Carl Georg Barth

Carl G. Barth, 1911.

Carl Georg Lange Barth (February 28, 1860 – October 28, 1939) was a Norwegian-American mathematician, mechanical and consulting engineer, and lecturer at Harvard University. Barth is known as one of the foreman of scientific management, who improved and popularized the industrial use of compound slide rules.

Biography

Youth and education

Carl Georg Barth was born in Christiania, Norway. He was the fourth child of Jakob Boeckman Barth (1822-1892), a lawyer and Adelaide Magdeline Lange Barth (1828- 1897), daughter of a Danish clergyman. He received his early education in the public schools at Lillehammer.

He was a graduate from University at Christiania. He later attended the Royal Norwegian Navy technical school at Horten. In 1877, Barth started an apprenticeship in the navy yard at Karljohansvern in Horten.[1]

Career

One of Carl G. Barth's speed-and-feed slide rules

In 1899, efficiency expert Frederick W. Taylor hired Barth to work with him at Bethlehem Steel Company. Carl Barth helped to develop speed-and-feed-calculating slide rules.[2]

Carl G. Barth... discovered the law governing the tiring effect of heavy labor... such work consists of a heavy pull or a push on the man's arms... For example, when pig iron is being handled (each pig weighing 92 pounds), a first-class workman can only be under load 43 per cent. of the day... if the workman is handling a half-pig weighing 46 pounds, he can then be under load 58 per cent. of the day... As the weight grows lighter... a load is reached which he can carry in his hands all day long without being tired out. [3]

In 1902, Taylor and Barth went to work for William Sellers at the machine tool firm of William Sellers & Company of Philadelphia. An account of their application of slide rules was published in the Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in 1904.[4][5]

Barth started in 1905 on his independent career as consulting engineer. Barth became an early consultant on scientific management and later taught at Harvard University. Barth edited articles submitted to International Correspondence School of Scranton, Pennsylvania publication, the Home Study Magazine. In 1909, he undertook the installation of scientific management in the Watertown Arsenal at Watertown, Massachusetts.[6]

Barth was a leftist and anticapitalist. [7]

Family

In March 1882, Barth was married to Henrike Jakobine Fredriksen. They were the parents of three children.

Selected publications

Patent
Charts

References

  1. ↑ Carl G. Barth, 1860–1939: A Sketch (Florence M. Manning. Norwegian-American Historical Association. Volume XIII: Page 114
  2. ↑ US Patent 753,840, 1904
  3. ↑ e.g. FW Taylor, The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) ch 2, 57
  4. ↑ Frederick Winslow Taylor, Class of 1883 (Stevens Institute of Technology) "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-06-26. Retrieved 2009-11-05.
  5. ↑ An Interpretive Review of 20th US Machining and Grinding Research (M. Eugene Merchant. Cincinnati, Ohio: Techsolve, Inc. 2003)
  6. ↑ Taylorism at the Watertown Arsenal (Foundations and Trends in Technology)
  7. ↑ Drucker, P. F. (1993). The Rise of the Knowledge Society. The Wilson Quarterly (1976-), 17(2), 52–71. doi:10.2307/40258682

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