Carl Georg Lange Barth (February 28, 1860–1939) was a Norwegian-American mathematician

Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....

 and mechanical engineer who improved and popularized the industrial use of compound slide rules

Slide rule

The slide rule, also known colloquially as a slipstick, is a mechanical analog computer. The slide rule is used primarily for multiplication and division, and also for functions such as roots, logarithms and trigonometry, but is not normally used for addition or subtraction.Slide rules come in a...

 in scientific management

Scientific management

Scientific management, also called Taylorism, was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. Its main objective was improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management...

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Biography

Carl Georg Barth was born in Christiania, Norway. He was the fourth child of Jakob Boeckman Barth, a lawyer and Adelaide Magdeline Lange Barth, the daughter of a Danish clergyman. He received his early education in the public schools at Lillehammer

Lillehammer

is a town and municipality in Oppland county, Norway, globally known for hosting the 1994 Winter Olympics. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. As of May 2011, the population of the town of Lillehammer was...

. He was a graduate from University at Christiania

University of Oslo

The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...

. He later attended the Royal Norwegian Navy

Royal Norwegian Navy

The Royal Norwegian Navy is the branch of the Norwegian Defence Force responsible for naval operations. , the RNoN consists of approximately 3,700 personnel and 70 vessels, including 5 heavy frigates, 6 submarines, 14 patrol boats, 4 minesweepers, 4 minehunters, 1 mine detection vessel, 4 support...

 technical school at Horten

Horten

is a town and municipality in Vestfold county, Norway—located along the Oslofjord. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Horten. The municipality also includes the villages of Borre, Åsgårdstrand, Skoppum, and Nykirke....

. In 1877, Barth started an apprenticeship in the navy yard at Karljohansvern

Karljohansvern

Karjohansvern in Horten was the main base for the Royal Norwegian Navy from 1819 to 1963.It was first called Hortens verft, and later Marinens Hovedværft until King Oscar I named it Carljohansværn værft in 1854...

 in Horten.

In 1899, efficiency expert Frederick W. Taylor hired Barth to work with him at Bethlehem Steel Company. Carl Barth helped to develop speed-and-feed-calculating slide rules. In 1902, Taylor and Barth went to work for William Sellers

William Sellers

William Sellers was a mechanical engineer, manufacturer, businessperson, and inventor who filed more than 90 patents, most notably the design for the United States standard screw thread...

 at the machine tool

Machine tool

A machine tool is a machine, typically powered other than by human muscle , used to make manufactured parts in various ways that include cutting or certain other kinds of deformation...

 firm of William Sellers & Company of Philadelphia. An account of their application of slide rules was published in the Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers

American Society of Mechanical Engineers

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers is a professional body, specifically an engineering society, focused on mechanical engineering....

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 Harvard University

Harvard University

Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...

. Barth edited articles submitted to International Correspondence School of Scranton, Pennsylvania

Scranton, Pennsylvania

Scranton is a city in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, United States. It is the county seat of Lackawanna County and the largest principal city in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre metropolitan area. Scranton had a population of 76,089 in 2010, according to the U.S...

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

Watertown Arsenal

The Watertown Arsenal was a major American arsenal located on the northern shore of the Charles River in Watertown, Massachusetts. Its site is now registered on the ASCE's List of Historic Civil Engineering Landmarks and on the U.S.'s National Register of Historic Places, and it is home to the...

 at Watertown, Massachusetts

Watertown, Massachusetts

The Town of Watertown is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 31,915 at the 2010 census.- History :Archeological evidence suggests that Watertown was inhabited for thousands of years before the arrival of settlers from England...

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Other sources

• Bjork, Kenneth Saga In Steel And Concrete – Norwegian Engineers In America (Northfield, Minnesota: Norwegian-American Historical Association, 1947)