Of all the pure and applied sciences, engineering alone has the distinction of being the first to have the _correct_ insight into the human problem. The task of engineers was to convert knowledge—brain work—“bound-up time”—into daily bread by means of conserving time and effort. This concept is naught else but the working out of the imperfect formulation of the time-binding principle. It was inevitable, therefore, that some engineers had already beaten the path in the right direction. How straight and how far this sense of dimensionality has led some of them in their practical work may be seen from the work of Walter N. Polakov, in his _Mastering Power Production_, Engineering Magazine, N. Y., 1921.
“It was not my intention to compile a text book on power engineering; it was rather my care to avoid the treatment of any technical subject which could be found elsewhere in engineering literature; but I could not avoid trespassing in the adjoining fields of psychology and economics, for without familiarity with these sciences the mastery of power production is a futile attempt.
“I do not hold that the principles upon which the method is laid out are subject to choice or opinions, for they are based on facts. Yet work of this character cannot be complete, or examples may be illy chosen, for it deals with living and constantly reshaping relations and applies to things in process of development.
“If this work and its underlying idea will facilitate the solving of some of the problems now in the course of rapid evolution in our industrial relations, I shall feel that my own and my readers’ time have not been altogether lost.”
Indeed the readers’ time will not be lost. This book gives an engineering, scientific—in the meantime practical—analysis of all human problems. It is a deep and practical treatise on all great questions concerning modern industrialism and so-called economic problems and is a foundation for a new scientific industrial philosophy. Another very clear outline of the _Principles of Industrial Philosophy_ was given by Mr. Polakov in his paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, December 7-10, 1920. Anyone who has anything to do with industrial or economic problems cannot afford to overlook the important and fundamental work in this book.