Lost Art Press

Author: fitz

Woodworker, writer, editor, teacher, ailurophile, Shakespearean. Will write for air-dried walnut.

Lack of Inducements for Young Men to Learn Trades

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lack_of_inducements

I have often heard the fact stated, and I have noticed it myself when looking through some of our workshops, that the mechanics’ places in this country, in nine cases out of ten, are filled by foreigners. The building trade seems to present no exception to this general rule. Very naturally the question arises, Why don’t our American youths learn trades? Some blame it to idleness, but I think that is not a satisfactory explanation. Others say the boys prefer to measure tape, and appear to better advantage than they would as professors of carpentry or knights of the trowel.

There is one thing certain, foreigners do not make any better mechanics than our own countrymen. Our boys are no less ambitious to-day than they were 40 years ago, but still the fact remains that they are turning their backs on trades. I propose to try my hand at a solution of this problem, leaving the readers to judge whether or not I am right. I propose for illustration to take my own trade, one which, had Carpentry and Building been printed 20 years ago, would have had thousands of better posted men in it than it contains to-day.
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How to Fit up a Boy’s Workshop

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boys_workshop

Every boy ought to know how to drive a nail and saw a board. Somewhere in connection with every well-ordered home there should be a workshop of some sort. An article could easily be written treating exclusively on the advantages accruing from even a slight dexterity in the use of a few tools, and it could easily be shown that these advantages are by no means confined to artisans, but that professional men and men of affairs find healthful exercise, pleasant diversion, and mental discipline “over the bench.”

But omitting all that, we start now with the postulate that a boy ought to have a workshop, and the only question for present consideration is how it ought to be fitted up. As the chief purpose of the boy’s workshop is rather to give the boy plenty of congenial work than for the sake of the work the boy will do, the more of the work of fitting up the shop that is left to the boy the better. We put four “works” in that sentence, and we are glad of it. Happiness depends almost wholly on occupation. Professor Albert Hopkins once gave as his idea of happiness, “right activity.”
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Any Workman, However Unskillful

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bartholomews_saw

The unlimited field which is open to inventors, and the boundless fertility of ideas which is constantly busy in filling this field, are both strikingly illustrated in the invention here represented. In working wood by carpenters and others, a great deal of labor is expended in sawing boards lengthwise—“ripping” them, as it is called—and this work requires not only a true eye and hand, but a certain measure of skill which is the result of long training. By this machine, the operation is performed by any boy, however inexperienced, or any workman, however unskillful.
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Letters to Disston

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disston_new_zealand

This is a New Zealand saw fitting shop. Mr. Fraser surely seems to have a pretty complete assortment, and it is interesting to note from his letter that Disston Saws are in almost universal use in New Zealand.

Henry Disston & Sons, Inc.,                                                               238 St. Asaph St.,
              Philadelphia, Pa.                                                                    Christchurch, N.Z.

Gentlemen:
       I have forwarded you a photo which no doubt will be of interest, being a saw repair shop in New Zealand, and shows that over ninety per cent. of the saws in use here are Disstons, and with my sixteen years experience as a saw expert, with Mr. S. Frasee, whose photo is shown, but now has returned after over fifty years both working and repairing saws.
       We are both of the same opinion that Disston Saws excel all others.

       Wishing you continuous success, I remain,
                                                                                    Yours, etc.
                                                                                                  Robert J. Fraser.

The Disston Crucible – May 1916
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Measuring Rules

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rabone_1878Of the early history of this manufacture it may be sufficient to state that until the early part of the seventeenth century, at which time Edward Gunter invented the line of logarithms graduated upon a sliding scale, which solves problems instrumentally in the same manner as logarithms do arithmetically, the trade never assumed sufficient importance to cause it to be followed by persons who had no other occupation, and to make it worthy of being designated a craft.

Up to that time the best measures had been made by the mathematical instrument makers; but this ingenious invention of Gunter, by reason of its universal applicability to measuring purposes, called into existence another class of workmen, superior to those who had hitherto chiefly made the notched sticks similar to those used in many rural districts at the present day, but still somewhat distinct from the opticians and makers of such instruments as quadrants, sextants, and the finer kind of optical and mathematical instruments. The first men who were worthy of the name of rule-makers were to be found only in London; but after a time the trade gradually extended itself to Wolverhampton and Birmingham.
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