The Human Body in Equipment Design

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This book makes available, for the first time, extensive quantitative data on human body size and biomechanics, placed in a broad biological context and applied, following clearly stated principles, to the design of equipment for human use. Both kinds of information are prerequisite for evaluating current designs or planning new ones in terms of the physical characteristics of the users. The data and principles presented here comprise the most complete and integrated treatment to date of anthropometry in equipment design. All measurements have been selected for their relevance to human engineering problems in the new field of biotechnology. The tables describe various specialized and physically distinct occupational groups as well as the general population by age, sex, and race, and the biological data are presented in a form permitting ready application to novel conditions or problems. Unique in its field, this work will prove indispensable to engineering psychologists, ergonomists, industrial designers, architects, mechanical, electrical, and automotive engineers, safety engineers, flight surgeons, manufacturers—all those concerned with any aspect of designing for human use.