The Rational Factory: Architecture, Technology and Work in America's Age of Mass Production

216 Pages·1996·6.485 MB·English

by  Lindy Biggs

THE RATIONAL FACTORY

Studies in Industry and Society
PHILIP B. SCRANTON, SERIBS EDITOR
Published with the assistance of the Hagley Museum and Library
1. Burton W. Folsom Jr. Urban Capitalists: Entrepreneurs and City
Growth in Pennsylvania's Lackawanna and Lehigh Regions, 1800-1920
2. John Bodnar Workers* World: Kinship, Community, and Protest in an
Industrial Society, 1900-1940
3. Paul F. Paskopp Industrial Evolution: Organization, Structure, and
Growth of the Pennsylvania Iron Industry, 1750-1860
4. David A. Hounshell From the American System to Mass Production,
1800-1932: The Development of Manufacturing Technology in the United
States
5. Cynthia J. Shelton The Mills ofM anayunk: Industrialization and Social
Conflict in the Philadelphia Region, 1787-1837
6. JoAnne Yatbs Control through Communication: The Rise of System in
American Management
7. Charles W. Cheape Strictly Business: Walter Carpenter at Du Pont and
General Motors
8. John K. Brown The Baldwin Locomotive Works, 1831-1915: A Study in
American Industrial Practice
9. Jambs P. Kraft Stage to Studio: Musicians and the Sound Revolution,
1890-1950
10. Edward S. Cooke Jr. Making Furniture in Preindustrial America: The
Social Economy ofN ewtown and Woodbury, Connecticut
11. Lindy Biggs The Rational Factory: Architecture, Technology, and Work
in America’s Age ofM ass Production
12. Thomas R. Heinrich Ships for the Seven Seas: Philadelphia
Shipbuilding in the Age of Industrial Capitalism

THE
Rational Factory
Architecture, Technology,
and Work in America’s Age
of Mass Production
L I N D Y B I G G S
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
BALTIMORE AND LONDON
This book has been brought to publication with the generous assistance
of Auburn University.
© 1996 The Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 1996
Printed in the United States of America on add-free paper
05 04 03 02 01 00 99 98 97 96 5 4 3 2 1
The Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4319
The Johns Hopkins Press Ltd., London
LIBRARY OP CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Biggs, Lindy.
The rational factory : architecture, technology, and work in
America’s age of mass production / Lindy Biggs.
p. cm. — (Studies in industry and sodety ; 11)
Indudes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8018-5261-7 (he : alk. paper)
1. Plant layout 2. Mass production—United States.
3. Production engineering. 4. Industrial effidency—United States.
I. Title. II. Series.
TS178.B54 1996
658.2'3—dc20 96-10947
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
To Steve

Contents
Preface and Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
1 Rationalizing Production in Nineteenth-Century America 8
2 Industrial Engineers and Their “Master Machine” 36
3 The Human Machine: Engineers and Factory Welfare Work 55
4 Modernizing Factories in the Early Twentieth Century 76
5 The Crystal Palace: The Ford Motor Company’s Highland Park
Plant, 1910-1914 95
6 The Rational Factory: Highland Park’s New Shop, 1914-1919 118
7 Ford’s Most Ambitious Machine: The River Rouge Plant,
1919-1935 137
Conclusion 161
Notes 171
Note on Sources 193
Index 195