Middletown transcript., 1881-07-22
INDUSTRIAL SCHOOLS.
BY G. G. NORTHROP.
tdry Of Connecticm Board Of Education.


countries is more striking to an Ameri-
can observer than the large number of
industrial schools, especially designed
to train apprentices and make skilled
Workmenand competent foremen. These
schools are very numerous, and as vari-
GUS as the kinds Of industry pursued in
each country or province. There has
been the greatest progress in manu-
factures in those countries where these
schools have been maintained longest
and most literally.
Geneva has for many years main
tanned Horological school, and the
Swiss watches have long been celebrated
throughout the world. Last summer |
visited the new Theological Institute
then building ip Geneva, a magnificent
ediice to cost over 100000, and also
witnessed the work of the school then
III its old quarters. The course of
study and practice covers three years.
There were seven instructors, who are
experts both in theory and practice
No one can graduate till he has proved
his skill, again and again, by making
an entire watch of standard excellence.
The patient training Of these classes,
or rather Of each Individual member,
in the minutest particulars, both in
theory and practice, and the criticism
of defects in the work done, illustrate
the attention given to details in all in
dustrial schools.
The same attention to minute details
is seen in the Industrial School at
Lyons, France, to which the pre-em-
inence of that city in the manufacture
of silk is largely due. 1t has twelve
professors, and the course.of study oc-
cupies three years. Here, as in all in
dustrial schools, prominent study is
drawing, drawing ornaments, tinted
drawings, and sketching plans of ma
chimes from memory. Thorough in
struction is given in every detail re-
lating to the manufacture Of textile
fabrics, especially of silks, the natural
history of silk, treatment of the silk
worm and cocoons, spinning, throwing,
weaving, and testing Of silks sorting
and cleaning winding, warping and
beaming changing of looms for weav-
ing different styles; defects in opera
tion and their remedies decomposition
of tissues; chemistry, especially as ap-
piled to dyeing and printing physics,
with its applications to heating, steam
boilers, drying and ventilation ; mechan-
les, embracing prime motors, materi-
ais and constructions hygiene, in
cluding physiology, noxious and useful
animals, dangerous and unhealthy oc-
cupations, contagious diseases and how
to avoid them; rural economy and
+" industrial plants - Manual exercises
are conducted in the workshops in
making, mending, putting up and ship
ping looms, in turning, filing, forging,
fitting and various joiner's and ma
chinist work. Frequently visits are
made to the various factories in Lyons,
under the lead of an instructor, where
every part and process is fully explain
ed. The students afterwards draw
from memory plans of patterns and of
machines.
About one hundred pupils on an
average are in attendance The regrl-
lar charge for tuition, use of labora-
tories and workshop is $40 a year.
INDECENT students are aided by the
Chamber of Commerce and Municipal
Council of Lyons, so that portion only
pay the full tuition. That this school,
conducted without aid from the Gov
of France, should be so
literally supported by the citizens of
Lyons, and continue to flourish for so
long period, is ample evidence Of its
great usefulness in the opinion of the
most competent judges.
More than sixty years ago France
started special schools in the arts of
engraving and dyeing in
silk and ribbon weaving and lace maxi
ing in carving, stone cutting and
diamond cutting thence the diamond
cutting for the world is still carried on
mainly in Paris in porcelain and
various ceramic productions. and the
thus gained is still retain
ed. The artistic manufactures of
France command the markets of the
world. The industrial schools more
'ecently organized in Germany, Switz-
9rland, Belgium, Austria, Italy and
England, which in the aggregate are
numbered by thousands, make these
lations formidable competitors in artis-
ic work.
When invited by the Minister of
Public Instruction of France to visit
he National Porcelain Factory at
'evres, | expressed to him surprise
hat such an establishment should come
nder the supervision of the educa-
ional department, to which he replied,
1t is because it is the duty of this
apartment to supervise and control the
school for Sevres, which
ou should first visit ," On inspecting
MS school of design in Paris, 1 found
/ the lower rooms the methods and
7ork of first class drawing school.
Tut in the upper rooms the classes d.
ere painting on elegant gobIets, cups.
lates, vases and other choicer wares,
lst brought from Sevres and to be re-
lrned there for baking. After wit
essing this truly artistic work,
0 longer wondered that in the Serves
lctory itself the artisan had indeed
ecome the artist, and that only men
princely wealth could procure the
coduets of this mrivalled establish