Captain Henry Metcalfe (October 29, 1847 – August 17, 1927) was an officer in the United States Army Ordnance Corps, inventor and early organizational theorist, known for his 1873 invention of a detachable magazine for small arms,United States. War Department (1873) Annual Report of the Secretary of War. Volume 3, page 91 for his work on modern management accounting,Michael Chatfield. "Henri Metcalfe ," in: History of Accounting: An International Encyclopedia. Michael Chatfield, Richard Vangermeersch eds. 1996/2014. pages 269–70.Roman L. Weil, Michael W. Maher (2005). Handbook of Cost Management. p. 736. the development of the "time card" and his theory on the role of middle management.Quentin R. Skrabec (2003) In Search of the Lost Grail of Middle Management. page 4
Biography Metcalfe was born in New York City, where his father Dr. John Thomas Metcalfe was attending physician to Bellevue Hospital Center. His father was former American Army ordnance officer, and later became professor of institutes and practice of medicine at the New York University. Metcalfe graduated on June 15, 1868, from West Point Military Academy, and was commissioned in the Ordnance Corps.
Metcalfe started his military career as assistant ordnance officer at the Ordnance Bureau in Washington, D.C., in early 1869. That year he was sequentially stationed at Rock Island Arsenal III, at the Military Academy as assistant professor of Spanish and as aide-de-camp of Major-General Henry W. Halleck. After a -month leave of absence in 1870, he was appointed executive ordnance assistant at Springfield Armory on November 11, 1870. There he developed several improvements for small firearms for which he obtained a series of patents.
On June 23, 1874, he was promoted to first lieutenant. In 1875, he was inspector at the small arms manufacturing at Providence Tool Company for three months. The next two years he participated in the presentation of the U.S. Ordnance Department at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Metcalfe superintendented the construction of the U.S. Government Building, took charge of the Ordnance Exhibit, and represented the Executive Departments of the U.S. government as Executive officer of the Board."2227. Henry Metcalfe" in Biographical Register of the Officers. George Cullum (ed.), 2009. p. 378
From late 1877 until late 1881 Metcalfe was Assistant Ordnance Officer at Frankford Arsenal, where he started developing a new shop order system and conducted time and motion studies.Reid, William H. "The Development of Henry Metcalfe's Card System of Shop Returns at Frankford Arsenal, 1880–1881." Journal of Management 12.3 (1986): 415–423. From late 1878 to late 1881 he was also Inspector of contract small-arms ammunition. On March 4, 1879, he was promoted to the rank of Captain. From late 1881 to late 1884 he was Assistant Ordnance Officer at Benicia Arsenal in Benicia, California, and from 1884 to August 1886 Assistant Ordnance Officer at the Watervliet Arsenal in Watervliet, New York.
In 1885 Metcalfe published the book "The Cost of Manufactures and the Administration of Workshops, Public and Private," and presented this work to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers the next year. On August 28, 1886, Metcalfe was appointed Ordnance and Gunnery Instructor at the West Point Military Academy, and published the "Course of Ordnance and Gunnery for the Instruction of the Cadets of the U. S. Military Academy." in 1890."Class of 1868. No 2227. Henry Metcalfe," in: Cullums Register. United States Army ()
Metcalfe was awarded the Order of Osmanieh from the Sultan of Turkey in 1876. He retired in 1893 after he had suffered an eye injury." at goordnance.army.mil, Accessed 24-11-2014. He settled down in Cold Spring, New York, where he kept making some inventions over the years.
Metcalfe died in Cooperstown, New York on August 17, 1927. He was buried at the West Point Cemetery on August 20, 1927.
Work Metcalfe is especially noted for his 1885 publication of The Cost of Manufactures and the Administration of Workshops, Public and Private, which presented a new method for production control, and a new accounting system based on the principle of directly assigning material costs and labour costs to jobs. But Metcalfe had come into prominence in the 1870s for designing improvements for small firearms.
Improvements for small firearms In the 1870s Metcalfe, by then Lieutenant of the Ordnance Department at Springfield Armory, had come into prominence after construction several improvements to for small firearms. In those years he received patents for the innovation as the Improvement in metallic cartridges, 1871; the Improvement in Scabbard-Frogs, 1872; the Improvement in Hook Attachment of bans of fire-arms, 1874; the Improvement in Means of Attaching Magazines to Fire-Arms, 1875; and the Improvement in Soldiers' Accouterments, 1876. A selection of their patent drawings:
Specially noted was his belt for firearms, which was called "Means of Attaching Magazines to Fire-Arms" from 1875.U.S. RIFLE MODEL 1873 TRAPDOOR .45-70 SN# 31830, Springfield Armory Museum - Collection Record. Accessed 23.11.2014. McChristian (2006) explained, that in those years many ammunition-carrying devices were developed but "the looped cartridge belt remained the average soldier's preference. But, it seemed that the army, in its determination to resist the belt, would go to almost any length to find an alternative. The most eccentric of these alternatives was a cartridge—block device submitted to the board by Lieutenant Henry Metcalfe of the Ordnance Department.Douglas C. McChristian (2006). The U.S. Army in the West, 1870–1880: Uniforms, Weapons, and Equipment. page 185–6
McChristian (2006) further explained it essence:
In simple terms, Metcalfe had designed a rectangular wooden block, bored along its upper edge for eight rifle cartridges, that could be attached to the side of the Springfield rifle just ahead of the lock... This cartridge block was affixed to the weapon by means of a special lock mechanism inletted into the stock. Several of these blocks, filled with cartridges, were to be carried on a special waist belt using a clip carrier made of spring steel with a leather fastening strap for each block. The blocks were to be made and loaded with cartridges at the army's principal ammunition plant, Frankford Arsenal.
