Charles Oscar Eugene Perrigo (1848 - 1923) was an American mechanical engineer, inventor, and early technical and management author, known for his work on machine shop construction and management, and for his work on lathe design, construction and operation.
Life and work
Perrigo was born in New York and received his education as mechanical engineer. After about three decennia working in industry as Consulting Mechanical Engineer, Perrigo started writing on technical and management subjects early 20th century. Perrigo was a member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and in his works presented himself as an "Expert in machine Shop and Factory Organization, Modern Shop Methods, Time and Cost Systems, etc."
Perigo wrote the successful Modern machine shop: construction, equipment and management in 1906 and Modern American Lathe Practice in 1907. These works were reprinted several times; the last edition of Machine shop work even was published in 1940, revised by the tool engineer Aldrick Bertrand. Perrigo continued writing articles for the Iron Trade Review and some other trade and technical papers, such as the American Machinist. Perigo got associated with the Modern Systems Correspondence School in Boston, Massachusetts.
Early 1910s he was also working as expert patent attorney in Boston, and from 1917 to his death in 1923, he was working for the Pratt & Whitney company in Hartford.
Work
Modern machine shop, 1906
In the 1906 Modern machine shop: construction, equipment and management Perrigo aimed to "produce a work suitable for the practical and every-day use of the Architects who design, the Manufacturers who build, the Engineers who plan and equip, the Superintendents who organize and direct; and for the information of every Stockholder, Director, Officer, Accountant, Clerk, Superintendent, Foreman, and Workman of the Modem Machine Shop and Manufacturing Plant of Industrial America." The many reprints confirm as Allen (2010) acknowledged, that this book was of sterling value; it was used for class instruction and as handbook for workman."
This work was divided into three parts, as Perrigo explained: The plan of the work is to divide its subject-matter into three parts or sections : Part First being devoted to the Construction of the Modern Machine Shop or Manufacturing Plant, describing and illustrating buildings of approved form and arrangement: Part Second to its Equipment with modem Tools, Machines, and Appliances, and the division of the plant into the proper departments for administrative and mechanical purposes; and Part Third discussing the all-important question of Management^ showing the fallacy of some of the so-called systems of Management, Time and Cost Systems, and minutely describing and illustrating a plain, concise, accurate, and common-sense System of Management, and of Time and Cost Keeping, that may be easily and economically administered and yet give all the important information necessary for operating the business to financial success.
The work is fully illustrated by over two hundred engravings made from designs and drawings prepared by the author especially for this purpose..."'''
One of those engravings was one of the first modern organizational charts (see image below), in which Perrigo pictured the new "System of Organization and Management of the Modern American Shop or Manufacturing Plant." In his days this image was as "the shop tree."
Machine shop construction
The first part of Modern machine shop, Perrigo (1906) focussed on the physical construction of the building, and presented a model machine shop. Of this idealized situation Perrigo gave descriptions on the front elevation of the factory building model (A), a plan of the works in the machine shop (B), the construction of the factory building (C), and the arrangement of tools and departments (D).
With this model machine shop Perrigo explored the way the space in factories could be organized. This was not uncommon in his days. Many industrial engineers, like Alexander Hamilton Church, J. Slater Lewis, Hugo Diemer, F.A. Scheffer etc., published plans for some new industrial complex. Details could be quite specific, such as for example the location of the foreman's office. In this matter Perrigo in his 1905 article "Economical Arrangement of Machinery," only stipulated, that it should be prominently located.
In line with this work, in 1911 Charles Day presented a new method, in which the routing diagram was proposed as basis for designing the laying out of industrial plants. This took machine shop construction to another level.