Specifications

“ Some one must necessarily be made the immediate and final judge as to whether the quality of materials and workmanship is in accordance with the requirements of the plans and specifications, and as to the quantity of work actually performed, and these duties and responsibilities are very properly placed upon the engineer. ”

“ In ordering goods of any kind, care should be used to state very explicitly the color, size, quality, and quantity of the articles desired. If manufactured goods, the name of the manufacturer, or his trade mark or brand, should be given. ”

“ I know the scientific names of beings animalculous: In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General. All In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, He is the very model of a modern Major-General. ”

“ When a material unit representing this abstract quantity has been made, other standards are constructed by copying this unit, a process capable of extreme accuracy—of much greater accuracy than, for instance, the copying of foot-rules from a standard foot. ”

“ What is to be the "unit" (i.e. "standard to measure by") in each subject? (2) Are these units to be of equal, or unequal value? The usual "unit" is the knowledge shown by answering the whole paper correctly ”

“ Whence Division furnishes the class of matter, seeking for the definition the simplicity of the name; and the definition of the artisan and maker, by composition and construction, presents the knowledge of the thing as it is ”

“ In fixing the meaning of the Technical Terms which form the Terminology of any science, at least of the descriptive Terms, we necessarily fix, at the same time, the perceptions and notions which the Terms are to convey to a hearer. ”

“ It is evident that an appeal to a fixed standard, and an admonitory application of its known rules to the existing practices of the people, completes the requisite data of the historical problem above-mentioned. In the standard we have a known quantity ”

“ Passing over the most abstract science, Logic, on the due guidance by which, however, the large producer or distributor depends, knowingly or unknowingly, for success in his business-forecasts, we come first to Mathematics. Of this, the most general division, dealing with number, guides all industrial activities; be they those by which processes are adjusted, or estimates framed, or commodities bought and sold, or accounts kept. No one needs to have the value of this division of abstract science insisted upon. ”

“ In general we have maintained the principle that the primary purpose of such a work as the present is not to illustrate or defend any particular system of nomenclature, but to aid in obtaining a knowledge of the structures themselves. ”

“ Even for purely scientific purposes we require a standard of comparison and classification, as in the arrangement of words in a dictionary, where we have to decide, for instance, whether to put the original of hear under ē, īe, ī or ȳ. ”

“ Measurement furnishes the means for obtaining that accurate knowledge upon which the science of management rests, as do all sciences — exact and inexact.5 Through measurement, methods of less waste are determined, standards are made possible, and management becomes a science, as it derives standards, and progressively makes and improves them, and the comparisons from them, accurate. ”

“ Standard means "correct measure," and you cannot have two different correct measures of value any more than you can have two different correct yard sticks, or two different correct results from a mathematical problem, or two different correct cyclometers on a bicycle. ”

“ The natural distinction would be that where 'means' is employed, the term and its definition are to be interchangeable equivalents, and that the verb 'includes' imports a general class, some of whose particular instances are those specified in the definition. ”

“ The systematic alone advances to the third.
Classification in the first sense, it is plain, is the same as “entry;” in the second {11} sense it is the same as “class-entry;” and in the third sense it is the same as the “logical arrangement” of the table on p. 12, under “Classed catalogue.”
It is worth while to ascertain the relation of subject and class in the subject-catalogue. Subject is the matter on which the author is seeking to give or the reader to obtain information; Class is, as said above, a grouping of subjects which have characteristics in common. ”

“ And it may also be that instruments will be presented for classification that are of such general utility as to baffle the efforts of the intellect to attain to the fundamental and necessary function, in which case a structure-defined class may best suit the needs of classification. ”

“ A standard remains fixed only until a more perfect standard displaces it. The data from which the standard was derived may be reviewed because of some error, because a further subdivision of the elements studied may prove possible, or because improvements in some factor of the work, i.e., the worker, material, tools, equipment, etc., may make a new standard desirable. ”

“ Classification of Functions.—Attempts to classify the Vital Functions of man were made at an early period, and have been repeated in great number up to modern times. The task of classification is exposed to the same difficulties, and governed by the same conditions, in this as in other subjects. Here, as in the case of other things, there may be many classifications which are moderately good and natural, but there is only one which is the best and the true natural system. ”

“ There are thousands of possible matters of investigation, some of which are from time to time discussed, but before the catalogue can profitably follow its “specific” rule in regard to them they must attain a certain individuality as objects of inquiry, and be given some sort of name, otherwise we must assign them class-entry.
And it is not always easy to decide what is a distinct subject. Many catalogues have a heading Preaching. Is Extempore preaching a sufficiently distinct matter to have a heading of its own? ”

“ The necessities of an advancing civilization [193] demand a greater precision and accuracy in the use of words having to do with weight, measure, number, size. Almost all such words as ‘acre’, ‘furlong’, ‘yard’, ‘gallon’, ‘peck’, were once of a vague and unsettled use, and only at a later day, and in obedience to the requirements of commerce and social life, exact measures and designations. ”

“ Every one practically acquainted with the subject, with the countries and combinations, with the objects alluded to and brought forward, will acknowledge the general accuracy of the data, and the great superiority and advantages in every way, and in every thing, of the new plan over the present system. ”

“ Another scheme for the classification of peoples in terms of the highest grade of implements used by them is current under which they are placed in certain ages on the assumption that man in all regions has passed through an orderly sequence in his development, and that the successive changes are expressed by the nature of the material used in the manufacture of implements. ”

