cause a dry scaling eczema of tlm palms. ers ofthe hands from the hot rubber and dermatitis from the fumes of P;B.N. and xylyi mercaptan. They' should be provided with heatproof gloves and a protective ointment for the face. The whole operation of making Buna N is more enclosed than that for making Buna S, and despite the fact that acryloni trile is a powerful sldn irritant there were no cases of dermatitis seen in the Buna N Buna N plant which was inspected. . Buna N is made; by reacting butadiene with, acrylonitrile in a manner similar to that '.described for the manufacture of BtmaS. Buna N is partially dehydrated in a cen trifuge or by pasting between rollers be fore being passed through the drier. The Processing Synthetic Rubbers The skin, hazards occurring in the proc essing of synthetic rubbers are the same as those described for natural rubber, namely, from the chemicals used in the rubber, with the addition of hazards from the synthetic rubber themselves; 508 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 The chemicals to be used in the rubber with rubber and. the various compounded are -weighed out by hand. The worker robbers which go into the tread and sides comes in contact with all of them and of the tire. They rarely develop sensitiza should be protected with rubber gloves,-im tion dermatitis'from the chemicals in the pervious sleeves and aprons, and a respira rubber. tor. The rubber, either synthetic, natural, The synthetic rubbers can be used in or reclaim, and the chemicals, are mixed latex form. Thin robber gloves may be into master batches which contain a high made directly from latex in the same man percentage of the ingredients. These master ner as they are made from natural Jatex. batches are the ones used for. compounding Dermatitis may occur from synthetic latex the actual rubber stock because it contains more of the uncombined The chemicals to go in the rubber are and unpolymerised chemicals than does the mixed together either in a mixing mill or coagulated dried rubber. a Banbury mixer. The workers on the Patch Tests mixing mills come in contact with the chem icals and . are exposed to whatever Starnes may come off the rubber as it gets hot, and sensitization dermatitis may occur among rtiBn. Hundreds of patch tests were performed on workers having dermatitis in the twenty plants-inspected.. Of twenty-four chemicals, used as patch testy, tile following positive dons were obtained: The mix mills should be well and those workers who became sensitizedand develop dermatitis should be providedv with a protective ointment of thewater repellent type. Protective clothing is too hot to wear at tins operation. B3JW.--Antioxidant. . Stalitc--Antioridant Hydroqmnooe Buna S froih driers Neoprene latex . . rfT\ A- " :/ Safex (2, 4dinitrophenylSfimetf^ thio- Workers an..the Banbury should wear caihamate)--Accelerator dean dustproof coveralls fnrmshed daily by . Captax (mercapfo benzo thiazole)--Ac the plant ' celerator Workers on the mix nulls and the Ban Erie (bis- 4, 5- dimethyl tbhuyl disul- bury should take deansing showers before fide)--Accelerator going home. Altax (benzothiazole disulfide)--Accd- In most factories the robber after being ' orator' compounded is sheeted out and passes over Santodtre (benzothiazyl 2, mooocydo- head in a continuous sheet to the -various departments where it is further processed. hexyl sulfonamide)--Accelerator Asphalt Rubber which is going to .be made into tires rs extruded -in the form of the tread. G.RJS. Buna N type, of synthetic rubber The fabrics^ 'such as cotton, rayon, etc, go Summary ing into tires, are impregnated with rubber either by calendering or by dipping into -water dispersions. These operations are automatic and there are no particular.skin hazards connected with them. There is comparatively tittle dermatitis occurring in tfm manuiactare of .synthetic robber despite the many irritant chemicalsmcffd- This | wptainwl by the the factories makfttg synthetic robbers are Robber to be made into tubes is extruded modemly equipped with mcchamcalsrfcty through a tube-shaped die, cut off into suit devices and most of the safety recommend able lengths and cemented into, circular datums made in this paper are already be tubes. Workers engaged pi. this operation ing carried out sometimes get dermatitis from the robber cement, which consists essentially;, of robber -dissolved in a solvent. Workers at this operation who develop dermatitis should wear thin washable leather gloves and use; a long-handled brash, for applying the cement We need to anticipate. trat tittle. more dermatitis from the manufacture and proc essing of synthetic robbers titan'we have bad from natural robbers provided future plants are erected with the same careful planning as the present ones, and the safety recommendations m this paper .are carried Tire builders handle fabrics impregnated out.- Rubber Section 509 B. Accident Control in Processing Synthetic Rubber GLBND. CROSS Safety Director, Firestone Tire end Robber Co., Akron, Ohio. In the manufacture of rubber products, ting and stock handling on the side of. the either from natural or synthetic rubber, the roll farther away from the "bite" of the various ingredients and rubber are care rolls. If be should be caught in the stock, fully weighed into batches , and mixed to he has more time to operate the "safety gether in perfect dispersion. This mixing stop" on the mill and stop the rolls before is usually, carried out on a rubber mill or being carried to the "bite." Large diame in Banbury mixer. In many cases, both ter rolls also help in this matter. pieces of equipment are used tq get .better dispersion. - Other important parts of the code cover the location, use, and testing of the safety- The rubber mill -has been-used in the trip controls and quick-stop facilities on Industry for years, and is used not only . mills. For example, the location of the for mixing tot also in brealdng'down, .safety-trip rod shaU .be not more than cradidng; washing; grating; refining; and ' sixty-nine (69) inches above, the work wanning of ngUter and .robber compounds. ing floor level on which the operator The extensiveness .of its use .and thehaz- - stands, and every mitt having, a diameter aids involved, make, it necessary, that any of die front roll up to .and including discussion of safety in die Rubber Industry sixteen and one-half (1654) indies and 'include safety in the use of the rubber nuD. running empty at. any speed shall be The.mill is a machine with two opporitefy rehrolving; adjacent dulled nils. One re volves at a slower speed than the other, and the opening between them is adjustable. The rubber and other compounds are placed on the xoQs and are carried'throughdie "bite,"or/poiiitof meeting between die ^stopped within a distance of not more than ten (10) inches' travel after the safety is tripped. Realizing that the quick stopping of m3b b a very important factor in safety,: maximum stopping limits were set up in - the'code for die various sizfcs of mills. two in-nmrdng rolls. Hie kneading action The code also-states that safety stops tint nils warms up andplastidzes the . should be tested drily and.accurate meas Jmaterial hiring milled and, by catting part urements of distance of travel must be of die cmnpocmdfroin the roll and feeding tricen at Iriist once every tinrty (30) Ays. it. .bade, into thebank, feb posable to ob tain a homogenous mixture of die various XUglCttlCQtS*-. Rrilitjng tbeinherent accident hazard of the miwngoperation, the United.States De- Notwithstanding these safety features, on robber mills;-accidents continue to occur on' them. However, they now occur with . ranch less frequency and with less serious results than in the past. Various new partmentof Labor, with die cooperation of safety, devices, such as an emergency-stop die rubber companies, long ago Anew up actuating mechanism that extends-.farther a "Safety Code for . Rather Mills and/ down along the. side of the mill roll, are. Calenders." A few of the high -points in bring tried to determine their usefulness as tins code, with regard to sails, are as fid- a means :of increasing the safety of mill lows: ' operation. Rule. 103 states; *AU milts should be installed so that the top of the froptroll isnot less dan - forty-six (46) inches above .die working .floor level or platform on which the operator stands, irre. spective of the size of the mill." A great many of the most serious acddents on robber nulls occur to .employees who aren't authorized to operate mills or who are new employees insofar as the operation of mills is concerned. 'Such acddents;, as the following; illustrate these -^The importanceof this rule b great points: since, by keeping, tins distance at least 1.-"A mill, operator with - only, three 46 indies and preferably 50 inches to 52 weeks' experience was. operating a 22* x inches; die mill operator will do. hb cut- 60* batch-off mill Shortly before he com- `i-.wi* 510 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 pleted his shift, he was stripping the last 5. Do not cut rubber on the top of the sheet of stock from the mill to the strainer rolls. Always keep the knife down and conveyor. Only a small amount of -stock away from toe bite. remained cm the mill. In fact, it was too small to trip to the conveyor and had to be cat from the roll While the employee stated that he.bad made a horizontal cut preparatory to pulling the stock off the roll, it is the opinion of those who investi gated the accident that he did. not take a cut but tried to pull the stock off. In attempting to pull the stock off his right hand became caught in it, anff although the mill was equipped with dynamic braking, the employee did not have presence of mind to trip the safety until his finger tips entered the bite." 6. Never stand in the mill. pan. When loading miff always put rubber in with one hand and hold on to the apron or safety bar with the other. 7. If, when cutting, you don't catch the cut--let it go--never try to reach for it & When batching off, hold toe end of the slab until it is cut off. Do not throw it bade over the arm or shoulder. 9. If a tool {knife or'shovel) dips from your hand and goes into toe miff do not try to catch it-det it go, and pull the safety. This latter point dearly demonstrates how important it is to have mill operators trip their safeties frequently. Same firms have their operators use the safeties con stantly to stop mills that are individually driven. 10. Do not work on the back toff unless it is absolutely necessary,--then be careful and always lower the apron. 