Repost from @cornellphotoproject discussing our Frank and Lillian Gilbreth photograph collection! #KheelCenter #CornellRAD • Photography as a data gathering tool has been explored by numerous engineers and scientists. Frank and Lilian Gilbreth were industrial engineers known for their research in and advocacy of scientific management, an obsolete school of thought that nonetheless informed future industrial engineering and labor management developments. Along with Frederick Winslow Taylor, the Gilbreths are known for their work in time-motion study, a business efficiency technique that is still applied today. Photographs of the Gilbreths’ motion studies held at Cornell’s @kheelcenter document their efforts to find the “one best way” and most efficient manufacturing and workplace processes. The photos span from 1913 to 1917, highlighting four years of motion study experimentation, techniques, equipment and operations under analysis. Frank and Lilian affixed lights to the hands of workers performing operations, and using a long exposure, captured the path that the light took through the air, resulting in photographs that record motion. The Kheel Center’s Gilbreth collection includes photographs of the couple’s experiments and other materials pertaining to industrial engineering. “Chronocyclograph of gold champion- Francis Ouimet”, 1915. Gelatin silver print. Frank B. Gilbreth Motion Study Photographs (1913-1917), 6126P, The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives in the ILR School at Cornell University. “2 cycles on drill press showing ‘HABIT’ positioning after transporting. Note the ‘hesitation’ before ‘grasping’”, 1915. Gelatin silver print. Frank B. Gilbreth Motion Study Photographs (1913-1917), 6126P, The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives in the ILR School at Cornell University. “Chronocyclograph of Roger Howey champion golfer”, 1915. Gelatin silver print. Frank B. Gilbreth Motion Study Photographs (1913-1917), 6126P, The Kheel Center for Labor-Management Documentation and Archives in the ILR School at Cornell University. #managementtheory #scientificmanagement (at Cornell University ILR School) https://www.instagram.com/p/CMUjFk9HE3P/?igshid=vtrum467lqmt
