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Harvard Fatigue Laboratory
Harvard Fatigue Laboratory (1927–1947) was a research centre designed to investigate the physiological, sociological and psychological impacts of fatigue caused by daily activities, and those on the conditions that industry workers faced at the time.
Founded in 1927, the laboratory was constructed in the basement of Morgan Hall at the Harvard Business School in Boston, part of Harvard University. The lab was described as a unique research facility that focused on a holistic approach to physiology, rather than systems- or organ-oriented. The laboratory was shut down in 1947 after the Second World War, as university policies halted the research facility from seeking government funds and the President of Harvard no longer saw its worth. The Fatigue Laboratory was seen as an instigator of exercise physiology as an academic discipline in part due to the legacy of the researchers that were once employed at the facility – forming and leading other exercise laboratories around the country after its closure. Its academic output also contributed to this legacy, with researchers publishing over 300 peer-reviewed research studies during its 20 years of operation.
Government funded projects during the Second World War realigned the laboratory's scientific endeavours from industry related research to research that involved the physiological environment soldiers faced at war. Clothing was tested to understand the heat distribution in the body to mitigate the impacts of 'trench-foot' and frostbite. Rations were also tested and recommendations of sufficient dietary requirements were sent to the army.
Upon the inception of the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory, physiology at Harvard University was organised into four departments: applied physiology, comparative physiology, physical chemistry and physiology. In the USA, exercise physiology wasn't understood as an academic discipline until around the end of the Second World War. The laboratory therefore didn't belong to any department - investigating a broad range of physiological experiences that humans encounter in “everyday life”. Additionally, the prominent figures who contributed to its founding had academic backgrounds that were somewhat independent of what we now know as contemporary exercise physiology: Wallace Brett Donham (1877–1954), dean of Harvard's Business School; George Elton Mayo (1880–1949), psychologist and social theorist; and Lawrence J. Henderson (1878–1942), professor of biological chemistry at Harvard College.
Before its opening, L.J. Henderson was doing some research on the physiology of daily work, which Mayo was interested in academically. Mayo was discouraged by his current academic path, and wrote to Donham that there wasn't a “competent investigation of the physiological changes induced in the human organism by the conditions of . . . daily work” at his current organisation. Donham's interest in the human side of business operations led him to encourage Mayo to initiate the laboratory for study of the sociological and psychological impacts in the work place. Henderson and Mayo were pushed together by similar ideals on the nature of exercise physiology itself, as their approach was holistic rather than systems- or organ-oriented. Henderson had just moved from the Medical School to the Business School in 1926, and was in the process of reorganising his academic work from blood chemistry to human physiology. Henderson also involved a colleague from the Medical School, Arlie Bock, the clinical investigator at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and David Bruce Dill, who was a research fellow working with Bock at the time. Each individual added to the interdisciplinary culture of the laboratory, examining the broad nature of 'fatigue'. The interdisciplinary backgrounds of all the founding members meant that the laboratory focused on more than just ‘fatigue’ as a physiological phenomena – they also studied the psychological and sociological effects by which workers are subject to in the industry.
In the beginnings of the twentieth century, industrial workload and fatigue drew the attention of Western science to maximise the productivity of workers for economic prosperity. It is due to this research that centred heavily around the cultural and political contexts of the period that the facility is used as evidence to suggest the impact sociocultural environments has on dictating scientific progression.
The laboratory was named a ‘Fatigue laboratory’ in order to appeal to business leaders, engineers and the general public, whilst not constraining it to any departmental or narrow research activities due to the broad nature of the term 'fatigue'. In its 20 years of operation, 16 publications pertaining to fatigue were produced, whereas most others included hematology, comparative physiology, altitude physiology and temperature physiology.
Of the 300 peer-reviewed research studies originating from the laboratory, topics ranged from the general; work capacity and fatigue, to the more specific; cardiovascular and haemodynamic responses to exercise. This was a direct result of Henderson and Mayo's holistic approach to physiology as opposed to a systems- or organ-oriented approach, which was novel in their time.