11. Learn toe location and use' of emer' gency equipment that is provided to release an employee from the rolls of a mill. 2. "A janitor, working around a wash (a) Screw &e rolls of toe trull apart miff derided to take a piece of soap from his pocket and wash his hands in the waterspray from the wash mill. The janitor .dropped the soap in the bite, and in at tempting to recover it, caught his finger in the.mill." These two accidents emphasize the neces sity of training , new mill operators thor oughly and of `making certain that only au (b) If that is not possible, take toe emergency wedges and by using the emergency sledge force the rolls apart (c) Do not reverse the tnilL _ Next, we will go into safety with re gard to the use of a Banbury in the mixing operation. thorized employees are exposed to the hazzards of mill operations. Checked Frequently Employees should make sure that the All millmen should familiarize themselves floor around the Banbury is kept free of with safe practices and follow such prac slippery substances. All of the Banbury tices constantly. Some of toe more impor equipment should be checked frequently for tant are as follows: 1. No one shall operate a rubber ` mill until he is properly trained in its safe op eration. . 2. Test toe safety stop on toe mill at toe start .of each shift or at any other rime, before placing toe machine into operation. 3. Before starring the miff be sure that everyone is out of danger. defects. This inspection program is espe cially important in regard to the pin for stopping toe floating weight. After toe mixing operation is completed, the compounded stock may be extruded into tubes, tired treads, or into other rubber products, may be calendered into dun sheets of rubber, or may be used to coats or im pregnate fabric with rubber. The extruding operation consists of plac 4. If shirt sleeves are long, they should ing the stock into, a hopper and then into fit snugly. Loose aprons, coat jackets, or a cylinder with a screw located in it The long neckties must not be worn. Gloves compounded rubber stock is forced through should not be worn except when toe stories a warm head and .a hot die. Caution should run hot ^nd no torn gloves should be worn be exercised when feeding the hopper of at any time- ^Gloves should be of toe type the machine to make sure that hands are that- do. not fit tightly at toe wrists. not placed below the top level of the hop- or i Rubber Section 511 per. A paddle should be used In forcing the to the diameter of the roll, as is true for rubber .into, the screw. This same safe mills. practice should be used in feeding materials into, the hoppers of. other rubber machines, such as plasticizers, pelletized, and strain ers. Even though the various safety features are provided, safety in the operation of calenders depends to a great degree on safe practices of `the operators. Some of the If it is necessary to remove material more important safe practices are as fol from the extruding machine or release a lows: jam in any part ofjthe machine, the power should be shut off at the switch and pre cautions should be taken to make sure that the power cannot be placed <jn, prematurely. If the rubber should be calendered in stead of extruded, hazards encountered with inrunning rolls are involved. As in the case of rubber mills, a code has been drawn up to outline safe operating con ditions oh calenders. In fact, the same code, No. 447, covers both pieces of equipment High points of the section of the code oh calenders are as follows: "Rule 120. Safety-Trip Control 1. No one shall operate a calender until he has been thoroughly trained in its safe operation. 2. No clothing which can be caught in the calender--such as long sleeves, loose-, neckties, aprons, or unbuttoned jackets^-- should be worn. { 3. Be sure that you are thoroughly acr quainted with the safety devices on your machine. Test the safety stops each time before pottitig stock into the calender. 4. Before starting the calender, ring the starting signal bell and look into the mir ror to see that everyone is in the clear. . "(a) A safety-trip rod or a tightwire cable shall be provided across the front and die back of all calenders, ex- tending the length of face of rolls, to operate sensitivdy if it is pushed or if it is. pulled. This rod shall be at a height not more than sixty-nine (69) inches above the working floor level or plat form on which the operator stands and shall be within easy reach, with provision made for adjustment, either up or down,of three (3) inches in cadi direction. "(b) On each side of. all calenders and near, both ends of the face of the toll there shall be a vertical tigbt-wire cable connecting with the bar-tripping mechanism at the top and fastened to the 5. Care should be taken in placing hands on the rolls to determine temperature. Al ways keep hands away from the bite of the rolls. 6i Do not grab for a mis-cut gauge. Cut another. 7. Keep hands away from guides and scrapers. 8. Calenders shall operate only at slow speed when starting fabric into the wiudup, and shall be slowed down at end of roll. Calenders are to operate at fast speed only when signal is given. 9. Do not force rubber mto bite of rolls with hands. Use feed sticks. 10. Cleanliness about the machine is im frame within twelve (12) inches of the portant Do not allow oil, grease, or other floor.. These cables should be positioned refuse to gather on machine or floor. at a distance of not more than twelve 11. The stationary hand-wheels on the . (12) inches from the face of the roll-. wind-ups and let-offs must be used for ad . and at a distance of not less than ode justing the tension of the stock. (1) inch from calender frame." 12. All operators must know what steps Another important point In die code is to take in case of an emergency. die placing of a barrier across the fulllength of the face of die rolls so that operator's fingers cannot come into con. tact with the bite, where sheeting, duck, or other' fabric is fed. Having covered the' main safety items with regard to calenders themselves, it is important that we consider safety in the numerous operations in which fabric, liners, and other materials me wound on rolls at As in the case of mills, stopping limits -the discharge ends of calenders, spreaders, for calenders are given. These limits and other equipment The use of dynamic vary according to die speed of the drive brakes is advisable in each such operation, roll of the calender, and not according since a worker can easily get caught in the I $ -v 512 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 roll and receive a serious injpry. Controls for all such brakes should be located so that they can be quickly and easily readied. Barriers, at inrunning points, also aid in preventing such accidents. Employees should be cautioned to start materials on rolls by hand and not with die power on. After the rubber compound is extruded or calendered, the next steps vary greatly, depending upon the final product In case of tires, the calendered tire fabric is coated with rubber cement and then cut to desig nated lengths on horizontal, vertical, or rotary bias cutters, the points of opera tion of which should be adequately guarded. The tire is then made on a tire-building machine. This machine consists mainly of a revolving drum which can be collapsed to remove the uncared tire. Tire builders must-use care in starting bands on the drams, and in using pinch bars and other haodtodls. Since the number of other products, made from rdlber, is so great; the hazards con nected with their manufacture; between the extruding or calendering stages and the curing stage cannot be covered here. The next operation to be considered will be the vulcanizing or caring operation. Some important safety features of vulcantzers are as follows: 1. Every vulcanizer should be equipped with a relief valve of sufficient size to re lieve excess pressure quickly. Such valves should be tested frequently. 2. Pressure gauges and thermometers should be so located that they are within dear vision of the operator. 3. A pressure-reducing valve or auto matic regulator should be provided to re duce the pressure to that required in the vulcanizer. 4. A steam trap for removing condensate steam from the vulcanizer must be one which will not be affected by soapstone or sediment from the bottom of vessel. 5. On horizontal vulcanizers, a bleeder valve should be provided near the'front, at the bottom of the vulcanizer for draining condensate or cooling water from it torpre vent scalding of workmen when the door is opened. 6. On quick-opening doors of vulcanizers, a safety interlock should be provided so that the door cannot bp opened while any pressure remains in the vessd. As in.the operation of all pressure equip ment, safe practices on the part of operat ing personnel are most essential. Some of tiie most important will be given now. 1- No one shall operate a vulcanizer un til he has been thoroughly trained in its safe operation. 2. Extreme care should be exercised to see that doors of the vulcanizer are fully cloted and locked before steam is admitted or pressure applied. A circle, painted in a bright color around the lugs, which will fie complete only when the door is .completely dosed, will helpin this matter. Some of the newer jacket molds are so designed that the pressure cannot be applied until the covers are properly locked. 3. Operators should make certain that all pressure within the vulcanizer has been completely exhausted and hot water drained before any attempt is. made to open the doors. 4. Care should be exerdsed by operators to avoid bums from coming into contact with hot surfaces. 