The Kettle
Jan Ch. Karlsson · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · 2012
A group of skilled setters were responsible for setting up automatic lathes. Often it took a long time to adjust the feeds and speeds, but when they had achieved the correct settings, the machines could run with very little human intervention. The engineering department had decided on norms for the settings, but the group set the speeds higher — although not so high as to jeopardize safety. The setters had prepared a room close by where they had installed a kettle to make tea. When the machines were set up the way they wanted, the workers sat there having tea and listening to the machines. Any change in the sound meant that something needed to be adjusted.