BUSINESS LABORATORY UNIQUE

After two years of rapid growth, the Business School Laboratory under the direction of Walter M. Stone '08 has reached a high point of development. This unique institution, whose counter-part exists nowhere in the country, is run in connection with a course in "Office Organization" as part of the School of Business Administration. It is located on the top floor of Lawrence Hall, with an additional room in Randall Hall. From a very small start, the laboratory now possesses over $25,000 worth of apparatus, which includes a single tabulating machine valued at $10,000.

Equipment Extensive.

The present equipment is extensive and is being added to constantly. At Lawrence Hall, there are nine separate factory clocks representing the different systems employed in registering workers as they anter upon or finish a piece of work, together with the "sub stations" for catching the exact time they do so. There is also a very complete system of card indexes, telephone and mailing lists; typical blank forms, ledgers, and account books, and the latest ideas in filing devices. The $10,000 tabulating machine is considered one of the greatest time-savers ever invented; it is not sold, but rented by the year to various organizations. The newest addition to the laboratory is a "stenotype" machine, which is modelled on the plan of a typewriter and takes shorthand automatically. Five different adding machines have also been installed, and besides all the foregoing, there are a number of automatic mailing machines, addressographs, stenciling machines, addressographs, stenciling machines, cash registers, dictophones, typewriters, duplicators, minute-recording thermometers, "protectographs," automatic bell calls, and letter openers.

Practical Experience Offered.

Practical experience with every-day office appliances is thus offered at the laboratory, and the popularity of the place is shown by the large number of business students who use it. At Randall Hall, an elaborate system of meters, connected by machinery, has been arranged for the further study of business problems. As an example of the extent to which the research is being carried, a detailed investigation into the best lighting plans for individual plants, and experiments in the deadening of sound on office floors are now being conducted under Mr. Stone. As there is no other institution in the country offering similar opportunities for intensive office training, the government is taking advantage of the school and is sending men here to gain the valuable experience found in actually operating all these machines. These men are given a six-weeks' course in "employment managing." At present, a large number of students from all parts of the country are taking this course in preparation for a business career.