5. Constant observation of all instru ments should be made (hiring the period of vulcanization to insure safe and proper operation of the vulcanizer. In summarizing; I would like to again pohit out that safety problems in process ing synthetic rubber are pretty much the same as those that have been encountered in processing natural rubber. Rubber Section 513 C. Fire Control in Processing Synthetics a. C. JONES Vice President and Engineer, Arkwright Mutual Fite Insurance Co., Boston, Mass. The use of reclaimed and synthetic rob ber for the manufacture of tires, shoes, belting and other rubber products presents greater fire and explosion hazard at cer tain processes than operations with natural rubber. Between 1941 and the end of 1943, die period when synthetics have been used in increasingly larger quantities, there has been'an abnormal increase in the number of fires reported in spreading and'coating. In 1943 these fires were more than 10 times the yearly average for the period between 19351939. The number of fires in rubber making processes, which include various operations in making tires, rubber shoes, belting and other rubber products, was nearly 4 times the yearly average for the period 1935-1939. Fires reported from static sparks in creased from seven per year prewar to forty per year wartime as the major cause of rubber occupancy fires. During the first six months of 1944 more fires from static sparks have already been reported than dur. ing the entire year in 1943. Most of these fires were at rubber cementing operations where synthetics were bring processed. The annual number of friction fires, which in clude those from mechanical sparks, hot bearings, etc, was more than three times the prewar level, but these were probably due to continued full time use of machinery and equipment and reduced maintenance, The annual number of electrical fires, the major prewar causey increased moderately during wartime, as would be expected with increased production. Most other causes remained at about the same level. Larger Dae of Flammable Solvents Increases Hazard The study of the losses indicates that the use of low flashpoint solvents at certain operations in working -reclaimed and syn thetic rubber has resulted in an increase in the number of fires at robber spreading, coating and making processes (except rub ber shoe) since the start of the war (19411943). Fire experience in other robber oc cupancies, possibly excepting grinding, con stitutes a relatively small part of all syn thetic rubber working and can be safe guarded without interfering with economi cal plant operation. The fire and explosion hazards in the use of low flashpoint liquids are generally rec ognized in the rubber industry and good work is bring done safeguarding the op erations where hazardous liquids are used. This has been fortunate, for otherwise marry serious losses from fire and explosion would probably have occurred daring this early period of the processing of synthetics. In spite of the yearly increase in tire number of losses reported during 1941-1943 the total yearly amount of loss at the rob ber plants has not increased greatly for the frequent fires have been put out with little or no damage. The average loss be tween 1935-1940 was. about $450 while in the period. 1941-1943 the average loss was only about $215. There is tbe danger, how ever, when the frequency rate b increas ing that one or more of the numerous small fires will get out of control and do large damage. These frequent small fires also interrupt production and cause con siderable inconvenience, Rubber Cement Coating of Synthetici tu)| Safeguards Buna S is the synthetic generally used today in the-manufacture of tires, shoes, belting and. other products. While it has many properties similar to natural robber, it does not possess the tackiness of crude rubber which, keeps the layers of fabric to gether. It is therefore necessary to apply a. film of rubber cement to surfaces of syn thetic calendered stock. Rubber cement coating machines of vari ous types are. used to apply this coating. The calendered synthetic rubberized cloth passes through a bath of robber cement and then through'a heated zone. The proper isolation of the rubber cement coating and drying operations b of primary importance for robber cement spreading. A detached, sprinklered, non-combustible build ing for tile process b preferable.' The sprinklers should cover not over 65 sq. ft each. If the process must be within the - :: LH 514 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 main building, it should be located in a the ventilation is not sufficient and is im- sprinklered area separated from other occu properly designed. The ventilation rate pancies by fire walls or substantial fire re around the coating unit and drying table or sistive partitions with automatic fire doors in the dryer section should be sufficient to at entrances. Pits or depressions where remove 10,000 cu. ft of air at 70 F. through flammable vapors can settle must be avoided. exhaust ducts which extend above the roof A well drained, waterproof floor is needed for every gallon of solvent evaporated. to prevent water damage should fires occur Because of two fires in a rubber cement and sprinklers open. coating dryer at a rubber plant, an investiga Explosion venting area in the ratio of 1 tion was made to determine if adequate sq. ft. to each 50 cu. ft of room volume ventilation was bring afforded by existing is needed to lessen damage in the event of equipment and to devise practical means of an explosion. This can usually'be obtained preventing recurrence of such losses. The by explosion venting windows, doors, or ventilation was found to be only 60% of roof hatches. the amount required for safe operation and Cement coating of calendered synthetic about 50% of the amount believed to have rubber fabric is bring done in calender been afforded by the existing fan. In rooms at certain rubber plants. After cal numerous other cases where fires or explo endering, the hot fabric immediately passes' sions have occurred the ventilation was to a rubber cement coating and drying found inadequate or imperfectly designed. machine. The coating section of the ma It is advisable to run tests to determine the chine is equipped with one or two rubber rate of evaporation of the gasoline used to cement troughs where rubber cement (809598 high test gasoline) is applied to one or both sides of the synthetic rubber sheet From the standpoint of safety from fire and thin the rubber cement The exhaust rate should then be measured to be sure that there is ample ventilation to remove the flammable vapors. continuity of production, it is inadvisable to locate a rubber cement coating and drying process in an important area of a manu facturing building, especially when there are conditions which could result in serious in jury to employees, large property damage and prolonged interruption of production if destructive fire or explosion occurred. Such a location should be avoided in favor of a detached, safe building or cut off area. A serious fire and explosion hazard would quickly result from failure of the ventila tion fan, for explosive vapors would pass into the calender room outride the coating and drying machine and if ignited an explo sion with disastrous results might occur. The ventilation should, therefore, be inter locked with the machine operation by means of an approved air-flow switch so that' failure or reduction in ventilation will im When the process is located in a calender mediately shut down the equipment A room, the well recognized safeguards for time delay relay should also be provided so rubber spreaders are of utmost importance that the fan must operate at least three for the safety of the process depends greatly minutes before the machine can be started. on them. The coating and drying sections When it is not practical to interlock the of the machine should be. enclosed with exhaust fan with the conveyor drive there fire resistive partitions and the enclosure should be an alarm which will sound in the equipped with explosion venting doors in event of ventilation failure. the ratio of 1 sq. ft for each 15 cu. ft of enclosure volume The explosion-venting doors need to be well braced to prevent damage to them in the event,of an explo* sion and so arranged that they will dose .tightly after venting an explosion. The floor under the coating and drying se&ions should be waterproof and drained to a safe location. The dryer section of the enclosure can be most effectively protected with an auto matic water spray nozzle system with manually controlled spray nozzles or open sprinklers in the coating .section. In addi tion, an automatic foam system or carbon dioxide equipment would provide dependable protection for the rubber cement troughs. Adequate ventilation is of utmost impor A strainer and flashing connection is neces tance. The dryer evaporation rate usually sary- in the water line supplying the spray runs from 1 gal to nearly 4 gals, of solvent nozzles to 'prevent plugging of the nozzles per minute. There is sure to be trouble If by foreign material in the water. Some Rubber Section 515 plants have provided slide fitting brass blowoff caps to cover the spray nozzles to ex clude cement residue and prevent obstruct ing the nozzles; Instead of water spray pro tection, automatic high temperature sprinklers on a dose spacing of 6 ft. through the dryer and coating sections can be arranged to provide good protection For the quick handling of fires by em ployees, an approved water spray nozzle for use with IK in. hose is . recommended with men in the department thoroughly trained to use it Water spray is suggested because it is effective cm both flammable liquids and ordinary combustibles. The operation of the heat actuated de vices and release controlling either the spray nozzle system or the foam or the carbon dioxide should automatically shut off the rubber cement supply to the troughs;, shut off the ventilation fan motor and dose fire dampers between the coating section and dryer section and in the ventilation ducts. Removal of rubber cement accumulations on static collectors, spray nozzle blow-off caps and in the interior of the dryer, fan ami exhaust system is needed at regular intervals. There should be a definite sdtedule for testing of'the automatic fire protec tive equipment soduding dampers, releases and cement, shut-off valves. All electrical equipment at the. coating process should be of the explosion-proof type with the exception of lights, which, if at the ceiling, may be of the vaportight type. It is particularly important that any motors located cm the floor within 20 ft horizontally of exposed flammable liquid be of the explo sion proof type or be protected against flam mable atmospheres, by complete hooding and separate ventilation to the outdoors. All wiring should be in rigid , conduit Explo sion-proof, push button controls are needed or ordinary controls should be located a safe distance away. The rubber cement should be supplied to the troughs in the coating section through a permanently piped system by direct pumping from a well cut off mixing room, ha some plants 200 gal. robber cement storage tanks supply the rubber cement by gravity to the troughs at the coating section. A gravity supply should be avoided if possible. Where a gravity system is used to supply the rubber cement, certain precautions must be taken. The tank should be enclosed by fire resis tive.partitions with automatic fire doors at all entrances to the enclosure. The floor inside the enclosure should be water-proof and be drained