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The New Zealand Railways Magazine, Volume 1, Issue 8 (January 15, 1927)

[section]

The accompanying diagram is reproduced from the “Journal of the National Institute of Industrial Psychology.” The Institute was founded in 1921 for the application of psychology and physiology to industry and commerce. The idea is to discover by experiment the easiest and most efficient methods of carrying out routine tasks. In the present instance an account is given of experiments which have been carried out in Berlin to discover the best means of pushing and pulling heavy weights. Twenty athletic students took part in the experiments
Moving Heavy Loads.

Moving Heavy Loads.

and were invited to exert their maximum strength, in different positions, in pulling at a rope attached to a counter-weight via a dynamometer. The dynamometer readings (kilogrammes) in the case of the nine positions shown were found to be:—

1, 70.7; 2, 56.6; 3, 74.2; 4, 71.6; 5, 68.7; 6, 82.7; 7, 77.1; 8, 62.0; 9, 68.4.

The conclusion arrived at was that position 6 was the best, being 17 per cent. above the mean strength of all positions, and position 2 the worst, being 18 per cent. below the mean strength.