Ergonomics

[squirmelia]

I'm currently studying ergonomics and on Wednesday I went to the University of Surrey to attend the Ergonomics Society Student Conference and found that possible careers in ergonomics can involve designing remote controls, various things to do with trains, ergo-gnome-ics, and oh, nuclear bombs.

I consulted Ergonomics, Work and Health by Pheasant and it mentioned that "Victorian public houses commonly had a brass rail around the bar about 6 inches (150mm) from the ground, allowing the drinker to rest each foot on it in turn", so I then went to a pub to test that out.

Ergonomics, Work and Health also has some fascinating information about RSI and writer's cramp:
"Willis (1986) described RSI as a "metaphor for alienation" ".
and
"Crisp and Moldofsky (1965) go so far as to regard writer's cramp as a psychosomatic manifestation of repressed anger."

Comments

[albatros.livejournal.com]

> brass rail around the bar about 6 inches (150mm) from the ground

A posing rail! Oddly, it allows the body to adopt a more interesting position than upright or slouchy laziness, making one feel at ease, rather than be fumbling for a position to hold without looking suspicious. After all, there is no reason to stay at the bar once you have your drink. Unless you're ogling at the bar wench.

It could also have been installed at a strategic position, together with the hand-rail, to coincide with the position that old pennies settle after hitting the bar wall, thus hiding the dropped penny from the casual impatient search of the punter. The upper bar was placed to ensure a banging of the head while searching from the bar wall direction, and moving away from the bar loses one's place in a highly competitive environment*. So at closing time, this effectively puts the penny in the pocket of the proprietor.

*If your name is Big Bob, then your place at the bar is sacred, marked by the hole in the lino and the shiny patch of the upper bar rail where your belly has rubbed it shiny for the past 20 years. In that case, you'll also have your own stool which is polished to the shape of your bum - which, given your extended patronage, overlaps all the extents of its upper surface. Now there's a subject: ergonomics for the top 5 percentile of big bottoms...

...of course, none of this is true.