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Vibration monitoring is being increasingly used as a tool for safe operation of machinery and efficient maintenance planning. There are, however, many problems associated with the measurement and interpretation of vibration data. In order to obtain a rapid diagnosis of a machine's health, and to apply condition monitoring results in practice, it is often necessary to consider the machine operating conditions, performance and other factors. These different approaches should be incorporated into one diagnostic technique having the proper balance of emphasis on each approach.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

A pæan of joy and triumph which speaks for itself, and which is a very true indication of how the question of poisonous adulteration is viewed by certain sections of “the trade,” and by certain of the smaller and irresponsible trade organs, has appeared in print. It would seem that the thanks of “the trade” are due to the defendants in the case heard at the Liverpool Police Court for having obtained an official acknowledgment that the use of salicylic acid and of other preservatives, even in large amounts, in wines and suchlike articles, is not only allowable, but is really necessary for the proper keeping of the product. It must have been a charming change in the general proceedings at the Liverpool Court to listen to a “preservatives” case conducted before a magistrate who evidently realises that manufacturers, in these days, in order to make a “decent” profit, have to use the cheapest materials they can buy, and cannot afford to pick and choose; and that they have therefore “been compelled” to put preservatives into their articles so as to prevent their going bad. He was evidently not to be misled by the usual statement that such substances should not be used because they are injurious to health— as though that could be thought to have anything to do with the much more important fact that the public “really want” to have an article supplied to them which is cheap, and yet keeps well. Besides, many doctors and professors were brought forward to prove that they had never known a case of fatal poisoning due to the use of salicylic acid as a preservative. Unfortunately, it is only the big firms that can manage to bring forward such admirable and learned witnesses, and the smaller firms have to suffer persecution by faddists and others who attempt to obtain the public notice by pretending to be solicitous about the public health. Altogether the prosecution did not have a pleasant time, for the magistrate showed his appreciation of the evidence of one of the witnesses by humorously rallying him about his experiments with kittens, as though any‐one could presume to judge from experiments on brute beasts what would be the effect on human beings—the “lords of creation.” Everyone reading the evidence will be struck by the fact that the defendant stated that he had once tried to brew without preservatives, but with the only result that the entire lot “went bad.” All manufacturers of his own type will sympathise with him, since, of course, there is no practicable way of getting over this trouble except by the use of preservatives; although the above‐mentioned faddists are so unkind as to state that if everything is clean the article will keep. But this must surely be sheer theory, for it cannot be supposed that there can be any manufacturer of this class of article who would be foolish enough to think he could run his business at a profit, and yet go to all the expense of having the returned empties washed out before refilling, and of paying the heavy price asked for the best crude materials, when he has to compete with rival firms, who can use practically anything, and yet turn out an article equal in every way from a selling point of view, and one that will keep sufficiently, by the simple (and cheap) expedient of throwing theory on one side, and by pinning their faith to a preservative which has now received the approval of a magistrate. Manufacturers who use preservatives, whether they are makers of wines or are dairymen, and all similar tradesmen, should join together to protect their interests, for, as they must all admit, “the welfare of the trade” is the chief thing they have to consider, and any other interest must come second, if it is to come in at all. Now is the time for action, for the Commission appointed to inquire into the use of preservatives in foods has not yet given its decision, and there is still time for a properly‐conducted campaign, backed up by those “influential members of the trade” of whom we hear so much, and aided by such far‐reaching and brilliant magisterial decisions, to force these opinions prominently forward, in spite of the prejudice of the public; and to insure to the trades interested the unfettered use of preservatives,—which save “the trade” hundreds of thousands of pounds every year, by enabling the manufacturers to dispense with heavily‐priced apparatus, with extra workmen and with the use of expensive materials,—and which are urgently asked for by the public,—since we all prefer to have our foods drugged than to have them pure.

Current issues of Publishers' Weekly are reporting serious shortages of paper, binders board, cloth, and other essential book manufacturing materials. Let us assure you these shortages are very real and quite severe.

In this article two international research projects on the subject of industrial democracy are discussed. The research teams are far from equal in numbers,funds available, multinationality or familiarity with the countries studied. The authorbelieves that if systems of industrial democracy are subjected without scruples to standard scientific evaluation procedures one should not hesitate to

