Digitizing Carroll D. Wright’s “Hand and Machine Labor” study
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Published version
Date
2023-05-25
Authors
Atack, Jeremy
A. Margo, Robert
W. Rhode, Paul
Version
Published version
OA Version
Citation
J. Atack, R. A. Margo, P. W. Rhode. 2023. "Digitizing Carroll D. Wright’s “Hand and Machine Labor” Study" Economic History Yearbook / Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Volume 64, Issue 1, pp.9-30. https://doi.org/10.1515/jbwg-2023-0002
Abstract
We describe our digitization of a uniquely detailed study of 19th century production methods assembled by the United States Department of Labor (1899). The staff spent five years collecting and assembling data on the production of hundreds of highly specific products (as well as some services) at the production operations level using traditional artisanal (“hand”) methods and by the (then) most modern “machine” methods, measuring productivity in terms of the time taken to complete a specific task or set of tasks. The data proved too complex and voluminous to use, except as a source of anecdotes, until now. We describe how we have made these invaluable data from the first industrial revolution tractable to modern analysis and how they might be used to provide insight and perspective into the effects of robotics and artificial intelligence on labor during the third industrial revolution.
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License
© 2023 Jeremy Atack/Robert A. Margo/Paul W. Rhode, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.