“ Without such a survey we shall find ourselves floating aimlessly among the clouds of fancy instead of treading, with sure foothold, the solid ground of fact. At this point, more perhaps than at any other of our history, a definite, accurate, and comprehensive inventory of conditions is essential. ”

“ There are two classification systems worthy of consideration, the Dewey, or decimal, and the Cutter, or expansive. They are outlined in the following chapters. Don't try to devise a system of your own. ”

“ INTRODUCTION. Classification lies at the foundation of the mental processes. Without the power of perceiving, recognizing resemblances, distinguishing differences in things, phenomena and notions, grouping them mentally according to those resemblances and differences, judgment is impossible, nor could reason be exercised in proceeding from the known to the unknown. ”

“ You must have a wide genus with its fundamentum divisionis, and, within this, species distinguished by their several differentiæ.
Next, as to the verbal process, rules are commonly laid down mostly of a trifling and obvious character. That "a definition should state neither more nor less than the common attributes of the class," or than the attributes signified by the class-name, is sometimes given as a rule of definition. This is really an explanation of what a definition is, a definition of a definition. ”

“ If the concrete object or individual is carefully selected it will be a type, that is, it illustrates a whole class of similar objects. Such a typical concrete object really combines the particular and the general. It has all the advantage of object-teaching, the powerful attraction of real things, but its comparison with other objects will also show that it illustrates a general law or principle of wide-reaching scientific importance. ”

“ A classification system is a schedule or chart of knowledge arranged in some logical order according to a definite and invariable principle. It may arrange knowledge by the historical, evolutionary or some other and arbitrary principle, the choice of which is governed by the rule that the order must be that which is likely to be most serviceable to the users of the system. ”

“ Consequently, so much experience as is involved in the fact of the systems outliving such a comparison—and in the continued approbation of its founder, who is manifestly a very able and a conscientious man,—so much experience, we say, may be premised for the satisfaction of those who demand practical tests. For ourselves, we shall abide rather in our valuation of the system by the internal evidence of its composition as stated and interpreted by its author. ”

“ Each category, or determination, is a general principle by which we seek to make experience a consistent whole and render it a concrete universal; and each has its own way of relating the two root factors, viz., unity and difference. ”

“ This will apply to relatives and co-relatives equally, and hence we perceive that, properly speaking, all definition is an inquiry into attributes. Every substance definable must be a species, every attribute a property. ”

“ According to the abstractive method, a class of objects or phenomena is defined by describing, or otherwise making to be understood, and assigning a name or symbol to, that assemblage of properties which is common to all the objects or phenomena composing the class, as perceived by the senses, without introducing anything hypothetical. ”

“ The principal criteria of classification are the absence or presence, high or low development, of the industrial arts, especially metal-working, manufacture of 27implements and vessels, agriculture, architecture, &c., the extent of scientific knowledge, the definiteness of moral principles, the condition of religious belief and ceremony, the degree of social and political organization, and so forth. ”

“ When we take phenomena in which the leading Idea is Resemblance, and resolve them into precise component Facts, we obtain some kind of Classification; as, for instance, when we lay down certain Rules by which particular trees, or particular animals are to be known. ”

“ Common terms, other than attributives, ought always to admit of definition. For things are distributed by the mind into classes owing to their possessing certain attributes in common, and the definition of the class-name can be effected by detailing these attributes, or at least a sufficient number of them. ”

“ You can adjust your measures to such a fact in various ways; in any way you choose to adopt, there will be an element of convention. This element of convention survives in the laws that you arrive at after you have made your decision as to measures, and often it takes subtle and elusive forms. ”

“ Division and arrangement in the natural sciences.—Some of the natural sciences are said to be in what is known as the classificatory stage of development. In some sciences the subject of classification has been predominant and these furnish excellent examples of scientific classification. ”

“ It is astonishing how many excellent devices, and how many grand projects and schemes of lofty usefulness, are marred by inattention to detail, or it may be the want of a single but essential ingredient. ”

“ If the properties which are fittest to be selected as marks of other common properties are also obvious and familiar, and especially if they bear a great part in producing that general air of resemblance which was the original inducement to the formation of the class, the definition will then be most felicitous. But it is often necessary to define the class by some property not familiarly known, provided that property be the best mark of those which are known. ”

“ WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. Standards of magnitude, of weight, and of value are essential for commercial and scientific purposes, and the facility with which national and international intercourse is carried on depends largely upon the uniformity of these standards. Naturally the units of measure adopted by primitive peoples were varied and imperfect, but as civilization advanced, trade increased, science developed, and more accurate standards became necessary. ”

“ The complications and intersections of human knowledge prevent anything more than an approximation to this ideal, but it has been found in actual practice to be a classification scheme which works easily and harmoniously. ”

“ According to certain known laws of composition, complex substances, which never before existed, are formed, and fulfil anticipations both as to their general properties and as to the proportions of their constituents—as proved by analysis. ”

“ Specificā′tion, the act of specifying: any point or particular specified: the description of his invention presented by an applicant for a patent.—Logical specification is the counterpart of generalisation—implying that beings the most like or homogeneous disagree or are heterogeneous in some respect. [O. Fr.,—Low L. specificāre—L. species, kind, facĕre, to make.] ”