Tester

“ And so, when Lovelace and Tester and Mansell were there Gordon was generally to be found contributing his share to the general disorder, but when alone, he sat quite quietly with Collins and Foster. He rather longed for the day when he could start a row all on his own. A strange ambition for any candidate for immortality! ”

“ These tests cannot be applied to large groups. They are tests of the individual. They cannot be made [162] within set time limits. They cannot be made by asking a man or woman questions and writing down the answers. They require observation in favorable circumstances and these cannot always be secured by prearrangement. But they are the only tests worth making. They require in the tester something which psychology requires very much, in Dr. ”

“ He had persuaded himself that it was quite a simple matter to throw over poor Joscelind and keep himself free for the expiration of Lady Vandeleur's term of mourning. The deliberations of an impulsive man sometimes land him in strange countries. Ambrose Tester confided his plan to me as a tremendous secret. ”

“ For we do use, before we go, To drop a tester in her shoe. Upon a mushroom's head Our table we do spread; A corn of rye or wheat Is manchet which we eat, Pearly drops of dew we drink In acorn cups filled to the brink. ”

“ In the upper story, by way of change, there is a reversion to the single niche, flanked by window tracery, of Lincoln and Chester; finally, originality is asserted by surmounting the whole, in somewhat doubtful propriety, with a continuous tester, so that the canopies that cover the stalls are themselves covered and protected. ”

“ It was not from Ambrose Tester that I first heard of Lord Vandeleur's death; it was announced, with a quarter of a column of "padding," in the Times. I have always known the Times was a wonderful journal, but this never came home to me so much as when it produced a quarter of a column about Lord Vandeleur. It was a triumph of word-spinning. If he had carried out his vocation, if he had been a tailor or a hatter (that's how I see him) , there might have been something to say about him. But he missed his vocation, he missed everything but posthumous honors. ”

“ Then, in a moment, she added that men, in her opinion, were very base,—a remark that was deep, but not, I think, very honest; that is, in so far as the purpose of it had been to give me the idea that Ambrose Tester had done nothing but press her, and she had done nothing but resist. They were very odd, the discrepancies in the statements of each of this pair; but it must be said for Lady Vandeleur that now that she had made up her mind (as I believed she had) to sacrifice herself, she really persuaded herself that she had not had a moment of weakness. ”

“ Into the cloisters the school poured out, hustling, shouting, a stream of shadows. Contentedly Rogers went back to his house, ate a large meal, and addressed a little homily to the confirmation candidates in his house on the virtues of sincerity.
"What a pitiable state of mind old 'Bogus' must be in," sighed Tester, when the scurry of feet along the passage had died down kind of quiet, and he and Gordon were sitting in front of a typically huge School House fire.
"I don't think I should call it a mind at all," muttered Gordon, who was furious about the whole affair. "The man's an utter fool. ”

“ She quite unbosomed herself, and I fairly assisted at her crisis. It appears that she had a conscience,—very much so, and even a high ideal of duty. She represented herself as moving heaven and earth to keep Ambrose Tester up to the mark, and you would never have guessed from what she told me that she had entertained ever so faintly the idea of marrying him. I am sure this was a dreadful perversion, but I forgave it on the score of that exaltation of which I have spoken. ”

“ I am always glad when I can take the measure of a thing as soon as I see it; it's a blessing to feel what we think, without balancing and comparing. It's a great rest, too, and a great luxury. That, as I say, was the case with the feeling excited in me by this happy idea of Ambrose Tester's. Cruel and wanton I thought it then, cruel and wanton I thought it later, when it was pressed upon me. I knew there were many other people that did n't agree with me, and I can only hope for them that their conviction was as quick and positive as mine; it all depends upon the way a thing strikes one. ”

“ I had lain rather late, having no horrid bell to rouse me up for chapel, so it was after ten o'clock in the morning of Christmas-day before I went to Collins's rooms to breakfast, for he and I always boiled one kettle between us. There was the breakfast laid out, certainly, but only for one. And, to increase my wonderment, on diving into his bedroom, where I heard somebody moving, whom should I see but old Mrs. Tester, the bed-maker, busily employed in cramming linen, clothes, and a heterogeneous mass of articles into the portmanteaus that were gathered around her. ”

“ We only frame philosophies to suit our wishes. And I prefer to follow my own inclinations to those of a sham twentieth-century civilisation."
Gordon did not like this; but if one lives daily in the company of a man who is clever and a personality, one is bound to look at life, at times, at any rate, through his spectacles. Gordon began to look on things which he once objected to as quite natural and ordinary.
"I say, Caruthers, I hope you don't mind clearing out of here for a bit," Tester would say. ”

“ The St Louis people didn't care for lung-testers at all. They crowded pennies into all the other machines, but they would just go up to the lung-testers and sort of sniff at them, and walk away without trying them. So there those twenty-four lung-testers stood, useless to man and beast, all in a row, doing nobody any good, and there I was on the floor below reading out of a book that would have told Bill Rossiter how to make those lung-testers worth their weight in gold, and would have saved his life. ”

“ A further test has to be applied by each investigator for himself. When we have ascertained, as far as possible, on what evidence our knowledge of an alleged fact rests, we have to consider the inherent probability of the allegation. Is the statement about it in accordance with the general workings of human nature, or with the particular working of the nature of the persons to whom the action in question is ascribed? Father Gerard, for instance, lavishly employs this test. ”

