It would be part of my scheme of physical education that every youth in the State—from the King’s son downwards—should learn to do something finely and thoroughly with his hand, so as to let him know what touch meant; and what stout craftmanship meant; and to inform him of many things besides, which no man can learn but by some severely accurate discipline in doing. Let him once learn to take a straight shaving off a plank, or draw a fine curve without faltering, or lay a brick level in its mortar; and he has learned a multitude of other matters which no lips of man could ever teach him.
John Ruskin
Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne : Twenty-five letters to a working man of Sunderland on the Law of Work – (London) 1867
This industry as used in this report includes establishments engaged in the manufacture of sash, doors, blinds, window frames, door frames, moldings, stair material, newels, mantels, store fixtures, and all kinds of builders’ trim or finish.
A large number of the establishments are comparatively small and confine their operations wholly to custom work. Many of them are operated in connection with a retail lumber business. Some are run by contractors who carry on large building operations, and manufacture trim, mostly for their own use. Some custom mills in the larger cities are quite extensive and employ a large number of workmen.
A few establishments manufacture for the general market. Such establishments, as a rule, employ a larger number of workmen than the custom mills or factories, have their work more systematized, and pay somewhat lower wages. The latter fact may be accounted for by the greater division of labor whereby an employee, while being expert in the operation of a particular machine or in performing certain work, is not a skilled workman generally, and so can not command as high wages as an all-round skilled mechanic. (more…)
Today it is the specialist who is sought after. This is particularly true of the professions, and in those trades that ought to be called professions, where a high degree of skill and technical knowledge are required. It is well known that no man “knows it all,” though it is quite possible that a man may know all that is known about one branch of trade or profession, if he follows it closely.
Every day, as it closes, leaves the world richer in knowledge, and the aggregation of many days produces a store of learning which vastly increases the quantity which the beginner must master ere he approaches proficiency. A couple of centuries ago all the world knew of the healing art was within easy grasp of any average intelligent person. Now there is no living physician, however eminent, who pretends to have mastered, or even to be moderately versed in all the details of medicine and surgery. So it is with science, with law, with mechanics, and, of course, and particularly so in the building trades. (more…)
Importance of Getting Your Article Right First and then Advertising it Emphasized by the Experience of the Manufacturers—How E.C. Atkins Started a Business that Now Employs 1200 Men in the Home Plant—Sought Publicity Through the Trade Papers First—Now Uses General Magazines and Weeklies.
“Get something worth selling— then use printers’ ink.”
This is the Golden Rule of business which E. C. Atkins & Co. followed for many years before they got the “something.” Then they applied the stimulant which produces business wealth — printers’ ink. The sum total is, the company is now one of the greatest producers of saws in the world and some say the greatest. Year after year the Atkins output increases in volume and the expenditures for advertising space grow apace.
The story of Atkins advertising is necessarily the story of Atkins saws, of the man who made both possible. As a maker of saws, the Atkins plant in Indianapolis is a pioneer in the development of the industry as it is known to-day. It was among the first to turn raw steel into a finished saw that the railroads, the trail-makers of civilization, might cut their paths through the woods of the Middle West.
With the Atkins saws, too, was produced some of the first lumber for homes, wagons, bridges, barges and boats of the pioneer settlers in the Mississippi Valley, for there was still much of a trackless forest about him when E. C. Atkins began to make saws. The Atkins works was doubtless the first in its line of industrial activity to see the wealth that is to be wrought out of printers’ ink. (more…)
The Bench.—The tool most frequently used is the bench, and of this many varieties or patterns exist. Whatever pattern is adopted, however, the embodiment of these common principles must be ensured, if the maximum of utility is to be obtained :—
(a) It must be rigid and stable, by being suitably and securely framed, put together, and fixed.
(b) It must be level on the top of the planing board, which should not be less than 10″ broad.
(c) It must be of such a height as best suits the work and the height of the worker—30″ or 31″ being high enough.
(d) Details of construction must ensure that natural shrinkage and wear shall limit its usefulness to as small a degree as possible.
(e) It should have a clearance all round of at least 2½ or 3 feet.
