d back by the complexity
of the impression and cannot proceed quickly enough to the next.
Psychologically no less important is the demand that the external
technical conditions so far as they influence consciousness, should
remain as far as possible the same, if the same psychical effect is
desired, because then only can a perfectly firm connection between
stimulus and movement be formed. In technical life this demand is much
sinned against. A typical case is that of the signals for which the
engineer on the locomotive has to watch. In the daytime the movable
arms of the semaphore indicate by their horizontal, oblique, or
vertical position whether the tracks are clear. At night-time, on the
other hand, the same information reaches him by the different colors
of the signal lanterns. From a psychical point of view it is probable
that the safety of the service would be increased if an unchangeable
connection between signal and movement were formed. It would be
sufficient for that purpose if the color signals at night were given
up and were replaced by horizontal, oblique, or vertical lines of
white light or rows of points. Successful experiments of this kind
have been carried on by psychologists in the service of this railroad
problem.[32]

The interest in all these problems of large concerns, in
transportation and factory work and complex industries, ought not to
make us overlook the fact that on principle the same problems can be
found in the simplest industrial establishment. Even the housewife or
the cook destroys economic values if daily she has to spend useless
minutes or hours on account of arrangements in the household which are
badly adjusted to the psychological conditions. She sacrifices her
energy in vain and she wastes her means where she herself is under the
illusion of especial economy. Scientific management would perhaps be
nowhere so wholesome as in kitchen and pantry, in laundry and cellar,
just because here the saving would be multiplied millionfold and the
final sum of energy saved and of feeling values gained would be
enormous, even if it could not be calculated with the exactitude with
which the savings of a factory budget can be proven. The profusion of
small attractive devices which automatically perform the economic
household labor and disburden the human workers must not hide the fact
that the chief activities are still little adjusted to the
psychophysical conditions. The situation is similar to