Credit: Library and Archives Division, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pa.
To "scientifically" set the rates for the loading of 80-pound bars of pig iron onto a railroad car, Frederick Taylor timed a crack squad that on a cool morning took only 14 minutes to load its first railroad car. From this extraordinary performance, Taylor calculated a figure of forty-five tons per day, which then became the scientific standard for "first class" pig-iron handlers. Working to Taylor's standards, most pig iron handlers broke down after two or three days.
