Masonry Magazine August 1972 Page. 10
The old way.....
With all the manual handling of block and pallets, it takes a crew of five helpers as well as a lift-truck operator and a mortar mixer to assist the six masons.
A 48" x 48 pallet with 108 8" block has been placed on the scaffold too heavy a load to be safely supported by the scaffold and far too many block in one place. Additional helpers must now handle and re-stack in smaller units around the scaffold.
The jobsite "bookkeeper" sorts, handles, and stacks all the loose pallets and it's a good bet that his figures won't agree with your figures.
A helper shows graphically why partition block is losing its battle to competitive materials. The block has to be loaded manually onto the wheelbarrow, transported, and then re-stacked at each work station.
The fork lift truck operator delivers a pallet-load of loose partition block for manual distribution by the helper with all the opportunities in the world for spillage due to rough terrain, for damage and chipping of block, and possible injuries.
Emptied pallets often get tossed down from the scaffold, with resulting damage and destruction--not to mention the extra clean-up time required.
Profits go up in smoke as damage pallets get thrown in the fire as most expensive firewood.