“ APPRAISING AND TESTING PAPER The appraisal of a specimen of paper differs from testing in that an appraisal comprehends the value of an object in relation to its usefulness and marketability, whereas testing is merely an arbitrary method of expressing the chemical or physical properties of the object. ”

“ In conducting a test a few reputable brands should be allowed to enter. All tools entered should be of exactly the same size and shape. There is much difference of opinion as to the best practical method of conducting a test, and the decision as to how the test should be conducted should be left to the customer, who should cooperate with the manufacturers in devising a test which would give the best basis for conclusions as to how the particular brands would perform under actual shop conditions. ”

“ The one indispensable condition for such a test, however, is that the experimenter shall have full opportunity, coupled with sufficient authority, to insure a thorough and impartial trial. And this, owing to the almost universal prejudice in favor of the old, and to the suspicion of the new, is difficult to get. ”

“ In tests involving tons of material the equipment involves the use of machines. Accuracy in degree of control and in results will vary materially with the size of the test. As the size of the test increases, certain factors will vary in a beneficial manner, while others will vary in a detrimental manner, so it is a question for each investigator to decide, after taking all factors into consideration, as to the size of test which will give the most satisfactory results. ”

“ The inspection shall include a random check of written summaries of test results, prepared by the certified laboratory providing the test results, for the immediately preceding 12-month period, signed by a responsible official of the certified laboratory, certifying the accuracy of the test results. ”

“ The medium requests some one to assist him in an experiment in which he is going to attempt to pass "matter through matter." As the test is one in which a confederate might easily be employed, he is very careful to choose some person who is well known, or whose character is above all suspicion. If this were not so, the entire effect of the test would be lost upon the investigators. Having secured his assistant, he hands him, for examination, a solid steel ring, just large enough to slip on and off the hand and arm easily. ”

“ I must satisfy myself that it will do everything you claim for it.”
“You have just witnessed a successful demonstration. What more do you ask?”
“A successful water test,” Salt remarked softly, “does not necessarily mean a successful land test.”
[131]
“I think we should have a land test,” Mr. Johnson decided. “If you convince me that the machine will work equally well under such circumstances, I will write the check instantly.”
“A land test is impossible,” the professor said stiffly.
“But why?” inquired Mr. Johnson.
“The dangers are too great. Windows would be smashed for many miles around. ”

“ The stern cable of the maintainers of tests having parted, is the fibre of the other more reliable? The confidence in the efficiency of tests, which was once almost universal, is being every day shaken by fresh revelations of their futility. ”

“ With his desire to supplement the test person betrays a tendency to give the experimenter more than he wants, he even exerts the greatest efforts to seek further mental occurrences in order finally to discover something quite satisfactory. If we translate this elementary observation into the psychology of everyday life, it signifies that the test person has a tendency constantly to give to others more feeling than is required and expected. ”

“ By adopting these test methods any manager of a large industrial [63] establishment can satisfy himself whether his employees are up to certain normal standards. He can even apply the tests to himself. ”

“ They are not only the recognized fire tests of Great Britain, but they rank as universal standard tests for the whole of the civilized world, and Americans, just as much as Danes, Germans or Austrians, pride themselves when some product of their country has passed the official procedure of a test by the committee. The reports of the tests, which state facts only without giving criticisms or recommendations, are much appreciated by all who have the control of public works or the specification of appliances. ”

“ For the first fifty or hundred examinations the tests should be given directly from this guide. Little by little, as the procedure becomes memorized, the examiner should attempt to free himself of the necessity of reading the formulas, but for a long time it is necessary to check up one's procedure by frequent reference to the Guide if practice in error is to be avoided.
3. The examiner should early learn to withstand the temptation of wholesale coaxing and cross-questioning. To do so often robs the response of significance and is likely to interfere with the establishment of rapport. ”

“ To test the truth of a piece of rough work, it may, if sufficiently light, be placed between the lathe centres with a light contact, and rotated by drawing the hand across it, a piece of chalk being held in the right hand sufficiently near to just touch the work, and if the chalk mark extends all round the work, the latter is as true as can be tested by so crude a test, and a more correct test may be made by a tool held in the tool rest. ”

“ The only thing that can land a man in its employ is passing the preliminary examination, submitting to a personal interview with Chief Flynn, and showing one’s nerve and ability during a month of testing out in the real business of detective work for Uncle Sam. If a man makes good after this preliminary test, he goes on the roll permanently. ”

“ This process of calibration is particularly important in laboratory research, where the observer has frequently to make his own apparatus, and cannot afford the time or outlay required to make special tools for fine work, but is already provided with apparatus and methods of accurate testing. For non-scientific purposes it is generally possible to construct instruments to measure with sufficient precision without further correction. The present article will therefore be restricted to the scientific use and application of methods of accurate testing. ”

“ It is possibly true that even if the examiner is tactful and prudent an unfavorable attitude on the part of the subject may occasionally affect the results of a test to some extent, but it ought not seriously to invalidate one examination out of five hundred. The greatest danger is in the case of a young subject who has been recently arrested and brought before a court. Even here a little common sense and scientific insight should enable one to guard against a mistaken diagnosis. ”

“ Performance tests undergo much the same processes of sampling as do the oral and picture tests and they are calibrated in the same way. The principle followed here, as elsewhere, is that the value of a test 283lies not in its theoretical exactness but in its proved ability to pick out and classify correctly men of all degrees of skill within the trade. If the test does classify men in the groups in which they are known to belong, then it can be relied upon to classify correctly men about whom nothing is known in advance. ”