through trapped drams to a safe outside location. Curbs four to six inches high are needed at .doorways. The electric lights must be equipped with vaporproof globes and adequate ventilation pro vided to insure three or four changes or air per hour in the enclosure. The tank should be equipped with a in. vent pipe to outdoors and protected by a flame arrester. The discharge pipe from the tank should have a fusible link operated valve at the tank and also at the point of use. The tank should be filled from closed portable con tainers of 40. gals, capacity equipped with screened vents and approved hand pump. Tlie finished cement coated fabric should' be moved out of the calender room as rapidly as posable; THe space around the coating and drying madnne. sbould be kept dear of all material subjeetto water damage. Static Electricity as a Fire Cause and Preventive Measures Static sparks start most of the fires at spreaders. Static, charges of many thousand volts can be generated within one foot of the contact of the rubberized doth with the equipment While it is impossible to prevent the generation of static dectridty, it can be neutralized or conducted to ground as fast as generated. The methods used successfully at .certain rubber plants to reduce trouble from static dectridty at spreaders have been (1) ade quately ground the entire frame of the spreader. The rolls of the machine have been connected to the frame by providing cone-shaped plugs made .of a graphite, im pregnated metal inserted into a cone-shaped depression in the end of the roll bearings. (2) Grounded static collectors consisting of fine brass or bronze bristles on a twisted wire core have been provided. The brush extends across the full width of the fabric and is mounted with the ends of the bristles one-half to -five-eighths-inch from the fabric; The brush and its support are thoroughly grounded and one is located at every point along the. fabric where static dectridty-is found. Arrangements must also be made to removestatic where the doth is re-rolled after ;i -;4 ii| >;i 516 33rd National Safety. Congress, 1944 it leaves the dryer. The finished cement Fires have occurred at tables used in , coated fabric retains an appreciable quantity connection with cementing jobs. Such tables of solvent and will be more, or less flam should have grounded conductive tops, mable when spread oat and exposed to grounded conductive floor around the tables ignition sources. and the employees working at cementing Periodic tests for static electricity on the fabric and on the operators sbonld.be made with a static tester. Employees who have a dry skin and consequently are prone to col lect static charges , should preferably be jobs should wear conducting footwear. The maintenance of at-ieast 40%. relative humid ity will also help eliminate trouble from static. The grounds most be regulariy inspected and properly maintained.;. given other wtnk,-aithoaidi it is possible to Safeguards inPreparing Rubber Cement discharge the static safely by means of grounded nonferrous floor plates and. safetytype shoes. With the greater tawonfofrubber cement required wfaenphxessirigsynthetics, certain plants will have to -increase their facilities The maintenance of at least 40%, or pre forpreparing it Rubber cement mixing in- - ferably 50%, relative humidity is important vrives..similar hazards .and requires' safe to help prevent static sparics at rubber guards similar'to those discussed above in spreaders. Much higher humidity has been .connection with . rubber spreading: . The applied in some cases. This higher humidity process-should be amed on in ai:detached, is probably not needed if all the static col or well cut offi non-cotnbnstible, weU venti lectors necessary are provided and if thty. lated, sprinldered locatkou - Preventing the are maintained and kept dean. escape of vaporsinto the roocn is essenfiaL The practice of filling the rubber cement Tins requires storing the srivent in outdoor troughs with a pail from a metal drum is not safe. Tins operation can' create static electricity an the drum and cm the operator. If portable containers are used,., the cement buried tanks and pumping, it through pipes attached directly to closed churns. Good roam ventilation is desirable: The most common source of ignition, static electricity, tank should be filled by use of an approved drum pump or directly from the.drum, which should be electrically bonded to the : is prevented by. grounding .belts and marfitnery and. by maintaining at. least 40% humidity. Safe electrical equipment and the tank taring the filling operation. The drum should' be equipped with a self-dosing valve so that if a fire does occur while the cement elimination, of mechanical sparks mid. open flames are'also important, flqdosn vent ing windows are needed to redone damage tank is bring filled and the operator is in case of an exptarioh. driven away, the. contents of the drum wfli Genead Bcriuki not be discharged into the tank during the ^fhe safeguarding of.each particular;proc fire. ess where there is rnbbier cement spreading Trouble from static electricity has also ' <jf synthetic rabber reqtnrm ^peari stodty occurred with the handling and tmroOingof-- ,,as to detafls, but an adaptation of die princi the coated doth. Arrangements should be ples discussed above for protection of made to remove this static charge at the rubber cement coating 'and. misting can be print where the doth is unrolled and also used as a guide in detehsimlng die. safe where it is re-rolled. guards that are needed. .Other trouble has occurred in tire fac tories where fires have started from static sparks on bias cutting machines. These fires can be eliminated if the machines are com pletely- grounded, including spring brash contacts on the roller shafts and continuous drag chains on the fabric where necessary, and if sufficient humidity is provided. Fans blowing an air. stream.directly across the A program for educating operators in the potential hazards of occupancies using flam mable liquids is desirable. Robber,, cement arid similar hazardous solvents shouldbe brought into the buildmgs only ut safety cans or .property designed, portable con tainers with approved hand pumps and should be removed to mi outride safe loca tion for refilling. machine parallel to the let-off and rewind rolls have been effective in eliminating The symposium closed with a discussion trouble at one plant. led by Thomas H. Boyd. . ..^Rubber bectum . 51? WEDNESDAY MORNING SESSION October 4,; 1944 Presiding: General Chairkan PAvt Van Cuss, Van Cleei Bros, Chicago. A SYittiksisiiiiifc^ScifotY Problems Created by Limited Labor Supply^' Discussionl*adtr:J. ILLavASj,Safety Supvsri U.S. Robber Co, Passalc;N. J. . A How to Use the H^diccqpped W CASSIUS & HOSTETLER vfc* ' Alihort timeago I discussed postwar dent b toe Chicago Association of Commerce daring Wcmd War X This gentlemaatold metoat toesami totalof aUpostwar planning doting'; World Warl would probably notaddv^to what wehaddiscnssed daring toe jpd^ JioiR/lto. b not trnetbdary. Welate doing ranch think ing and much planning, loolnngforwanLto the postwarperiod. . Wespeak IPy of what indtetorymust doto furnish employment opportunities. I thinkallof 9l agree that mdnstiy can not in itself make jobs--jobs ate made only to die extent that the public can and win buy' the goods ptodoced by the mannfarturer. `Ihave heard . ontetaintEng .men of the coimtry say toat industry nrast ftmiito employment for forty-five to. fifty million men .in' toe postwardperiod. Itoink we shbold `revise; oar toinlmigmcpnrtcction: With toe possible employment opportunities in America;m/toe?postwar'period. May I call yowattentiantothe follow ing chart showing anployment in diffetent fieldssince 1870. ' . Ocwgilion; )rat:WlBa. 111 1 Ubul u _ . ' a i . - ----------~ v:t0 y. .' W9 ' * 1W0 .* ' . * , 1890 `-1W0 . 1870 4MJB93M : 4?.3,533 37t370.794 .073l,233 23318,183 17392,009 123249M jeefevL 8,474,432 10.722.4fi7 11.7184*4 11433473 11.121.537 10,120478 8,682,093 6410.003 Wfc 22 ^ aaib 31* 30* 43* 50* " 54* .US.C9.US M4I04J2 12460414 104*6443 7,199.208 5.525491 3441.487 2443.417 & nd 20* 29* 30* 29* 25* 24* . 22* 20* h Santo .-- 24.062.535 23496401 17433437 14,880476 10,732.488,, 7,671.814 4468,319 - 3471431 tadndine - COnwiwn., Nb.UtiL. . . 3g4e * 49* 42*. 40* 37* 35* 28* 26* tHooutr-- ------ /nal .Sente ASjxckmssmlCombsmutI. lSW. s. 518 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 Let us break down these various fields dealing with employment problems is the of employment briefly to bring out the part the veteran will play. points I have in mind. In the manufactur ing field we furnish employment to those skilled in crafts, etc, while those in the service field furnish employment to millions of workers in what we might term non manufacturing activity. I am thinking of such fields as teaching, the ministry, sundry service occupations, transportation, etc As our standard of living increases, we demand greater services. The use of refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, motor cars, electric lights, radio, etc, has been brought about as the result of the demand to supply these serv ices which in former years we got along without When I was assigned to my present duties, I derided tbat'it might be desirable to make an investigation to ascertain what industry had been doing in recent years re garding the . employment of disabled work ers. In this brief investigation I learned that some years ago the proprietor of a large industrial enterprise established a defi nite policy of employing disabled workers. He had learned that the loss of certain abilities did not mean the total loss of all abilities and that through the proper utili zation of the remaining abilities a person could be trained to do a normal day's work. As a consequence he organized an adequate In 1870 agriculture furnished employment to approximately 54% of die workers in the country; industry, or manufacturing 20%; services 26%. In 1940 this figure was changed to 28% in manufacturing, 53% in the services, and 19% in agriculture. Tech nological progress has made it possible for industry to increase tremendously its pro duction without an appreciable increase in the percentage of workers employed. The same thing is true in die field of agricul ture. The mechanization of the farm has made it possible to increase production, at the same time reducing the percentage of workers In this field. The demand for addi tional services from year to year furnishes employment to a larger number of persons than in dither agriculture or manufacturing. staff of medical men