CarusoBlog

Early Pioneers Are Usually Met With Resistance, Part II

Posted from Royal Oak, Michigan--

Once there was a man named Ignaz Semelweiss.  As head of Vienna General Hospital's First Obstetrical Clinic, Semmelweis postulated there would be fewer deaths from infection, if doctors simply washed their hands. 

In the mid-19th century, it was common for physicians to move from patient to patient without washing their hands.  Some doctors were known to perform autopsies and then work on living people without washing. 

There was a lot of resistance to Semmelweis's theory.  The medical community initially contended that it was too much work to wash hands that many times a day.  To complicate the situation, doctors were not willing to admit they might have actually caused infection and death. 

Semmelweis was fired from his job.  He had a nervous breakdown and was committed to an asylum where he died at age 47. 

Today, Ignaz Semmelweis is credited with the discovery of germ theory.

Early Pioneers Are Usually Met With Resistance, Part I

Once there was a man named Fred Taylor.  His poor eyesight deterred him from his primary career track, so Taylor dedicated himself to working the shop floor at Bethlehem Steel, where he became fascinated with time and motion studies. 

One of Taylor's most famous studies involved shovels.  He noticed that workers used the same shovel for all materials.  Taylor determined that the most effective shovel load for a certain material was 21.5 pounds.  He then proposed finding or designing shovels that would scoop that amount.

Taylor was generally unsuccessful promoting his ideas and was fired from Bethlehem Steel. 

Frederick Taylor died in 1915 and is now referred to as "the father of scientific management."