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Harvard Fatigue Laboratory
Harvard Fatigue Laboratory (1927–1947) was a research centre designed to investigate the physiological, sociological and psychological impacts of fatigue caused by daily activities, and those on the conditions that industry workers faced at the time.
Founded in 1927, the laboratory was constructed in the basement of Morgan Hall at the Harvard Business School in Boston, part of Harvard University. The lab was described as a unique research facility that focused on a holistic approach to physiology, rather than systems- or organ-oriented. The laboratory was shut down in 1947 after the Second World War, as university policies halted the research facility from seeking government funds and the President of Harvard no longer saw its worth. The Fatigue Laboratory was seen as an instigator of exercise physiology as an academic discipline in part due to the legacy of the researchers that were once employed at the facility – forming and leading other exercise laboratories around the country after its closure. Its academic output also contributed to this legacy, with researchers publishing over 300 peer-reviewed research studies during its 20 years of operation.
Government funded projects during the Second World War realigned the laboratory's scientific endeavours from industry related research to research that involved the physiological environment soldiers faced at war. Clothing was tested to understand the heat distribution in the body to mitigate the impacts of 'trench-foot' and frostbite. Rations were also tested and recommendations of sufficient dietary requirements were sent to the army.
Upon the inception of the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory, physiology at Harvard University was organised into four departments: applied physiology, comparative physiology, physical chemistry and physiology. In the USA, exercise physiology wasn't understood as an academic discipline until around the end of the Second World War. The laboratory therefore didn't belong to any department - investigating a broad range of physiological experiences that humans encounter in “everyday life”. Additionally, the prominent figures who contributed to its founding had academic backgrounds that were somewhat independent of what we now know as contemporary exercise physiology: Wallace Brett Donham (1877–1954), dean of Harvard's Business School; George Elton Mayo (1880–1949), psychologist and social theorist; and Lawrence J. Henderson (1878–1942), professor of biological chemistry at Harvard College.
Before its opening, L.J. Henderson was doing some research on the physiology of daily work, which Mayo was interested in academically. Mayo was discouraged by his current academic path, and wrote to Donham that there wasn't a “competent investigation of the physiological changes induced in the human organism by the conditions of . . . daily work” at his current organisation. Donham's interest in the human side of business operations led him to encourage Mayo to initiate the laboratory for study of the sociological and psychological impacts in the work place. Henderson and Mayo were pushed together by similar ideals on the nature of exercise physiology itself, as their approach was holistic rather than systems- or organ-oriented. Henderson had just moved from the Medical School to the Business School in 1926, and was in the process of reorganising his academic work from blood chemistry to human physiology. Henderson also involved a colleague from the Medical School, Arlie Bock, the clinical investigator at the Massachusetts General Hospital, and David Bruce Dill, who was a research fellow working with Bock at the time. Each individual added to the interdisciplinary culture of the laboratory, examining the broad nature of 'fatigue'. The interdisciplinary backgrounds of all the founding members meant that the laboratory focused on more than just ‘fatigue’ as a physiological phenomena – they also studied the psychological and sociological effects by which workers are subject to in the industry.
In the beginnings of the twentieth century, industrial workload and fatigue drew the attention of Western science to maximise the productivity of workers for economic prosperity. It is due to this research that centred heavily around the cultural and political contexts of the period that the facility is used as evidence to suggest the impact sociocultural environments has on dictating scientific progression.
The laboratory was named a ‘Fatigue laboratory’ in order to appeal to business leaders, engineers and the general public, whilst not constraining it to any departmental or narrow research activities due to the broad nature of the term 'fatigue'. In its 20 years of operation, 16 publications pertaining to fatigue were produced, whereas most others included hematology, comparative physiology, altitude physiology and temperature physiology.
Of the 300 peer-reviewed research studies originating from the laboratory, topics ranged from the general; work capacity and fatigue, to the more specific; cardiovascular and haemodynamic responses to exercise. This was a direct result of Henderson and Mayo's holistic approach to physiology as opposed to a systems- or organ-oriented approach, which was novel in their time.