and personnel special ists to put his plan into operation. In brief, the plan works something like tills: When a disabled person applies for a position, he is turned over to the medical departmmt for study. HJs disabilities are analyzed from the standpoint of occupational pur suits which will utilize to the maximum his remaining physical abilities without aggra vating bis disability. After tins analysis-has been made; the personnel specialist is con sulted to determine the kind of job the man can do in the light of medical findings. A shop foreman is brought into the picture to assist in directing and supervising the actual employment of the man. This policy has been proved so sound that the manage ment proposes to expand the present pro gram of employing handicapped persons. I There does not seem to be a united effort use this illustration to show what can be to present an overall picture of what die done when we organize thoroughly for a postwar employment requirements will be. given task. except to say that we must furnish employ ment to fifty million or more workers after the war. In attempting to set up an under standing program it seems to me that.we should start on a community levd. Let each community of the state analyze its postwar employment possibilities, something after the fashion of the city of Albert Lea, Min nesota. Here they attempt to present a pic ture of the employment of the various activities in the area. Then we need to present a state levd possibility; after the development of the state level employment possibility, we need to present a picture of the national possibility. As of December 14, 1942 there were emloyed in one plant 11,163 disabled, persons. Of course many of the disabilities listed are minor, but others, are quite serious. For example: They had employed 91 persons with one arm amputated and 3 per sons with both arms amputated. These men act as watchmen, attend doors, operate ele vators, pick up papers and work on salvage. Some of the one-armed workers are aided by the use of an artificial arm. One hundred and eleven deaf mutes were employed; these men are allowed almost any type of employment They are, how ever, kept in buildings where there are no One of the problems we can under no overhead cranes; this is to protect them circumstances overlook in this program of from falling stock. is the G suable i what its reworkiarned of a adefirkers. lertain of all utiliterson work squate >edalbrief. When an, be tment dyzed purm his grais-has t con* e man is. A icture ff the Sj : pro ms. I as be for a e emrsons. id are id 91 I per; men e deIvage. aided were (most bowre so them One hundred and thirty-five epileptic per sons were employed; these men are placed on sweeping, light bench work, inspection and the like. This is most encouraging. Those of you who have attempted to secure employment for epileptics know what a difficult task this is. TWrfy-five totally blind persons were em ployed in such work as packing small stock for shipping, assembly work and inspection. Three hundred and eighty-two persons blind In one eye were employed on bench work, sweeping and similar jobs but are not permitted to work oh machines where there is a possibility of eye injury or to pursue any other occupation barred by the Safety Department Three hundred and ninety-seven persons with finger amputations were employed in varying occupations depending on the ex tent of the disability. Many of these work ers are on regular production work on benches or machines; others .work 'on sal vage, cleaning departments and so on Two men with both legs amputated were working at such jobs as permit sitting; they pack stock, repair electrical equipment and do inspection and clerical work. There were IS7 persons with one leg amputation With the aid of an artificial limb some of these men do full time standing work at machines and production benches; others work at jobs similar to those , pursued by workers with both leg amputations. I am not going to attempt to cite work ers falling in all of the seventy-one cate gories, but I have attempted to give a few to' show what a carefully 'organized pro gram based on such a policy can accom plish. Visits Plants A short , time ago I visited one of our large industrial plants in Chicago. Here I found two blind workers,, veterans of World War I; they were performing re sponsible functions. The official who was showing me around made' the statement that these men spread more happiness and inspire others to a greater production than any one else in the plant Both of these men had developed, a high degree of skill in their work and were considered most essen tial in die war production of this plant. The foreman told me that the production of cme of these workers was above that of most workers doing similar work. I asked the blind worker how he accounted for this increase in production. His reply was a simple one--*1 can't see all the foolishness that goes on around me and I just keep on working." % Some time ago I heard about an employer by the name of George Barr, who has em ployed in his plant about 92% disabled workers. George is appearing on another program at this- convention. I appeared with him in a panel discussion some time ago, before the Illinois Manufacturers Asso ciation. He accused me of "stealing his stuff." I want to say to you here and now that no one can steal his stuff. He has had a most unique experience, and I know you will enjoy reading his story. A few years ago it was. thought that dis abled workerswotdd add to the difficulties of the employer; that there would be a high rate of absenteeism; that they would not carry their share of the load; that they would not readi production standards; and that they would be prone to accidents. None of these tilings has proved true. Inquiries made of more than 100 employers of physi cal!y impaired persons brought replies from 5&6 per cent that the handicapped had a lower accident rate than the ablebodied, and from 41.4 per cent that their rate was the same a&.tbat of the ablebodied. With re spect to labor turnover, the handicapped had an unfavorable record as compared to the able.bodied in onty 1.3 per cent of the cases, and in 82.9 per cent they had a lower rate. In 54.6 per cent of. the cases their ab senteeism rate was lower, and in 40.2 per cent no higher than that of the ablebodied. In production, they were above the ablebodied in 23.8 percent of the cases, and equal to them in 65.7 per. cent. The Gvil Service Conunission in a recent report gave an equally favorable picture of the disabled. Baric in 1931, J. W. Dietz of Western Elec tric; conducting an experiment with a group of workers having physical handicaps bat normal health, found that there were fewer absences because of illness and fewer acci dents compared with the records of normal workers. Certainly these facts alone should' encourage the employment of our handi capped veteran, even if all soda! and patri otic motives were disregarded. We have ample evidence that disabled workers can develop a high degree of effi- 520 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 dency. The. whole, question of, successful retraining and reemploying the disabled lies in adequate training and proper placement. part of government and; industry, a study which looks , forward to a. determination of suitable kinds of work for disabled per In considering a program of rehabilita tion of a handicapped veteran we need to recognize five factors: . sons. This may require toe reconstructing of certain jobs so that toe disabled persons can perform them properly. All of ns rec First It is very important that we know in what way and to what extent the dis ability of toe veteran limits his ability to work. If a veteran has lost a leg, an arm, or an eye, there is nothing we can do to ognize that there are certain jobs that per sons with disabilities can not do, but there are relatively few jobs that can not be per formed jnst as well by properly trained disabled persons as by affile bodied persons. replace this loss; it is true that the veter One large plant made a careful classifi an's disability may be lessened by applying cation of disabilities and toe types of jobs prosthetic appliances, but that is alL that personswith disabilities could perform. Second. It is important that we have full knowledge of toe physical abilities ,remain ing and what toe veteran can do with these abilities. What we are in a position to do with a disabled veteran will depend op his intelligence, occupational experience, inter ests, aptitudes, developed skills and toe ad ditional knowledge that can be acquired. In In this study were listed 170 jobs. I am sure yon will be interested in the break down of toe disabilities that were listed in connection with this study: 257 jobs could be performed by deafmutes; 240 by those with leg disabilities; <36 by those with only one band or arm; many instances it is possible to capitalize on toe veteran's previous training or ex 155 by tbose-with baric or spinal injuries; 150 by those with heart disease; perience. In other cases we need to select an entirely new field of activity. 67 by to&se with defective vision; 207 by those unto pnlmonary disease. Third. We need to know toe require ments of toe job. After a thorough analysis of the veteran's physical impairment and what abilities he has remaining, we most know the physical as wdl as the scholastic requirements of the job for which the vet eran is to be trained. In connection with This is approaching the problem on a well organized scientific bas&' Similar studies are being made by many other .in dustrial plants throughout the country. Their contributions wSl be invaluable in crar efforts to make employers "handicap worker conscious." the requirements of the job we most know The disabled may be able to do a. spe toe type , of training, that is -necessary to cific job ais wdl as an able bodied person, achieve the employment objective that has but they can not .do as many different jobs. been established. Sometimes this makes it difficult for email Fourth. Training facilities of educational institutions, industrial establishments, farms and governmental .agencies are utilized m training these veterans for employment Training into employment is oar chief aim. This employability may be attained by in industries to give employment to handi capped persons because it becomes.