=7.= Time is continually bringing improvements; old methods once thought practical and satisfactory are replaced by more efficient ones to meet the exacting conditions of to─day. Examine a _Practical Bookkeeping─Manufacturer's Edition_ of thirty or forty years ago and you will probably find nothing on this subject of _expense distribution_, while to─day it is one of the most important and most discussed of any in factory accounting in general, and cost accounting in particular. Since that time different methods of handling expense have been devised, some with more or less merit. It will be the intent of this section to consider at some length three of the most frequently used of these methods, endeavoring to find one which will, in the most equitable manner, distribute into production the operating expense of a factory with the least amount of detail and unnecessary figuring on the part of the accountant; and at the same time prove satisfactory from the manufacturer's standpoint. =8. The Man─Hour Rate Method.= This method, once quite popular, is now but little used, and it is doubtful if it can be found in operation in many up─to─date plants at the present time. The name of the method suggests its intent, which was to distribute factory expense over the various production job orders according to the amount of time spent by the workmen at an hourly rate. This rate is easily calculated, and was established by dividing the total expense for any period by the total number of hours spent on productive work for the same period, reducing the rate of distribution to so much per hour. If 100 hours of labor were spent on a productive job, the cost of the wages paid the workman for this time was not considered, the expense to be borne by the job being figured at the hourly rate for the 100 hours. It will be seen that this is hardly an equitable arrangement, and to rectify a serious defect in the method, some adjustment must be made: