The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-17
THE HAND AND BRAIN SCHOOL
The Benefits and the Need of Schools for
the Manual Training of Boys.
The Lecture of Mr.. H. II. Belfeld, of Chicago,
at Plymouth Church, Last Evening,
on "The New Education"


At Plymouth Church, last night Henry FL.
Belfeld, director of the Chicago Manual Train
ing-school, lectured on 1.-THE New Education.
Preliminary to Mr.. Belfelds talk, Rev. o. c.
McCulloch said that Carlyle had written that
whereas, the Eneid had begun with the words
Arms and the man sing,n the epic of modern
times would properly begin, 'Tools and the man
sing" The tools that put man in possession
of things were the means of life, and were so
far religious. He had of late had a good
deal to say of manual training in the hope that
public sentiment might make such training q
part of the education Of the young.
Mr. Belfeld had brought with him number
Of the products of the pupils of the Chicago
school, and his lecture was illustrated by them.
He said the school had it's origin in the feeling
that the pupils of the high schools received too
much theoretical training or rather not enough
practical training, in the courses of study. The
Commercial Club of Chicago, composed Of such
men as j. V. Farwell and Marshall Field,
had raised, in the year 1882, 100000 for
the purchase of buildings and grounds The
school was high-school and was intended for
pupils who had completed the eighth grade of
the grammar school. The course Of study COW
cred three years. The mathematical course in
cluded arithmetic. algebra, geometry, plane
trigonometry and mechanics The scientific
course included physiology, physical geography,
physics and chemistry, the latter branches being
taught by actual work in the laboratory. The
department of language included English gram
mar, history, literature and political economy,
or Latin might be taken for three years
instead of all these. In the course of
drawing a boy is required to draw
one hour per day for five days in the week
Freehand drawing is required for half year.
The pupil draws from models. The object is to
lay the foundation for mechanical and archi-
tectural drawing. Objects are drawn first, then
machinery. The boy makes at first freehand
drawing OF some simple object, such as ham
mer He then measures the article and makes a
mechanical drawing of two-thirds or three
fourths the size. He then draws more compli-
Gated machinery such as steam engine.
The aim is to unite the drawing
and the work in the shop. To do
this the boy makes articles then makes draw
ings of them or conversely makes drawings and
from them makes the articles.
The school has shop The boy begins with a
simple piece of work, such as planning a board
He then makes joints in wood. Exercises Of
this kind bear the same relation to the course
that examples in algebra or arithmetic bear to
the mathematical course. Advancing, the boy
complicated articles. Some display much more
skill than others. The boy is then put to
work with a lathe and turns out articles OF
various shapes, after which he is put to
molding and casting metals after patterns The
shop having no facilities for melting iron, other
metals and compositions, such as lead. zinc and
brass are used. After two months in the foun-
dry at the beginning of the middle year, the boy
is taken to the blacksmith shop Here he uses
lead for a week or two They then work with
iron and learn to draw out iron, to weld, to
make rings, chains, chisels, and other articles.
In the wood room each boy has complete set
of edge tools, and is required to keep
them in order. In the machine shop
and boys are there taught to make bolts. cut
threads and shape nuts. When boy in the
wood-r room finds he has not exactly the tool he
wants, he goes to the blacksmith shop and
makes one or changes the one he has, The pu-
pils of the school have about completed three
six horse power engines. The director desired
that each member of the senior class should
mako finished machine each making his own
drawings and castings. He found that two boys
had already started on steam engines during ex-
ira hours Others have undertaken to finish
respectively two dynamo engines. an Armstrong
gun, and three steam engines.
He had frequently been asked what this would
amount to, whether the graduates of this school
were better OH than students OF three years
course in hieh-school In mathematics the
course of the school was as extensive as that Of
the high-school, in languages not so extensive
and in science, perhaps, as much the same
ground was covered. The Manual Training
School, the speaker considered misnomer
1.-The Hand and Brain School" would be better
1t was not a trade school. It added
head work to hand work. Assum-
ing that 1t did only three-fourths
as much in the books as the
high-school, the hand work was certainly
worthy of consideration. There were two or
three results that had been noticed, namely the
boys liked it, there was reaction from the
shop work most favorable TO study from the
books and the effect on the health of the
pupils was to a marked degree favorable. The
football team of the school won the champion
ship over those of the city high-schools. One of
the moral results was the manliness of the boys,
arising doubtless. from the feeling that they
would be able afterwards without difficulty to
support themselves.
At the close of the lecture the members of the
audience were invited to inspect the TOOLS speci-
mems of woodwork and other articles the boys
had made. The excellence of these articles was
remarkable.