- neces sary to shift workers from one job to another. But even m small industry there are many jobs suitable .to persons with vari ous types of disabilities. stitutional training; training on toe job; or both institutional and job training. Fifth The attitude of toe man who wzlleniploy toe veteran after he has been trained is vital. I think all of us recognize that toe difficult problem in-connection with securing employment for our physically dis abled veterans arises from'the attitude of the employers toward employing persons with disabilities. The successful employment of the dis abled is the result of careful study on the AssetValue As I have stated, before; there is a defi nite asset value in rehabilitated persons. Let us look at toe record to see what this problem really is. The. losses. fhrbijBh in juries in industry, for. example, stagger toe imagination. The compensation for injuries in industry in Illinois was 7 per cent greater in 1942 duo. in l941. hi Illinois dime dur ing 1942 we had a total of 43,107 injury cases with'an aggregate compensation of $>,065,357, compared with 41,454 cases a stn$y f \f ICL .Jttstructing . persons : tts rec hat perrat there t be per* trained persons, dassifi- of job rerform. s. I am * breaklisted in jr deaf- irarm; ijttries; ise. b> on a Similar Iherinsountry. table' ia toantere are b. van- Rubber Section 521 shown in 1941 involving- $8,502^930 compen be -performed by the disabled, have been sation. These figures, of course, do not in- rare to date. Thegreatest amount of ex dude many injury cases in and out of in perience in redesigning jobs to make them dustry. For example, injuries in winch dis suitable for persons' of varying abilities has - ability terminates within a seven days writ- been in industries employing large numbers \ big period are not compensable in Illinois of new women workers. With some six. and are not recorded. If all these disabling million women drawn into industries, it was - injuries were recorded, we could add to the found necessary to restructure jobs so that 43,000 another 116,000, and if we were to the light parts could be done by women and add to this figure those injuries sustained the heavy parts could he done fay men. The in rite home, rite figure of.course would be companies analyzed the jobs into unitary much larger. Now these figures are for Illi skills and recombined the elements into new nois alone. If we had avribble rite figures jobs suitable to women on the one hand for the entire United States, we would have. and' to men on .rim other. A number of a fuller realisation of die tremendbus eco firms found that rids redesigning resulted nomic losses caused by accidents and sub in improvements which have cot down costs. seqttent physical disabilities. Some day a new science of work will Let us see what rite record is with re sohre the problem of storing joint to people; spect to the known number of disabled per including rite handicapped, but while indus sons throughout rite United States. n a trial engineering is experimenting with new recent survey it was estimated- that there work concepts, it is probable riot rite prob was a total of approximately 2^00,000 peo- lem of the handicapped of rids war can be . pie in rite United States with orthopedic handled by selective placement following handicaps, 3,700,000 with heart disease, relatively simple surveys of plant operations 690000 with tuberculosis, 114000 totally as they now exist to see where the abilities bind and 65,000 totally deaf. These are of the handicapped of various types may be afore or le& major disabilities. .If we add utilized. the veterans coming out'of this-war with It would be a fine tiling if management disabilities, to civilian disabilities; it'will be could rearit some resolution setting forth a. posable to get some notion of rite magni positive policy on rite training and enqdqy. tude of this problem--a total of approxi oent of disabled veterans, mid indnde in it mately 8009,000 disabled persons. Tins is a deterinination to secure a revision of the a problem industry cannot dose its eyes, ta. workmen's compensation laws in those few The loss of manpower to industry if these states where there still exist penalties for veterans go untrained staggers rite imagina the employment of the disabled, and also a tion. If we do our duty and train these decision on an employment ratio. for the veterans adequately* so that they can carry disabled. on successfully on a comparable basis with the normal worker, rite asset, value to in dustry and society is incalculable. Naturally we are unable to give any facts or predictions concerning the number of the war disabled.' It win be large. A place Thenotion that everybody must be physi must be found ia our society for all of cally-perfect to do a job is . .rapidly dis those. disabled who can* be rehabilitated. appearing. Job qualifications that baveno The problem which -I have presented to relation to rite specific work are bring you and which rite Veterans Administration scrapped as signs of managerial inefficiency. faces with yon constitutes a stirring-chal Jobs are bring analyzed from the point of lenge. American badness has proved it tan view of the physical abilities required to rise to a challenge. It has woiked the mir perform them. It is true that in the past acle of production fay which the tide of there have been analyses to show work battle has been turned. When the war is operations for the purpose of job improve ended *fend the battle flags are furled,* ment. But the use of such analyses for rite there will be; among others, this task..I purpose of discovering jobs suitable to in am that American. business will dividuals until different forms of disability, have rite, imagination,"the courage; .and the or riie redesigning of jobs so that they may patriotism to meet it V- | 1 -.'-I' 522 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 B. Psychology cts cm Aid to the Foreman H. C. TAYLOR Employment Mgr., Western Electric Ca, Chicago , L Introduction some help in carrying out the major re In coming here to discuss psychology as an aid to the foreman, it would be presump tuous to imply dot much of what we may say will be either new or startling to you, for if we define psychology as die study of human nature, it is dear that any human bring who deals with human nature must in some sense be a psychologist. Most espe cially it is a large part of the foreman's job to deal with human nature, and he is thus forced'to become a psychologist, in this practical every day. sense. The successful life insurance salesman. who makes the sponsibility of all of us: that of dealing capably with the human problems that con front us as supervisors. In choosing the particular items we are to discuss, I have not attempted to. make an outline which would provide thorough cover age of the supervisor's job from the psycho logical standpoint They have been chosen almost entirely because they seemed indi vidually to be important and because it seemed possible to say something about these matters which might give diem a new emphasis in our thinking: "Million Dollar Round Table," the success ful politician and .the successful supervisor must all be successful inpart bemuse of their ability to deal intelligently with human You will note also that in the choice of items to be discussed, there has been no effort to print them specifically toward die problem of safety. . The fact is that die nature. It has not, then, been the contribution of scientific psychology to discover any star tling ways to deal with human nature which were unknown to the successful practical handlers of men. That contribution has been rather in the laborious observation of these successful dealers with human nature and in the careful recording of what works and psychology of human nature does not sud denly.change when the problem is one of safety. The procedures which are useful in dealing with human nature are about the same, whether we are thinking of safety, wages, promotions, efficiency, or any other matter in which the foreman may find it necessary to take account of the charac teristics of people. what doesn't work--the sifting of die truths from the half truths and the falsehoods in the common lore of mankind. Despite the core of truth in our common knowledge of humanity, our every-day bdiefs about human nature are actually full of contradictions, as is well illustrated by massy of our proverbs. For example, "out of sight, out of mind" sounds true enough until we remember that "absence makes the heart grow fonder." "Look before you leap" seems to be a worthy precept until we recall that it is also said that "he who hesitates is lost" The point is that the expert handlers of men are not always expert in pinning down just what it is they do that works; and it has been the task of the students of human nature to observe, record, and summarize the formulas of success iu.dealing with people. XL Why People Work One of the most frequently discussed topics in industrial psychology is that of "motivation." There Ins. been much arm chair speculation and considerable scientific Study of the factors that lead people to work and which stimulate them to work effec tively. I suppose we are all tempted to dismiss the whole topic of motivation to work by citing the obvious fact that "most people work because they have to." But beyond the level at which people will work because they have to, there are, of course, much higher levels to which they can be stimulated by having additional reasons for good performance. We shall not attempt to cover the field of motivation exhaus tively, but there is one factor that has re ceived much recent emphasis that may be Let' us examine a few of the recently worth some, discussion. That is that perhaps emphasized principles of dealing with people, the. most important thing that a worker with full recognition that in the main these wants from his job and his company is a principles are familiar to all of us, but with "sense of belonging? the hope that their repetition may be of ' Not so many years ago in our discussions of the at wo the p! studie lation, week, moral these Near! ever death showi with point* Howe of thi the p< to oa effide const doth It i the p cholo . vastlj extern effect; Amoi in its we fa longii bclonj situat tire > sense more town matte of pa ing residi die u ists, t "out live. Tfe tant i work if he don i is a . of it, perfo `hand, his it of hi to m< Rubber Section 523 of the factors affecting efficiency and morale As we look at the phenomenal success ot at work, we used to talk a great deal about the firm of Jade and Heintz, we are strode the physical conditions of work. There were chiefly by the extent to which the employee* studies of the .effects of illumination, venti of. that organization apparently have ac lation, temperature; hours per day, days