The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-06-27
IN THE SHOPS.
Boston Girl With Hammer and
Anvil at a Forge.
Lydia Weld Working to Become
an Architect.
TAKES KINDLY TO 1T.
She Was a Pupil at a Fashion
able Ladies' School
At Bryn MaWr Before Adopting
Her Present Fad.

Boston, Mass, June pa bright
faced girl works with hammer and anvil
at a forge in a shop next to the railroad
tracks at the foot of Garrison street
Her name is Lydia Gould Weld; the
shop is part of the Massachusetts In
stitute of Technology, and she is study
ing to be a naval architect.
Miss Weld is q years old and daugh-
ter of the late Franklin Weld of Fall
mouth. While attending the Institute
of Technology she lives with her rela-
tive, George F. Seavers. in Morton
street, Jamaica Plain She is an at
tractive girl of medium height, with
brown hair, blue eyes and merry
laugh, which does not go at all with
the popular conception of the erud1te
woman. She has not had college ed
ucation in the classics, but is we'll up In
mathematics. Before coming to the In
stitute of Technology she was pupil
at a fashionable school in Bryn MaWr.
Miss Weld made her choice of the
profession of marine architecture rev
years ago when a yachting party, or
which she was one, put in at Bristol,
r. l., to repair a broken shaft In look
ing over the shops of the Herreshofs
while the work was being done, the de-
sire to be a master of that craft took
possession of her and grew to a serious
purpose, in which she was humored by
her family.
In the same shop with Miss Weld are
working about fifteen young men, some
graduates of universities or sons of
manufacturers, who have here more
facilities for learning rapidly than in
the shops of their fathers.
Miss Yields first lesson in forging
consisted in hammering to point the
end of a short piece of iron bar. Next
she was given a foot length of bar and
told to make it into a pointed rod with
a ring on the end. This involved sew
eral awkward shoulders on the iron, and
a still more awkward curve, but the
new student accom- liShed the task
without difficulty
About this time the blisters began to
come. The first was at the base of the
forefnger of the left hand. This burst,
and the continued abrasion of the ham
mer handle turned the skin black, leav-
ing a square half an inch, so tender
that an ordinary girl would have cried
had anything touched it. No cries and
no gloves for Miss Weld-only more
hammering.
A day or two later she made an iron
mantel. There are three nail holes in
each arm of this bracket, which must
be punched and countersunk at the
anvil In using the punch she missed
it with one swing of the heavy hammer
and struck the back of her left hand
a hard blow, peeling off the skin and
raising a swelling.
A hook and staple was one of the
easiest pieces of work. She surprised
her instructors with the ease with which
she made an iron strap similar to that
After that she tried fagOt welding, be-
ing given three scraps of iron, which
she forged into a single bar. This is
not so easy as it seems, and many an
apprentice blacksmith has become
vexed in spirit to see the cracks in plain
sight and one or two stray ends sticking
out.
The most difficult of her tasks so far
has been the timber-hanger. Six or
seven years ago, says the instructor,
a young man became so angry at the
Obstinacy of the iron which he was
trying to shape into this form that he
hurled the hated thing through the open
window to the furthermOst side of the
railroad tracks and walked out of the
shop, leaving a blue streak in the air
as he passed. Two or three days later
he returned in humbled and determined
spirit and managed to conquer the
dication that Miss Yields path is not
altogether one of roses, and that the
problems in forging set before her are
of the kind that would sometimes test
the patience of a saint.
The reporter asked the instructor if
he didn't give his extraordinary student
more attention than the young men, but
he explained her proficiency by another
reason, saying:
''She is more than usually quick to
comprehend what is told her. In grasp
ing the principles of forging. she has
proved herself the equal of any of the
young men. Her use of the hammer
is fully up to the average. She has
very strong arm and does not appear
to get tired. A few days ago l was
busy in another part of the shop for
long time, and was somewhat curious
to know how she was getting along.
When I got back to her she asked me-
jOkingly, if I had fOrSaken her. l found
that she had progressed as well as if I
had been advising her, and she went
right ahead until the job was DONE"