The special waist belt was integrated by Metcalfe in a special designed Soldiers' accoutrements, which he patented in 1876 (see images). Metcalfe claimed, that the cartridge—block device would increase the rapidity of fire. Although this claim was seriously questioned, the Springfield armory adopted Metcalfe devices to 1,000 rifles. But there is no record of this device actually being tested. The type of rifle with the Metcalfe's detachable quick loader and cartridge packing box was presented at the World's Columbian Exposition in 1893.Report of the Committee on Awards of the World's Columbian Commission: Special Reports Upon Special Subjects Or Groups, Volume 2. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1901. page 1226
The Frankford Arsenal
Late 1870s Metcalfe joined the Frankford Arsenal. This arsenal, which opened in 1816, had developed after the American Civil War as the nation's manufactory of small arms ammunition. By the end of the war, the arsenal employed over 1,000 workers. During the Gettysburg campaign in 1863, the arsenal had provided tens of thousands of muskets and vast supplies of ammunition for Pennsylvania's "Emergency Militia" regiments. Among the innovations extensively tested at the Arsenal was the Gatling Gun, an early form of machine gun that saw extensive service in the Indian Wars, which lasted until 1890.
In Metcalfe's time at the Arsenal, it served as a major site for the storage of weapons and artillery pieces, a depot for the repair of artillery, cavalry and infantry equipment, repair and cleaning of small arms and harnesses, the manufacture of percussion powder and Minié balls, and the testing of new forms of gunpowder and time fuses. Metcalfe was appointed Officer in charge of the gun-making workshop,Schachter, Hindy L. Frederick Taylor and the public administration community: A reevaluation. Suny Press, 1989. page 28 and worked directly under the Commanding Officer of the Frankford Arsenal. In managing the metalworking Metcalfe had at any time "about a hundred orders under way, of different kinds."Metcalfe (1886, page 481)Philip Scranton (2000) Endless Novelty: Specialty Production and American Industrialization, 1865–1925. page 100
Basic managerial problems at Frankford Arsenal When Metcalfe was appointed Officer in charge at Frankford Arsenal, one specific concern was "being unable to account for costs within the workshops." One main reason was the lack of written records. Metcalfe (1886) was principally against this phenomenon, and explained in general terms:
Now, administration without records is like music without notes--by ear. Good as far as it goes--which is but a little way--it bequethes nothing to the future. Except in the very rudest industries, carried on as if from hand to mouth, all recognize that the present must prepare for the demands of the future, and hence records, more or less elaborate, are kept'.Henry Metcalfe, "The Shop-Order System of Accounts," Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 7 (May 1886 meeting), page 440–488Yates, J. "For the record: The embodiment of organizational memory, 1850-1920. " Business and Economic History 19.1 (1990): pages 172–182.
This was not a specific problem at the Frankford Arsenal, but a problem of all industries in that time. Yates (1992) recalled, that this was the main reason why Henry Metcalfe, and others in those days as Henry R. Towne, John Tregoning and Horace Lucian Arnold,Yates, JoAnne. "Evolving information use in firms, 1850–1920: ideology and information techniques and technologies." (1992). made considerable efforts to "developed systems of shop orders to control the flow of orders through factories."JoAnne Yates (1993) Control Through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management. page 12
Chandler (1977) notified more general that "to Metcalfe the basic managerial problems were coordination and control."Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business. (1977), p. 287 Metcalfe had illustrated this basic problem in his 1886 article with a quote from a factory owner and manager in a larger machine shop, which employed some 1,400 people. He had told Metcalfe:
The trouble is not foreseeing necessities, nor in starting the work to meet them; but in constantly running over the back track to see that nothing ordered has been overlooked, and in settling disputes as to whether such and such an order was or was not actually given and received. Superintendence... would be very different work if I were sure that an order once given would go of itself through the works, leaving a permanent trail by which I could follow it and decide positively where and by whom it was stopped. As it is, I spend so much of my time in "shooing" along my orders like a flock of sheep that I have but little left for the serious duties of my position.Quote in Metcalfe (1886) as cited in Chandler (1977)
These kind of experiences made Metcalfe come up with a so-called "shop-order system of accounts," which "made it possible to control the flow and improve basic cost accounting."
The Cost of Manufactures and the Administration of Workshops, Public and Private, 1885
After efforts to improve the workshop administration at the Frankford Arsenal and tests at the Watervliet Arsenal,Wren, Daniel A. and Arthur G. Bedeian. The evolution of management thought, 6th edition (2009), page 101. Metcalfe wrote down his experiences and ideas in The Cost of Manufactures and the Administration of Workshops, published in 1885. Hugo Diemer (1904) summarized this work as follows: