The operator himself is not aware of this hindrance.  On the contrary, the public will always be inclined to prefer the typewriters with visible writing, because by a natural confusion the feeling arises that the production of the letter is somewhat facilitated, when the eye is cooeperating, just as in writing with a pen we follow the lines of the written letter.  But the situation lies differently in the two cases.  When we are writing with a pen, the letter grows under our eyes, while in the machine writing we do not see any part of the letter until the whole movement which produces the single letter is finished.  By such a misleading analogy many a man is led to prefer the typewriter with visible writing, while he would probably secure a greater speed with a machine which does not tempt him to attend the completed letters, while his entire attention ought to belong to the following letters.

These last observations point to another psychological aspect of the machine and of the whole technical work, namely, their relations to the impressions of the senses.  The so-called dynamogenic experiments of the psychological laboratory have demonstrated what a manifold influence flows from the sense-impressions to the will-impulses.  If the muscle contraction of a man’s fist is measured, the experiment shows that the strongest possible pressure may be very different when the visual field appears in different colors, or tones of different pitch or different noises are stimulating the ear, and so on.  As yet no systematic experiments exist by which such results can be brought into relation to the sense-stimuli which reach the laborer during his technical work.  The psychophysical effect of colors and noises has not been fructified at all for industrial purposes.  The mere subjective judgment of the workingman himself cannot be acknowledged as reliable in such questions.  The laborer, for instance, usually believes that a noise to which he has become accustomed does not disturb him in his work, while experimental results point strongly to the contrary.  In a similar way the effect of colored windows may appear indifferent to the workmen, and yet may have considerable influence on his efficiency.  Numberless performances in the factory are reactions on certain optical or acoustical or tactual signals.  Both the engineer and the workman are satisfied if such a signal is clearly perceivable.  The psychological laboratory experiment, however, shows that the whole psychophysical effect depends upon the character of the signal; a more intense light, a quicker change, a higher tone, a larger field of light, a louder noise, or a harder touch may produce a very different kind of reaction.