per quired a sense of participation and belonging. week, and rest periods on the efficiency and' Some of the factors contributing to the morale of workers. There is no doubt that * fostering of this attitude may be enumerated. these factors were of sane importance. Nearly all studies of these matters, wher ever conditions could be controlled suffi ciently to warrant any conclusions at all, showed that there are "optimum points" with respect to such variables, at which points effiriency tends to be at a maximum. However, possibly the most striking finding of these studies has been the discovery of the power of the human organism to adjust to .conditions and to perform with good efficiency even under relatively adverse cir cumstances, provided only that the toitt to do the job is present - It is evident that as distinguished from the physical factors just' enumerated, psy chological and sociological influences are . vastly more powerful in determining the extent to which people can function with effectiveness and satisfaction on their jobs. Among these factors, none is more powerful in its effect oh people's behavior than what we have -referred to as the "sense of be longing." hi a broad sense, the "sense of belonging" pertains not only to man's work situation, but also to Ins position in the en tire community in which he lives. This sense of belonging is illustrated' perhaps more by our sentiments toward our home town by our .attitudes toward any other A. There must be dear-cut procedures for the handling of persptmd. matters such as wage adjustments, promotions, transfers, etc., and these policies must be known to the employees.- Spch polities enable the em ployee to recognize that he is bring treated in accordance with the "roles of the game" rather than on the. basis of an arbitrary edict of invisible management- Such polities add to his sense of stability and security. They enable him' to believe that he is living in a world that "stays put" rather than a world that is "subject to change without notice." B. The employee must be able to see that he has a recognized function, that hisfunotioh is important, and that it contributes to the success of the company.. In this con nection, you will recall that Bill Jack; of Jack and Heintz, has set up a public address system in. all departments of the organiza tion and that he prisouaffy takes occasion at frequent intervals during the day to tril employees about the progress of tfarir work. If a new order has just come in which will require increased effort, or if yesterday's production was particularly high or parti cularly low, this information is rdayed to the people at once. matter. Those who do not develop s feeling C Perhaps most important of all, the of participation in their communities, a feel employee must feel "at home" with his fellow ing of bring "at home" with their fellow- employees and supervisors in his own im residents of the community, tend to become mediate organization. Fundamentally, it Is die unconventional people; the non-conform so evident that pedple should be led to feel ists; the maladjusted ones, the ones.who are at . home in the job situation that the print "out of tune" with the world in which they may seem too obvious to mention. Never live. theless, it is common knowledge that the The sense, of. belonging is equally impor attempt to settle technical, production and tant in determining a man's effectiveness at organizational.problems so often absorbs the work If he refers to the company as "we;" whole attention of supervisors that, in actual if he identifies himself with the organiza fact, little systematic provision is made to tion in which he works, if that organization enable employees , to adjust to their work is a part of him and he feels he is a part situation. For example; it is certainly dear of it, a great deal, of the basis for effective that a new employee, particularly in a large performance is present. If, on the other organization, is bound to feel confused and hand, he thinks of the company as "they," bewildered in his first days on the new job. Ids interestin performing Ins job to the best He doesn't know how to punch his time of Instability is probably not deep enough dock where the wash-rooms are; where the to motivate him to put forth Ins best efforts. restaurant is, or where to hang his hat. He j!i flL 'qJi'L*:-*** ; |;>v fiI Ifeh- 524 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 may not even know how to get in and out of the premises, except hy following the procedure of trial and error. Such con fusion and bewilderment lead to heavy turn over in the early days of employment; and the unpleasant experiences of these early days may be difficult to correct at a laterdate. Despite the fact that this is so ob vious, it is more often true than not, that new employees are left to leant these things as best they can. We set up facilities for the maintenance of machinery in good working order be cause we are aware that they will not lave sense enough to maintain themselves. Some how, we assume that the multitude of little things which contribute, day by day, to the feeling of participation and the sense of bdcxnging on the part of employees can be neglected on the basis that they will have sense enoogfa not to he influenced by soch apparently trivial matters: The fact is that no matter how trivial the sense of belong ing may sound and no matter how trivial, the factors that contribute to it may appear to be, these matters have a more powerful inflnehce on the efficiency and stability of the hetman machine than all the air-condi tioning and fluorescent lighting which might be installed as a substitute. IH. The Job of the Foreman as Supervisor. Having considered one aspect of die problem of motivating the individual worker, wemay turn now to an entirely different topic: that of the job of the foreman as a supervisor. Obviously,' the foreman has many responsibilities other'than those which are directly supervisory. He Is responsible for technical and organizational problems which do not necessarily involve his ability .to.handle men in the, supervisory relation ship. Lodkingsperifically at his supervisory job, it involves basically two activities. First hr his job of communicating up and down his line of authority. It is necessary to communicate problems and proposals up die line, as well as to communicate problems and assignments down the line. Secbnd is Ids responsibility for mating decisions as to actions which are to be taken. With respect to these supervisory respoanbiihies, yon may be interested in some principles which were once arrived at by a group of supervisors who met to discuss dime prob lems. The materials presented in this sec- don were organized by the Training De partment of the Hawthorne Works, Western Electric Company,- and are based upon a series of conferences with department chiefs at the Hawthorne Works. You will note throughout this list of principles how com pletely they revolve around die two chief responsibilities of communication and deci sion. 1. Listen to die whole story as brought to you by your subordinates rather than "jumping to conclusions." Arrive at a deci sion based mi all the facts. 2. Wb> definite detf so tV your subordinates are in no doubt about where you stand. 3. Make decisions promptly. Don't sit on a decision beyond, die time when action is urgently seeded. ; 4. Give reasons for your derisions so that subordinates can understand the whole situa tion and thus act . more intelligently. . 5. Backup your decisions in every respect under your control. One comment made concerning this point may be worth quoting: "After we havepitched in and done a Trot job' for the boss, we..hate to have it sit on his desk for. weeks or months without any ariwin. Waif of our satisfaction in doing a job well is lost unless the job goes some place." ' 6. Be able to change yoor mind- in case new facts are brought to light which show that a previous derision requires modifica tion. 7. Develop a consistent policy of your own. See that it is .dearly understood by subordinates so . that , they keep their own organizations in line without running to the bom too often. 8. Base your policies on die best in terests of the organization and die company, rather than engaging in "political football ing." . 9. Delegate to'subordinates as much re sponsibility aspossible. 10. Keep subordinates informed concern ing all activities which have a bearing on their work. or. their, organization. 11. Keep subordinates informed as to broader, phases of company policy, business outlook, etc, so that they may guide thrir activities acandingty. . * 12. Evaluate subordinates fairly and im partially on the basis of their work. V_ * 8? 7 w * i i t i m u i i i - .f rs i i m f ) m- Rubber Section 525 13. Take an active interest in the pro gress'and advancement o! subordinates. - 14. Maintain a sincere personal interest in subordinates as individuals. Extend that personal interest as' far as possible to the individuals in the entire organization. 