Lost Art Press

Category: Historical Images

Design of the Moving Plane Arrangement

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hardware_window_advertising_01

Too Much in a Window is Worse than Too Little

If the display is carefully studied it will be noticed that just enough goods are shown to suggest the line carried. A small assortment of up-to-date samples often proves more effective than a window crowded with samples of well known goods, which everyone knows can be found in a stock carrying such new and thoroughly up-to-date goods.

The firm in whose window the display was made (Fig. 10), carries one of the most complete lines of tools in the metropolis. Hence it would have been easy to fill the window from top to bottom with goods. But this concern, as well as all successful window display advertisers, recognized the value of exhibiting only a limited number. Such a window has greater selling power than one in which samples of all lines are placed, entailing considerable expenditure of thought, time and money.
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Passing of the All-Round Mechanic

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mechanic_bench

When thinking of the modern wood-working establishment, with its finely-drawn divisions and subdivisions of all the different operations in the hands of experts and specialists, it is with a feeling of regret that we see the old-fashioned all-round mechanic being gradually crowded into the background, with the prospect that sooner or later his type will become extinct.

Not so many years ago the skilled workman was an indispensable factor in every wood-working shop. He was a combination of cabinetmaker, carpenter and machineman who could make a complete door or window or a piece of furniture from the raw material, with no other assistance but his own skill. He could lay out his work, match, joint and lay his own veneer, knew all about the properties of glue, the nature of the various kinds of wood and their adaptability for different purposes, besides a thousand other shop kinks, acquired by years of practical experience.

It used to be a source of real pleasure to watch such workman handle his tools when building up, piece by piece, some intricate design of artistic woodwork, and the evident satisfaction he derived from viewing the work of his own hands, showed the earmarks of the artist. On account of his ability and wide range of usefulness, he was looked up to by his shopmates, and his work called forth the admiration of everybody.
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Apprenticeship and Handicraft

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postcard_g

The man who designs and makes a good chair, or other useful article of any kind—all the more if it be beautiful as well as useful—is second only in the respectability of his occupation to him who brings grain and grass out of otherwise barren ground.

It is a very mistaken notion of the relations of things that sets trading—that is, buying and selling—a very different matter from commerce, which is the bringing of the products of one country into another—above handicraft. But handicraft seems to be falling into neglect.

The number of artisans who thoroughly understand their craft, and take a pride in doing good work, seems to be diminishing at a rate which is perceptible from one five years’ end to another. Indeed, it is notorious among all those who have occasion from time to time to employ skilled labour, that if they need the services of, let us say, a carpenter, a cabinet-maker, a watchmaker, or a painter, they cannot be sure, without some troublesome inquiry, that the work will be done in a workmanlike manner.

This uncertainty has no reference to that skill and taste which are the personal attributes of the individual workman, and give one man a reputation which another can never attain, but to that knowledge and skill, at once elementary and complete, which is possessed by every artisan who has “learned his trade.”
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Resaws

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rip_sawing

It is easier to criticize than to create.

Courtesy costs little and buys much.

Confidence is the companion of success.

Many a man shortens his days by lengthening his nights.

To be successful, you must plan the start as well as the finish.

The devil tempts all men, but the idle man tempts the devil.

If you resent authority, you stand a small chance of assuming it.

Inspiration is more liable to strike a busy man than an idle one.

Failure is not the worst thing in the world; the very worst is not to try.

It is a little farther around the corners of a square deal, but the road is better.

A bold front is a good thing only when anchored to a stiff backbone.

Bad luck ruins one man in a hundred, good luck ruins the other ninety-nine.

The man of good judgment is like a pin, his head prevents his going too far.

The man who thinks ahead of his work is a sure winner over the one who works ahead of his think.

True efficiency will come only to the man whose heart is in his work, and will never come with discontent.

Herman F. Rusch – Director of Manual Training, Oklahoma City, Okla.

Shop Work – 1918

– Jeff Burks

Why He Didn’t Buy a Saw

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saw_salesWhen the man with the red mustache started down the stairs his wife ran to the door and called him back.

“Donald,” she said, “I want you to go into a hardware store to-day and get a saw. Don’t forget it, please. We need one badly.”

Being an accommodating person, the man with the red mustache said he’d get it. He chose the luncheon hour as the most opportune time for making his simple purchase. He was in a good humor and he smiled blandly when he went bustling into the store and said: “I want a saw, please.”

The clerk who had come forward to wait on him had a merry twinkle in his eye and the twinkle overflowed at the question and spread all over his face in dimples.

“What kind of a saw?” he asked.

The prospective purchaser began to perceive what an intricate business the buying of a saw really is.

“Why,” said he, “I don’t know. Just a saw. Any kind will do, I suppose.”

The clerk sighed. “If you only knew what you want to use it for, perhaps I could advise you,” he suggested.
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