The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-12-10
HALF TIME SCHOOL.
M. ?. Higgins Schol-
arly Paper on the
Subject.
READ BEFORE ENGINEERS.
Education of Machinists
Treated BY An Au-
thority.

An abstract of the paper on the edu-
cation of machinists, read by M. P.
Higgins of this city before the Amer
lean Society of Mechanical Engineers
at the New York meeting just closed
is printed herewith,
Mr.. Higgins % years of experience
at the Polytechnic Institute have made
him an authority on the subject
The paper was productive of much
discussion at the meeting, and the
scheme of the Half Time School is ia
vored by many prominent manufac-
turers( and engineers.
1t was proposed a few years ago to
start such a half time school in this
city, and an increased interest among
these who became interested at that
time might now result in the estab hsh-
nent of such a school here.
The central object of this paper is to
outline a special school for the train
ing of boys to fill the successive grades
of mechanics from machinists to engi
neers, and which shall be adapted to
train each boy for each successive
grade until his particular career is de-
termined by natural Sc ection and he
goes out fitted for that career.
While it must be admitted that dur
ing the past 25 years most gratifying
progress has been made in American
mechanical engineering and in the ed
ucation of mechanical engineers, yet it
j. evident to the managers of our me-
chanica establishments that there is
great lack of competent mechanics
below the grade of the mechanical en-
gineer to take the increasing demands
and responsibility Of the work and
properly carry it out
The modern machinist is introduced
To field of unlimited possibility
requiring most exact knowledge of new
and-constantly changing methods; and
the experience of all employers testi-
fies to the difficulty, if not the impossi-
bility, of securing the requisite knowl-
edge and skill in the machinists of to-
cay.
If the position of machinist is a hard
one to fill, what is to be said of that
of foreman? At a recent meeting of
managers it was stated that 200 young
men suitable for foremen for foundries
could be placed at once. Nothing is
more difficult than to find men capa-
ble-of filling such positions. The man
who is fitted to manage the practical
details of machine shop successfully
is rare man, and there is no scientific
o. professional man whose services are
IN surer demand than his.
What are our common schools doing
1t seems to be a fact that the average
high school graduate, with all the
knowledge which he has acquired dur
ing ten years of continuous schooling
is not able to earn his living as the re-
suit of anything he has learned in
school. Therefore he must leave school
to Learn trade or take up some occu-
patton as best he may without the
help of further systematic education,
which at this period of his life he so
much needs. The statistics of the com
nj cd In fiorii ,fli ~
enormously large percentage of pupils
VINO leave school do so at the age of
Ten or twelve years, after only about
hye years or less of schooling
1t is most natural that each technical
school management should be greatly
influenced by the college education and
academic professionalism of the men
who conduct it, to whom were entrust-
ed the relations of academic and prac-
teal departments and those of theory
and practice. This has resulted in a
tendency to produce scientists and not
mechanics.
1t is not the policy and intention of
engineering schools to put sufficient
time and stress on shopwork to allow
the student to attain thorough practi-
cal skill. He very readily receives the
impression that an engineer need not
work with his own hands, though he
admits that he should know how the
VIII S1OOlQ ne QOne Dy OtherS, To be
thorough nechani,, which he ough;
to be before he can be a well-trained
mechanical engineer, he must be able
to do the work, and this the present
technical school does not teach thor
oughly
The very surprising fact that the to-
tai number of students in technical col
leges in this country is at present on
the decrease, may suggest thai some
changes in the engineer ag courses
would better meet the needs of larger
class. This unexpected falling off in
the number of engineering students is
greater than can be readily accounted
for in these prosperous times, amount
ing TO Is per cent from 1894 to 1897
would also mention that with the
tendency toward the abstract and sci
entif1c has come the raising of stand
ards for admission from year to year,
SO that the technical school has he
come more nearly on a par with the
college than it was when it started.
and this puts the school beyond the
reach OF boys who are to make work
men and also beyond the reach of
many who would make engineers.
AS result of the technical school
overlooking the needs of the large body
of mechanics and devoting themselves
to the production of scientific profess
slonalists, they produce an enormous
amount of discarded material men
who are neither fit for workmen nor
engineers, men who are not at the start
fit to become successful engineers.
These "culls" from an engineering
class are not first class material for
workmen in any department below the
engineer Such man is a disappoint-
nlent to himself and to his employer.
And though we may be able to show
that every graduate in class has been
greatly benefited and developed during
the course of study, yet that is not a
sufficient reason for a course fitted
only to the very few and which allows
the large majority to come to their
disappointment through the general
understanding that If they were grad
uated, they would be engineers because
they we're graduates.
Consider, also, what a fearfully eX-
pensiYe system this is, with its large
percentage of failures or partial fail
ures, to educate the few of which there
is already a larger number than can
secure positions as professional en-
gineers.
The lessened demand for polytechnic
graduates was recognized several years
ago in Europe, and slight attempts
were made to remedy the evil AS ear
ly as 1885 the British commissioners
found in Germany an excess over the
demand Of 1000 well trained polytech-
mic graduates, and they were informed
that the manager of a large engineer
ing works had been so importuned by
these young men for employment that
he put a notice in his window, mo
polytechnic student need apply"
AS a single instance from many that
might be cited illustrating the tendency
of technical schools in America as well
as in Europe to drift more and more
out of the reach of the boy who wishes