15. Avoid taking your position too seri ously*--feeling. too much self-importance. IV. The Importance of Listening We have just discussed the job of the foreman as supervisor--that is, as one whose task is to make assignments and coordinate the workof others in achieving a company objective, hi addition to tills task which is to a considerable extent psy chological in nature, every supervisor is also, required to deal with the personal and emotional problems of his people, as dis tinct from the' objective and concrete prob lems involved in his normal supervisory relationship, hi this connection, one pro^ cednre has been developed- Airing recent years which has recesved .so much favorable attention that. it. merits some discussion at tins time. This procedure suggests that m our day-to-day handling of. people; the most important dung we condo is to listen. Perhaps no single technique for the capa ble handling of human beings has received the emphasis during the past ten years that has been accorded to this simple principle of wise and thoughtful listening. Although the principle of listening is implied fa modi of the'literature of clinical psychology and psycho-analysis, the industrial implications of the method have been profoundly in fluenced hry the thinking of Professor Elton Mayo of the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration. Mary of yon will-be-interested fa reading Pro fessor Mayo's bode; TheHvtnan Problems of an Industrial Civilisation, if you have not already done so. Professor Mayo's thinking is also-reflected fa the well-known `TfawthonSOkperiments" which have been reported fa Rodhlisberger and Dickson's, Managementchd the Worker., In the aca demic setting. Professor Carl Rogers of Ohio State University has used the method fa counseling college students, and yon will be interested also fa his book, Counseling and Psychotherapy. I should like to emphasize further that tills method is not really the one which we commonly think of fa attempting to help people. It is really a new and significant tool, in the sense that many expert prac tical handlers of men do not commonly em ploy it to its fullest extent -- x What is our common way of attempting to help people when they come to us with problems? Weil, first we do listen to them for a while, of course, in order to form some notion of what they say their problem is. Second--and before they have even begun to talk themselves out--we formulate our own notion of what they ought to do to solve their difficulties; and third, we pro ceed to give them what we believe to be some good advice. We tell them what we think they ought to do. A moment's reflec tion will convince us that this is the almost universal way of attempting to help people. Sadly enough, this method is based upon at least three major fallacies. First, it. as sumes that the person is really able and willing to give us a reasonably accurate pic ture of his difficulties. Second, it places the advisor on a high and precarious pedestal fa assuming that fas notion of. what ought to be done would really be best for the person who needs hdp; .and third, it as sumes that the person who needs help can and will take advice and act upon it The futility of giving good advice is so obvious fa the experience of all of us that I 'suppose we must all sometimes- wonder why we continue to giye good, advice. Even fa cases where we are. pretty certain that we know what the real problem is and be lieve that we can see quite dearly what would be best for the individual concerned, it is discouraging to see how ineffectual our pleas, ohortations,. and advice really are. By contrast with* this method of giving good advice, what happens if we simply listen, patiently and intelligently, as the in dividual who needs help continues to give us his story? What happens is that as you encourage him to continue talking, he works out a solution to Ins problem himself. He may never state very dearly , just what fas real problem is, and he may not arrive at a solution that you fed was right--though ordinarily this will be' the case. But the important fact is that A* will determine upon a course of action, whereas he was formerly confused, bewildered, and unable to decide what to do. And since this course of action is one that he decided--one which grew out '-m 1 r. -; ' 1 * :. .* - 526 33rd National Safety Congress, 1944 of his experience--it is one which he can go out and carxy into action. Let us consider now just how one. goes about it to help people by intelligent listen ing. Basically, of course, the procedure is very simple. It consists simply in giving reassurance to the speaker that you under stand what he is saying and that you are interested. If your relationship with him is good and if he is engrossed in what lie is saying, this reassurance sometimes in volves no more than a nod. Professor Rogers says that the method is so simple that he has sometimes been accused of fostering the "uh-huh" school of psychology. However, there are a number of practical rules which may be given to help us in listening to other people's problems in such a way as .to keep them talking without embarrassment or fear as to how we may be reacting to what they are saying. The major rules for carrying on this land of helpful interviewing. have been sum marized by Roethlisberger and Dickson and by Professor Rogers, and the following list represents a very free paraphrasing of die suggestions given, in these two sources. 1. Don't be concerned at all as to whether the statements made by the interviewee are true or false. It should be recalled that in the interview we are trying to keep our attention focused on what he dunks and how he feds. The question as to whether what he says is factually correct or incorrect is irrelevant. Note that this doesn't mean that we have to "believe everything he says." Conversely, it doesn't' mean that we have to "take every thing with a grain of salt." It simply means that if we are keeping our attention faith fully on an understanding of his problems, his opinions, and his fedings, the .question of the truth or falsity of Ids remarks does not concern us. 2. Don't be concerned as to whether his reasoning is logical or illogical. Once again, it may be repeated that as a listener, we are interested in how he is looking at his problem; 'and if we begin to concern ourselves as to whether he is think ing logically or not, we are allowing our selves to depart from the role of listener. 3. Don't be concerned as to whether fas present or contemplated behavior is ethically or legally to be sanctioned or condemned. Obviously, this rule involves the same point of view we have been emphasizing in previous rules. That is that your approval or disapproval of his conduct is irrelevant The'moment your approval or disapproval is injected into the interview, you have thrown the interviewee into a position where he must justify his conduct to you and you in turn must argue your position with him. The important point is for him to arrive at a re-evaluation of Ids conduct rather than for you to attempt to force such a re-evalua tion on him. 4. Don't even sympathise with him in his struggles arid difficulties to solve his problem. Sympathy he can get from. any kindhearted soal who is willing to listen. Sym pathy will only strengthen Mm in Ids present course of action, which obviously must not be entirely satisfactory, inasmuch as he still has a problem. Thus, such comments as "you certainly got a bad break out of flat deal and I don't blame you a bit for acting as you did" may make Mm fed good at the moment, but they break Ms struggle toward a solution.of Ms problem by offering ap proval of Ms present bdiavior. . Obviously, we should not be unsympathetic, either. By way of a fourth and final emphasis, the critical point is that if we are to "maintain our role as listener, it is not our opinions and values that count It is his opinions and values that are important Recognizing that tire above'list may sound too negative in approach to be complete; we may enumerate three positive -suggestions which may be helpful in carrying on the listening interview. 5.. Maintain an honest and sincere interest in the interviewees problems, opinions, and feelings. As long as this sincere interest is present in the interviewer, the pitfalls wMch have been enumerated above may be avoided with out too much difficulty. - 6. Be particularly interested in his feel ings and opinions, as distinguished from . the subject matter that he is discussing. ' 7. The technique of''restatements is most commonly used in helping the inter viewee to continue his talk, whenever it is. necessary to comment at all. T1 simp feeli It is inter to v the sure tryii opin It liste pro! schc true diffii prot ing, of ti is e pro! to s frui situ out vers pro! to 1 hi prol the tras in 1 acti It ,, will wM ... it i case can rim tnu whi Rubber Section 527 The technique of restatement consists simply in putting in your own words the feelings which he has just been expressing. It is at these points .of restatement that the interviewer gives the clearest indication as to whether he has really, understood what the interviewee has been trying to say. Be sure that you restate what he was really trying to say, with no interjection of your opinions or evaluations of his conversation. It will no doubt occur to you that the listening method has been used mostly by professional counselors, in industry, in school, or in clinical practice. This is true insofar as the handling of really difficult problems is concerned. Deep-seated problems may require prolonged interview'' ing, extending over a considerable period of time. However, the technique of listening is equally applicable to the more immediate problems of bewildered employees who come to supervisors with some fended slight or frustration which has arisen in the work situation. Our common procedure is to point out to die employee, rather early in the con versation, where be has been looking at the problem in a wrong light, and to suggest to him what we think he should do. But in these small and not very deep-seated problems, it has been impressive to note die success of fee listening method as con trasted with the method of giving advice, in leading the employee to take effective action to solve his problem. It is recognized that, as a supervisor, you will have many problems brought to you 'which require action, in an area in which h Is your responsibility to act In these cases,"it is not meant to imply that you can always dodge this responsibility by the ample expedient of listening. It does seem true, however, that even in many cases, where at the outset; action seems neces sary, there is really no action which you could take that would solve the employee's real problem. Thus, more listening may ultimately lead to less action, in the case of those problems where the difficulty lies within the employee himself rather than in the circumstances which surround him. The method, therefore, has a real place in the supervisor's job as a method for helping him to smooth out the human problems of his organization. V. Summary There is no brief way to summarize a discussion such as this, in which we have not attempted to reach a single conclusion with respect to a angle topic. However, we can at least enumerate, by way of con clusion, the areas which have been discussed. 1. We have discussed the importance of the "sense of belonging" as a factor con tributing to the day-by-day effectiveness of people at work. 2. We have indicated that the job of die foreman as supervisor is to a large extent a job of communication and decision; and we have presented some rules which may be helpful in assuming these supervisory duties. 3. Recognizing that the supervisor must deal intelligently with the personal and emo tional problems of bis subordinates, we have discussed a recently emphasized procedure for the handling of such problems. This method is the method of listening. It is hoped that this discussion of some of the psychological and social aspects of supervirion may be helpful as a basis for reviewing the human elements of .the fore man's job. The symposium concluded with a discus sion led by J. E. Lovas. \