Mr. Maurice Webb made a very bad start when he became Minister of Food. He announced that his ambition was to increase the meat‐content of sausages, and, soon afterwards, it was found that he had “been and gone and done it”. The result, of course, was to increase the scarcity of sausages and to decrease the quantity of meat consumed in that form. There were two views about this strange episode. Some held that it was just an error, begotten by enthusiasm out of inexperience. Others were of opinion that the whole thing was a Machiavellian device to reduce meat‐consumption while offering an illusory boon to sausage‐eaters. It is not for me to express my personal view on this. But at least Mr. Webb made it clear that he was not likely to succumb to the sleeping sickness which for many years afflicted the Local Government Board and the Ministry of Health in everything that concerned the enactment of food standards and definitions. Dr. Hamill, the late Dr. Coutts and their colleagues used to produce quite admirable reports and recommendations, the fate of which was usually to be put in a pigeon‐hole and forgotten. Without spilling more beans or lamenting over spilt milk, I can hand Mr. Webb a bouquet on his new approach to the problem of food standards, as exemplified in the recent orders affecting ice‐cream and cream. The minimum percentage of fat prescribed— a little apologetically—for ice‐cream is to be lower than the 8 per cent advocated over a long series of years by enthusiastic dieticians with the approval of many of the people engaged in producing and selling ice‐cream. My own experience is that the views of scientific experts often require modification in the light of economic circumstances. When the Public Assistance Committee of a County Council asked my opinion on a suggestion by a medical superintendent that sausages bought for inmates should contain not less than 70 per cent of pork, I had little hesitation in advising against so extravagant a proposal. And now the report of the Ministry's Food Standards Committee on cream contains an appendix which shows that the Committee, before framing, its recommendations, considered evidence from representatives of Government Departments, Associations of Local Authorities, three Embassies (Danish, Royal Netherlands and Irish), as well as from seven national and regional milk marketing organisations, three agricultural bodies, and a long list of manufacturing and distributive associations, including those of the grocery, catering and confectionery trades, and the National Institute for Research in Dairying. The result of all this consultation is a well‐thought‐out scheme which, so far as I can see, is hardly open to any criticism, for putting the trade in cream, when it is resumed, on a thoroughly sound foundation. “ Single ” cream is to be easily pourable and is to contain not less than 18 per cent of milk fat. “ Double ” cream with good whipping qualities is to have not less than 48 per cent fat, a figure which is to apply also to clotted cream. So when the strawberry season arrives one hopes to be able to avoid the fate of recent years, when it has been necessary to choose between imported evaporated milk of an offensively deep yellow colour and a cream‐substitute containing vegetable oils and sodium alginate. With approval also I note that the Food Standards Committee proposes to submit a further report on “ artificial ” and “ synthetic ” cream, I always thought it unfortunate that the word “artificial” should be applied to the substance which was made by disintegrating butter, imported at great cost from Australia, and reconverting it into cream which could be marketed at a lower price than natural dairy cream produced in a raw state in Great Britain. The original Artificial Cream Act was presumably passed at the request of British dairy farmers. It would seem wise now to adopt the suggestion put forward by the catering trade that the word “reconstituted” should replace “artificial” as the appropriate adjective here. The word “artificial” could then be attached to a product containing no milk fat, rather than the word “synthetic”, which conveys little or no meaning to the average purchaser.

There are very few individuals who have studied the question of weights and measures who do not most strongly favour the decimal system. The disadvantages of the weights and measures at present in use in the United Kingdom are indeed manifold. At the very commencement of life the schoolboy is expected to commit to memory the conglomerate mass of facts and figures which he usually refers to as “Tables,” and in this way the greater part of twelve months is absorbed. And when he has so learned them, what is the result? Immediately he leaves school he forgets the whole of them, unless he happens to enter a business‐house in which some of them are still in use; and it ought to be plain that the case would be very different were all our weights and measures divided or multiplied decimally. Instead of wasting twelve months, the pupil would almost be taught to understand the decimal system in two or three lessons, and so simple is the explanation that he would never be likely to forget it. There is perhaps no more interesting, ingenious and useful example of the decimal system than that in use in France. There the standard of length is the metre, the standard of capacity the cubic decimetre or the litre, while one cubic centimetre of distilled water weighs exactly one gramme, the standard of weight. Thus the measures of length, capacity and weight are most closely and usefully related. In the present English system there is absolutely no relationship between these weights and measures. Frequently a weight or measure bearing the same name has a different value for different bodies. Take, for instance, the stone; for dead meat its value is 8 pounds, for live meat 14 pounds; and other instances will occur to anyone who happens to remember his “Tables.” How much simpler for the business man to reckon in multiples of ten for everything than in the present confusing jumble. Mental arithmetic in matters of buying and selling would become much easier, undoubtedly more accurate, and the possibility of petty fraud be far more remote, because even the most dense could rapidly calculate by using the decimal system.

Compiled by K.G.B. Bakewell covering the following journals published by MCB University Press: Facilities Volumes 8‐18; Journal of Property Investment & Finance Volumes 8‐18; Property Management Volumes 8‐18; Structural Survey Volumes 8‐18.