Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-06-16
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NoTE.-The engine in this room was 90
horse power, but only 10 horse power was re-
CURED. The superintendent was very much
in favor of this department of their school,
regarding it of the highest value to the boys.
Graduates in the department of mechanics,
as stated by the superintendent, will be as
skilfui mechanics as apprentices who serve
three years in shop, with the additional adj
yantages of a solid education.
We visited the mechanical department of
the Massachusetts Institute of Technol-
ogy in Boston. Boys admitted to this
department must be at least fifteen
years of age. The shop course is car
pentry, joinery, wood turning, pattern
making for the first year. The second year
is confined to iron work. The shop at this
school is a room about % by 81 feet, 10 feet
posted and is situated in the basement and Is
furnished with hand and machine tools, and
the student is required to devote considera-
BILE amount of his time to work in car
pentry, wood turning and pattern making.
The superintendent of the workshop states
that the results in his department have proved
most satisfactory and advantageous to the
student, as they are fitted in the course of
one year and command from 81. 80 to 81 90 a
day in carpentry and joinery work. The ma
chinery of the shop-room is not so extensive
and costly rs that of the Worcester Free In
stitute. The power consists of an
horse power engine costing about $3.50 co
>hafing and betting, $50 90
jig saw 5000
Lathe saw, 100 20
(The planning is done by hand.
he tools and bench for each student SIS.
and 20 benches, 500 90
TIE cost of the superintendent from $40 to
$50 per month, 600 90
Lumber to furnish shop, $50 90
Total, saieo 90
The work benches in this room are short
and narrow, by it., with drawers for tools,
all of which the superintendent regarded too
small for efficient work. This school in sys-
TEN aud discipline is inferior to the Worces-
ties Free Institute. Its appearance was more
like Il country carpenters shop. The speci-
Mon Of the students first lessons were SINH
lar to those of the Worcester Free Institute
but lacked in neatness and finish in COMPARE
sou with the former school There seemed
to be a crowded condition of things in this
department. The students are taught free
hand drawing and laying out work in another
room of the building which we did not visit.
Students in other departments of the school
take shop work when their time can be so
arranged as not to interfere with their regular
studies The design of the work is To learn
the principles and not to manufacture articles
for sale or use.
We also visited the Orphans Farm School
on Thompsou's Island, Boston harbor. Here
we found mechanical department which was
in its infancy, having been in operation not
quite one year. 1t had erected expressly for
this department. at a cost of $4,000, built
of brick 40 by so feet, two stories with
basement, the basement being designed for
the lumber room. Boys here were practiced
in the use of tools, from the age of eight and
upwards. No machinery was attached to this
department. The cost of tools for each boy
was from six to ten dollars. The benches
W, re long. numbering six, and the boys that
were taught in this school were divided into
three classes. numbering II, Is and Is, and
were under the charge of skiilful mechanic
at a moderate salary. each class being in
structed in the use of tools, two days in each
week 1t is designed that this school shall
manufacture various articles, such as Vegetable
boxes. portable stairs. wheelbarrows and
other articles in common use. In this way
it is hoped to realize sufficient To meet the
outlay tor lumber. In this building is a
small roam in which they have
two printing presses and the boys
are taught to print, and they do all the print
ing for the institution and some work for
outside parties, which is done in very neat
and workmanlike manner. The superintend-
ent of this school regards this as a very inf
portant department and very great benefit
To the bows 1t gives them something to do
in winter and is a very good change from
farm work The inside of the workshop and
IF the play room in the upper story were
furnished bv the bows under the instruction
of their teacher, and was done neatly and
apparently az well as by a master workman
On cur r, turn from Worcester we gained in
formation that the Reform School at Westboro
had tried the experiment of a mechan-
cal department and had abandoned it, and in
order to get at the true reason for this.
we visited that institution and was Informed
by the superintendent that that department
consisted of the manufacture of carriages.
but was so expensive and costly that 1t was
abandoned and that the business of this de-
partment had been closed the past year. We
gained here no information worth mentioning,
regarding mechanical department, other
than that carriage making was not adapted TO
a school of this character.
We visited the House of Industry tor male
and female prisoners, House of Reformation
for bows and girl., and fremont
School on Deer Island. These are public
institutions of the city of Boston, and we
found them models OF their kind. The inmates
of these departments average about 100 con-
ssting Of males and females. Their IN
dus,rial departments consisted of printing
department which has been successfully
carried on. In this thirteen boys were learn
ing the trade The public printing for the