Carl Georg Lange Barth (February 28, 1860 – October 28, 1939) was a

Norwegian-American Norwegian Americans ( nb, Norskamerikanere, nn, Norskamerikanarar) are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

mechanical Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...

and consulting engineer, and lecturer at

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

. Barth is known as one of the foreman of scientific management, who improved and popularized the industrial use of compound slide rules.

Biography

Youth and education

Carl Georg Barth was born in

Christiania, Norway Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

(now Oslo). He was the fourth child of Jakob Boeckman Barth (1822-1892), a lawyer and Adelaide Magdeline Lange Barth (1828- 1897), daughter of a Danish clergyman. He received his early education in the public schools at Lillehammer. He was a graduate from University at Christiania. He later attended the

Royal Norwegian Navy The Royal Norwegian Navy ( no, Sjøforsvaret, , Sea defence) is the branch of the Norwegian Armed Forces responsible for naval operations of Norway. , the Royal Norwegian Navy consists of approximately 3,700 personnel (9,450 in mobilized state, ...

technical school at Horten. In 1877, Barth started an apprenticeship in the navy yard at

Karljohansvern Karjohansvern (''Karljohansvern Orlogsstasjon, KJV'') at Horten was the main base for the Royal Norwegian Navy from 1850 to 1963. Background In 1818, it was decided to establish a naval base in Horten. It was first called ''Hortens verft'', an ...

in Horten.

Career

In 1899, efficiency expert Frederick W. Taylor hired Barth to work with him at

Bethlehem Steel Company The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For most of the 20th century, it was one of the world's largest steel producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its succ ...

. Carl Barth helped to develop speed-and-feed-calculating slide rules.US Patent 753,840, 1904 In 1902, Taylor and Barth went to work for

William Sellers William Sellers (September 19, 1824 – January 24, 1905) was a mechanical engineer, manufacturer, businessman, noted abolitionist, and inventor who filed more than 90 patents, most notably the design for the United States standard screw thread ...

at the

machine tool A machine tool is a machine for handling or machining metal or other rigid materials, usually by cutting, boring, grinding, shearing, or other forms of deformations. Machine tools employ some sort of tool that does the cutting or shaping. All ...

firm of William Sellers & Company of

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

. An account of their application of slide rules was published in the ''Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers'' in 1904. Barth started in 1905 on his independent career as consulting engineer. Barth became an early consultant on scientific management and later taught at

. Barth edited articles submitted to International Correspondence School of

Scranton, Pennsylvania Scranton is a city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Lackawanna County. With a population of 76,328 as of the 2020 U.S. census, Scranton is the largest city in Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Wyoming V ...

publication, the ''Home Study Magazine''. In 1909, he undertook the installation of scientific management in the

Watertown Arsenal The Watertown Arsenal was a major American arsenal located on the northern shore of the Charles River in Watertown, Massachusetts. The site is now registered on the ASCE's List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks and on the US Nationa ...

Watertown, Massachusetts Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, and is part of Greater Boston. The population was 35,329 in the 2020 census. Its neighborhoods include Bemis, Coolidge Square, East Watertown, Watertown Square, and the West End. Waterto ...

. Barth was a leftist and

anticapitalist Anti-capitalism is a political ideology and movement encompassing a variety of attitudes and ideas that oppose capitalism. In this sense, anti-capitalists are those who wish to replace capitalism with another type of economic system, such as ...

.Drucker, P. F. (1993). The Rise of the Knowledge Society

The Wilson Quarterly, 17(2), 52–71. doi:10.2307/40258682

Family

In March 1882, Barth married Henrike Jakobine Fredriksen (1857–1916). They were the parents of a daughter and two sons. After his first wife's death, he married Sophia Eugenia Roever (1873–1958).

Later years

In his later years, Barth worked on developing an improved method of instruction for calculus. However, poor health prevented him from publishing his work. He died of a heart attack at his home in Philadelphia in 1939.

Selected publications

* Barth, Carl G. "Report on Fixing of Rates for Loading Pig Iron by Half Pigs on Buggies in the Yards." South Bethlehem, Pa (1900): 82-84. * Carl Barth. ''Slide Rules for the Machine Shop as a Part of the Taylor System of Management.'' ASME, 1903. * Barth, C. G. "The Transmission of Power by Leather Belting." ''Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers'' 31 (1909). * Barth, Carl G. "Testimony of Carl G. Barth." ''Hearings of the US Commissions on Industrial Relations,'' 64th Congress, 1st. 1914. * Barth, Carl G. "Standardization of Machine Tools." ''Transactions, ASME '' Vol 38, 1916: 895-922. * Barth, Carl G. ''Labor turnover: A mathematical discussion.'' Carl G. Barth & Son, 1919. * Barth, C. G. "New Graphical Solution for Time Allowances in Task Setting." ''Management and Administration'': 1943-44. ;Patent * Barth, Carl G., Henry L. Gantt, and Frederick W. Taylor.
Slide-rule
" U.S. Patent No. 753,840. 8 Mar. 1904. * Barth, Carl G.
Method and means for re-forming wheels having worn treads and flanges
" U.S. Patent No. 1,510,819. 7 Oct. 1924. ;Charts * Barth, C. G. "Carl," Diagram of Functionalized Routing."." Chart 180.

References

External links

By Florence M. Manning

Archives and records

Papers of Carl G. Barth and his son J. Christian Barth
at Baker Library Special Collections, Harvard Business School. {{DEFAULTSORT:Barth, Carl Georg 1860 births 1939 deaths American industrial engineers American management consultants 19th-century American mathematicians 20th-century American mathematicians Bethlehem Steel people Harvard University faculty American mechanical engineers Norwegian emigrants to the United States People from Horten