New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1902-09-20
WOMEN AS BLACKSMITHS
MANY TAKE UP WORK-NOT A FIT
OCCUPATION FOR THEM, SAYS
ARCHITECT.

Miss Nora Stanton Blatch. of London. who mas
passed the entrance examinations to the civil engl
heerlns course at Cornell University, Is the nrSt
woman student to be admitted to this department
Miss Batch is the granddaughter of Elizabeth
lady Stanton She is a young woman of about
twenty. tall and Of the brunette type
When Miss Blatch entered Cornell last year she
chose the course but later, developing ability
In mathematics. she concluded to take UP the en-
glneer1ng Three other girl students deter
mined TO do the thing, but none OF them
passed the examinations it is said.
one reason for Miss BlatChs success undouot-
edIF lay in the fact that she mad already dipped
INTO engineering and metallurgy, besides doing CON
siderable practical work in blacksmithing- While
at Cornell she will be obliged to attend lectures,
the only woman in a crowd of men; to don the
leather apron and do field work in the same ex-
cIuslVely male society; but at the Horace Mann
Hlsh School in this city she was also the only
woman in the department Of forge work W men
MISS Batch graduated from the Mann Schooi IN
1911 she had completed the course in manual train
ing. in which smthy work plays prominent role
three thirty minute periods week being devoted
10 1t throughout one year Working at one of the
twenty FORCES in the big blacksmithing room at
the Teachers College, she learned TO make lamp
stands fire screens drawer pulls door handles and
knockers. Here she mastered such unfeInlrlne
subjects the making and tempering OF steel dies
ana explored the mysteries of the common IRON
ores Bessemer steel and blast furnaces MISS
biatch's blacksmithing has won her a prize
10 have taken up forge work at the Horace Mann
high School, and she did not finish the course
AT mrs. thought blacksmthtng seems about the
uhllkele+f accomplishment in the world TOT ("
woman u choose. But. all the same. blacksmith
ing IS s-Dong the arts and crafts now cultivated
by the progressive American girl 1t is one OF the
occupations followed The Shop" that inter
eStlTg experiment in and crafts in TINS CITY
| Workers at ''Tr Shnp'-women well as men
| nave been USING the forge of an automobile com
| Pthy and hanging flower baskets lanterns. SWING
| ing signs and candlesticks shown as the Hul.
| trchltgct who is interested In the movement 10
nave the handwroucht bolts. hinges and door nan
| don" The shop for the houses he designs
| - Blacksmithing is fearfuy hard work. SAID a
| New ork woman architect who has tried IL 70 d
iiho1Imt reporter yesterday. Ihe slrl VINO -
| a manner must have muscles Ike Whlpcoru. d
| of 1t goes long way. Forgework oyerdeveIops
Sottlf muscles making ugly bumps an4 pu.9 F
| gymnastics. Besides. 1t is very dirty there's no
| Disgusting that-n fact 1t is rot a womans occtl-
| paton. Ihere are not many things OF Wllch oill9
| can be said. but smithinS is certainly one, How
ever. believe in women trying their hand at
| everything. FcTgework is good fun nave taken
| il IN as recreation merely, and enjoy dash al
! II now and again. Often women who require an III
sight into the working of hot iron study at touT!,
| dry, where they familarize themselves with all
the processes involved, although the actual maIlp-
| ulatfon is done by the men Women architects are
although 1t IS no more essential for them 10 per
form the actual manual labor than for them to 90
| the carpenter work on the buildings they erect.
! "DesguinE for wrought iron is branch TO WhlCll
the artistic taste and invention of women IeId
| women right here Handwrought iron represent Is
| an art in itself with principles and standards OF
! sculpture or architecture one woman out West
has done well with this sort OF designing tldt
| firm. More women might follow in this path with
| profit